According to a recent Chase survey, around half of the small businesses of us move their strategies in response to continuous economic pressures. With inflation, labor shortages and prices creating persistent challenges, the confidence of small businesses remains much lower than its post-electoral peak. However, rather than retreating, many owners adapt and find new ways to remain competitive, especially in key regions across the country.
These companies actively react to the evolution of the economic environment, according to the survey. They declared that they were more likely than the national average to support local suppliers, with a rate of purchase of 1.4x higher locally. They also declared that they are focused on maintaining their teams, investing in employee retention at 1.3 times the national rate. Technologically, they declared that they had adopted the change, being 1.4x more likely to adopt artificial intelligence tools in the context of their operations.
“Market conditions and global optimism will always fluctuate, but what matters is the way companies react and adapt at the time,” said Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business, in a press release accompanying a summary of the survey. “The owners of small businesses are among the most resilient and the most out-of-the-art leaders, by consistently adopting new tools and browsing difficult times with grain and innovation.”
According to the survey, March has experienced significant resilience among small metropolitan companies: in the statistical sampling areas of the metro, the performance of small businesses exceeded expectations for 71% of companies in March, against 56% nationally. Small companies in Chicago and Tampa, for example, were more likely than the national average to say that it is important to continue investing in the company during difficult marketing conditions. In Houston, small businesses were 1.6% more likely than the national average to have hiring plans.
Chase interviewed around 500 owners of small businesses across the country, more than about 300 additional in six metropolitan areas specific in mid-March 2025.
Always smiling through stress
At the same time, new research commanded by Vistaprint highlighted the sustainable mind, the adaptability and the passion that define the community of small American businesses. Research has examined the current state of happiness among small business owners in the United States.
The results revealed that 42% of owners of small businesses consider themselves very happy, while 39% said they were somewhat happy, reflecting a strong feeling of optimism and resilience despite continuous economic uncertainty. Only 10% said they felt somewhat or very unhappy.
More than half have said they were happier now than when they started their business, and 53% said they were much happier to manage their own business than to work for someone else. According to Vistaprint, the survey has shown that daily internal factors such as personal growth and independence have a greater impact on happiness than external influences.
The study was conducted for Vistaprint by Yougov between April 17 and April 21, 2025 and included responses of 450 owners of small businesses in the United States from 21 to 64 years old, director of companies employed between 1 and 100 people.
Simpler bank, stronger business
Smartbiz Bank Na recently shared the results of its state of small business: Industry Pulse Survey, by examining how the owners approach funding, what they are looking for in a bank and the challenges they sail in today’s economy.
One of the main ones to remember was that confidence in traditional banks remains strong: around 40% of respondents have stayed with the same main bank for more than seven years.
The owners of small businesses were clear about what they wanted. According to the survey, the banking features that the respondents to small businesses prioritize most include easy and mobile banking services (67%); Low or no fees for ACH, wires or transfers (63%); Access to commercial credit or credit lines (51%); and single fund transfers.
Almost 70% of small businesses interviewed sought loans to small businesses, followed by a credit line or a commercial credit card. The most cited challenges in obtaining funds were high interest rates (47%); do not be approved or obtain less capital than necessary (47%); and complex application processes (23%).
According to the CEO of Smartbiz Bank, Evan Singer, the objective of the survey was to better understand the pressures that small businesses have and how banks can meet their needs more effectively. The information was collected from more than 200 customers of Smartbiz Bank in all industries.