In 2007, when SRP commissioned its Metro-Phoenix Business Study, just 1 percent of those business owners and executives surveyed cited the economy as a challenge or obstacle they had to overcome in the previous two or three years. When the same study was released this year, 56 percent of the responses cited the economy as a major challenge that they had to be overcome. Times have changed. We're entering a new, more optimistic, yet significantly more cautious era.