Small business owners around the nation were split down the middle when it came to voting in Tuesday’s election. An Election Day poll for business owners on Inc.com reflected an exact 50/50 divide between those voting for McCain and those voting for Obama. Now that the election is decided, small business owners are looking towards the future under an Obama presidency.

Nicole Loftus, founder and CEO of Zorch International, voted Democratic for the first time in her life in support of Barack Obama. She was one of the lucky thousands with a seat at the Obama rally in Chicago, an atmosphere she said was “electric.”

“I’ve been active in the Republican Party for years, but Obama seemed to bring back what everyone thought America was supposed to be about, the great American dream, and opportunities for all,” Loftus said.

As a business owner whose company supplies branded merchandise to large corporations like AT&T and Citigroup, Loftus said it meant a lot to her to vote for the Democrat.

“I might be paying more taxes, but my business is driven when clients like AT&T are doing well.  So if I can vote to help the middle class buy phones and take out bank accounts, then those clients are going to buy more branded items from us,” she said.

Loftus said she will benefit from an Obama presidency in the long run, even if she is taxed at a higher rate. “There will always be incentives for business owners. At the end of the day, it’s not about me, it’s about my customers, my employees, and the economy,” she said.

George Denninghoff, a Partner at Vista Research and Management, is also a historically Republican voter who turned for Obama at the last minute after standing in the voting booth for half an hour. Denninghoff said he is encouraged by the Clinton-era advisors who may join Obama’s cabinet because they have experience bringing the U.S. out of a recession.

“Overall I think Obama has an opportunity here to reinstill some confidence into the business community. Over the last year, we have seen such a deterioration with consumers and between businesses where people just don’t seem to trust one another anymore,” Denninghoff said. “This election gives [Obama] a rare opportunity to do something that the current administration isn’t doing.”

Denninghoff also serves as CFO of his company, which acts as the investment advisor to the Listed Private Equity Plus Fund (LPEAX), a mutual fund that invests in private equity funds. He said he would rather pay 5% more in capital gains taxes if he can witness a more significant rate of return on his investments, or if businesses are better able to stay afloat.

“The alternative is that people shut their doors and there will be no tax revenue at all,” he said.

At the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council in Washington, D.C., President Karen Kerrigan said taxes are of the most concern to small business owners today.

“From a global perspective, companies around the world are cutting taxes, so we don’t think it’s a really smart thing to be raising them at this point in time,” said Kerrigan.

However, she added that Obama had many plans that would have a positive impact on small businesses, including making the research and development tax credit permanent and offering 0% capital gains taxes for some small businesses.

Many questions over health care are still floating around in the small business community, Kerrigan said, due to language that states that employers are required to offer “quality coverage” for employees. Some companies are unclear if that means a gold-plated plan, or a plan that doesn’t include all the bells and whistles. Some very small companies will be exempt from providing health coverage to employees, but Kerrigan said, “How small is small?”

Overall, Kerrigan said most small business owners are optimistic about what will happen under an Obama presidency, and the SBEC hopes he will listen to the concerns of business owners when policy making.

Theresa Vidger, founder of the Temporary Housing Directory, said concern over the inheritance tax proposed by Obama is one of the reasons she voted for McCain. 

“I was very, very very disappointed in the outcome of the election this year,” Vidger said. “And though my children are young, if I want to pass the business onto them one day, I don’t want the inheritance tax to be a concern for them.”

Vidger said that from what she’s learned about Obama’s policies, it would mean more taxes on her company and to her as an individual. Though Vidger hopes she won’t have to make cutbacks due to higher taxes, she said her plans for growth may be altered.

Another concern to businesses of all sizes is homeland security, and that’s the main worry for Omar Motair, owner of an organic eatery chain in Manhattan. Motair lost two of his original locations in New York’s financial district when they were destroyed during 9/11, and he said that’s the reason he voted for McCain.

“The country needs experience when it comes to homeland security,” he said.

However, even though Motair said McCain would have likely had a tougher stance on homeland security, Motair will not be losing much money in taxes under Obama. Motair spent some time on Obama’s campaign Web site and determined that his taxes would be raised by only $100 each year. 

Moving forward, Motair said that the change in leadership would likely create a positive movement in the market over the next few months which would translate into more sales at his eateries, “Flavors.” His only fear is that the positive feelings may change in a year or so, causing business to deteriorate.

“Above all else, we do not need business to slack off. Not a single business owner in America needs that right now,” Motair said.