Rick Romell

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It’s all still quite tentative, but Donald Trump’s election and first few months as president have small-business executives in southeastern Wisconsin feeling sunnier about the prospects for their companies.

That may not seem surprising; business generally favors Republicans. But there was no comparable surge in small-business optimism when George W. Bush won in 2000 after eight years of Democratic incumbency.

And Trump, with his populist rhetoric, rapid-fire tweeting and occasional statements that are demonstrably false, isn’t exactly a standard-issue Republican.

No problem. Or, at least, not enough of one to outweigh what executives view as a business-friendly White House they hope will reduce regulations and taxes.

“I think that this new administration is going to let small business control its own destiny,” said Gary Zimmerman, president and CEO of Creative Business Interiors Inc.

RELATED: Trump's travel ban is on the back burner in courts, but it's still front burner for universities

RELATED: President Donald Trump planning Wisconsin visit on Tuesday

Zimmerman stands in good position to judge. His 100-employee firm based in West Allis designs, builds and furnishes commercial workplaces, and his customers tend to undertake those projects when business is good.

That, Zimmerman said, is what they’re doing now.

“Our clients, for the most part, they’re releasing projects that they were holding,” he said.

Gary Swick has been experiencing much the same thing. Partner and president at Swick Technologies LLC, his 22-employee New Berlin company manages computer technology for other firms.

“We’ve seen more projects that were on the back burner coming to the front burner,” Swick said. “I think our client base seems to be encouraged, and especially in the manufacturing environment.”

RELATED: Donald Trump's election flips both parties' views of the economy

POLITIFACT: Donald Trump, as president, on the Truth-O-Meter

In Richfield, tooling and machining firm Strohwig Industries Inc. added 12 employees in January, bringing the total to about 170, and is considering buying more CNC cutting machines.

“Two years ago we were wondering what we were going to do with all of our equipment,” controller Michael Retzer said. “Now we need more of it.”

One reason: a surge in orders from the oil and gas and mining industries. Retzer ties that directly to Trump succeeding Barack Obama and moving to roll back his administration’s restrictions on carbon-generating fuel, particularly coal.

“Absolutely,” Retzer said. “I think everybody was afraid to commit any capital because they saw what was going on with coal, and the same thing was being said of oil, and even natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel, was under attack.”

Retzer also likes Trump’s make-it-in-America talk. So does Keith Everson, CEO and co-owner of plastic products firm Sussex IM Inc. He saw the impact just from Trump’s mere suggestion, in January, that a 20% tax on imports from Mexico might be used to pay for his planned border wall.

“I have already seen customers that are currently making something overseas and they’re now doing everything they can to get it made back here in the United States,” Everson said. “Well, holy smokes, that’s huge.

“I never expected to hear some of my customers basically say, ‘We’ve got to move that back here, Keith. What can you do? Give me some tooling quotes and let’s work on getting this thing back here in the next six to eight months.’”

The company, with 500 employees, recently opened a second plant, also in Sussex. Now, consideration of further expansion is accelerating.

“Instead of forecasting single-digit growth, we’re now forecasting double-digit growth,” Everson said. “So in order to do that, I’m going to need some capital investment, facilities, people. They all go together.”

RELATED: Small business owners are upbeat

RELATED: CEOs' hiring, spending plans soar with Trump agenda

The perspective in southeastern Wisconsin appears to mirror that in the country as a whole. Small-business optimism surged late last year, according to surveys by the National Federation of Independent Business.

The December increase in the organization’s “optimism index” was the largest since the federation began surveying its membership monthly in 1986. The measure has ticked down slightly the last two months but remains at its highest level since December 2004.

Still, the brighter outlook is tempered with wariness.

Prospects for overall economic growth aren’t particularly strong. And uncertainty among businesses has jumped nationally, which could signal trouble ahead, according to the group.

“More small-business owners are having a difficult time anticipating the factors that affect their businesses, especially government policy,” William Dunkelberg, the organization’s chief economist, said in a statement.

All told, though, the atmosphere appears to be one of cautious optimism, said Mark Zeidler, president and CEO of Tax Airfreight Inc., a Milwaukee transportation firm that moves goods for many Fortune 500 companies.

“There’s not a fast improvement,” Zeidler said, “but we’re seeing consistent slow improvement taking place, along with that cautious optimism.”

Reach Rick Romell at rromell@jrn.com.