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Alberta’s small and mid-sized business owners appear to be in a good mood these days.

Huh? That may be people’s first reaction to that statement considering the province’s recession this year and the thousands of job layoffs, particularly in the oilpatch. Throw in some long work weeks and sacrifices to their personal lives and you may wonder why entrepreneurs aren’t in a more foul mood.

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But the latest ATB Financial Business Beat Survey, released on Tuesday, says 77 per cent of business owners in Alberta are happy — and 22 per cent even say they are very happy.

Interestingly, a similar survey earlier this year of Albertans in general found only 13 per cent said they were very happy.

The survey found that 78 per cent of owners said the success of their business is important to their overall happiness. But it also found that 34 per cent sacrifice their work-life balance for their businesses, while 32 per cent have lost time with family and friends.

“I guess it’s sinking in at this point that they’re seeing the economic challenges, they’re reading about them. But I think what it really still says is that a lot of business owners haven’t really seen the impact on their immediate business yet,” said Wellington Holbrook, ATB’s executive vice-president of business and agriculture.