NEW YORK (AP) — The Associated Press has been interviewing small business owners for weeks about the presidential election, their companies and the economy. Small business is an important part of most political campaigns. Small business owners create jobs and are often influencers in their local communities. With so much concern about job creation after the recession, both presidential campaigns paid extra attention to the small business community and made a case for why their candidate was the best choice for small companies.

Now that President Barack Obama has defeated challenger Mitt Romney to win a second term, we checked back in with some owners we had talked to previously and reached out to some new ones to find out how they feel about the election and what’s next for their businesses. Here’s what they had to say: