The Deloitte Private SME Survey, a partnership between Deloitte and the Canberra Business Chamber, showed 90 per cent of small to medium enterprises wanted to grow their businesses. Eighty-one per cent were as or more optimistic about the next 12 months than they were in the previous year.

But more than 60 per cent of respondents said local skills shortages were a barrier to growth opportunities and more than half listed red tape around employment and an increase in operating costs as impeding expansion.

Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Robyn Hendry said the results were "definitely" more optimistic than those from the previous survey.

"There's more people expecting to grow, expecting to employ more people and looking to that export market. It's more outward," she said.

"What we need to do is use this time of good industry and business confidence to build resilience into our economy, and to do that we have to diversify and get ready to be able to handle the future."

Ms Hendry said the focus must be on further developing a local skills base and becoming an attractive place for interstate and international workers.

"We have pretty high intellect industries here so we tend to be an employer of skills in the areas of ICT in particular, even in education," she said.

"We're often trying to recruit the creme de la creme from Australia and around the world and there tends to be fierce competition for that talent."

Deloitte Private director Amer Qureshi said the sense of optimism was encouraging for the ACT.

"According to Deloitte Access Economics most recent Business Outlook, key local economic indicators for the ACT are looking better, and both retail and housing have been on the up," he said.

"And our survey highlights a sense of confidence and optimism amongst local SMEs around their own prospects as well as the broader Canberra environment."