A new survey released Feb. 11 by Web.com and the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) shows that 38% of women-owned firms plan to invest more in hiring in 2013 than in past years. Another 54 percent will invest the same as in 2012.

The State of Women-Owned Businesses survey also found women business owners were highly optimistic about their own business performance (81 percent), as well as the overall economy (74 percent) this year.

Other results from the survey include:

• The top four challenges for women business owners are: the state of the economy (57 percent), health insurance cost and affordability (40%), business taxes (36%), and workforce quality (36%).
•  71% believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also called Obamacare) will not effect the way they do business.
• 78% did not seek or extended a line of credit in the past year. That’s because 68% of them did not want additional credit, while 32% did not think they could get credit.
• 45% of women business owners used credit cards to finance their businesses, business revenue (40%), or private resources (37%).
• 52% that website design and maintenance was a very important marketing tool, followed by social media marketing and SEO (38%) and email marketing (25%).
•  27% said LinkedIn was their most valuable social media site, followed by Facebook (26%), YouTube (18%) and Twitter (17%).
• 73% of Women Business Owners plan to invest more in marketing in 2013.

If you’re a woman business owner, how do your opinions stack up with these? How optimistic are you about 2013, and will you be investment more in marketing or hiring?

You can read more about the survey, and see more results on web.com.