New research from Greenwich Associates shows that U.S. small businesses and mid-sized companies are gearing up to hire new employees in anticipation of revenue and profit growth.

Forty percent of the 144 small businesses and half the 153 mid-sized companies recently surveyed by Greenwich Associates expect to hire additional staff in the coming 12 months.

These hiring plans reflect improving expectations for their businesses. Seventy percent of the small business owners interviewed in Q3 2014 said they expect revenues to grow in the coming 12 months, including 44% expecting revenue growth of 5% or more.

Nearly two-thirds of small businesses expect profits to increase in the coming year, with one-third of those looking for profit growth north of 5%. A robust 72% of mid-sized companies expect to see revenue growth in the next 12 months, and almost 70% expect to see a pickup in profits.

“What’s different and encouraging now is that expectations for hiring and growth are substantially more bullish than they were at the start of last year,” says Greenwich Associates consultant Duncan Banfield.

The Greenwich Optimism Index has been in positive territory among small businesses and mid-sized companies since the first half of 2013, meaning that a majority of business owners and executives expect to see improvement in the overall economy the coming year.