August 2025 Small Business Data Outlook: Tariffs Are Having a Real and Devastating Impact 

Summary: Confidence on Main Street may have plateaued alongside fears of rising prices.

• 24% of small business owners say the economy has improved compared to a year ago (2 points lower than July) and 44% say the economy has gotten worse (1 point worse than July).
• 32% of small business owners believe the economy will improve in the next 12 months (1 point lower than July) and 35% believe the economy will worsen (4 points worse than July).
• 44% of small businesses plan on increasing employees this year (1 point lower than July) and 12% plan on decreasing employees (no change from July).
• 35% of small businesses are expecting to increase fixed investments (3 points higher than July).
• 57% of small businesses expect increased revenues in the next 12 months (1 point higher than July) and 16% believe revenues will decrease (1 point worse than July).
• 43% of small business owners believe profitability will increase in the next 12 months (3 points worse than July) and 25% believe that profitability will decrease (3 points worse than July).
• 32% of small business owners are positive about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its expected impact on their business.  28% are neutral.  24% are negative and 16% are uncertain.
• 24% of small businesses plan on hiring additional workers within the next 12-months as a result of One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s passage. 23% plan on giving raises to existing staff.  21% plan on purchasing business property or equipment, and 14% plan on making a significant new or increased capital investment.
• 4% of small business owners believe that across-the-board tariffs will have a positive impact on their business (1 point higher than July).  54% believe tariffs will have a negative impact (2 points higher than July).

Learn more about this data from the WSJ / Vistage Small Business August Small Business CEO Survey, published on Aug. 19, 2025.

Summary: Tech adopters are the fastest growing small businesses and use of AI continues to increase.

• 58% of small businesses use generative AI (18 points higher than last year and more than double the adoption rate from 2-years ago).
• 83% of small business owners believe that technology helps them compete (13 points higher than last year).
• For those small businesses not using AI, quality concerns top the reasons (33% (13 points higher than last year)), followed by compliance/legal concerns (27% (21 points higher than last year)), and cost concerns (24% (8 points higher than last year)).
• Check out how small businesses in your state are faring with technology adoption by clicking on the map.

Learn more about this data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Fourth Annual Small Business Technology Survey , published on Aug. 18, 2025.

Summary: Small business optimism is up, but nervousness about consumer spending and the economy are clouding plans for growth.

• • 36% of small business owners expect the economy to improve (14 points higher than June).
  • 16% of small business owners believe it is a good time to expand their business (5 points higher than June).
  • -9% of small business owners reported higher sales in the past 3-months (4 points worse than June) and 6% are expecting higher sales (1 point lower than June).
  • 21% of small businesses reported labor quality as their top concern in July (5 points higher than June and overtaking taxes and inflation which ranked highest over the last several months). 11% cited inflation as their top concern and 11% reported poor sales as their top concern (highest level since 2021).
  • 33% of small businesses reported job openings they could not fill (3 points lower than June) and 84% of those trying to hire reported few or no qualified applicants (2 points lower than June).
  • 57% of small businesses hired or tried to hire in June (1 point lower than June) and 14% of small businesses plan on hiring in the next 3-months (1 point higher than June).
  • 27% of small business owners raised compensation in the past 3-months (6 points lower than June) and 17% plan on raising compensation in the next 3-months (3 points lower than June).
  • 24% of small businesses raised their prices (5 points lower than June) and 28% are planning on raising prices in the next 3-months (4 points lower than June).
  • 55% of small business owners reported capital outlays in the last 6-months (1 point lower than June) and 22% are planning capital purchases in the next 3-months (1 point higher than June).
  • The average rate paid for short maturity loans was 8.7% (down 0.1 of a point from June) and 25% of small business owners report borrowing on a regular basis (1 point lower than June).
  • 4% of small business owners reported that financing was their top problem (1 point lower than June).

Learn more about this data from National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) July Small Business Optimism Index, published on Aug. 12, 2025.

Summary: Consumer spending continues to boost the small business economy.  Foot traffic is flat, but the average per customer spend at checkout ticked up a bit.

• Month-over-month sales at small businesses in July grew 1.0% (reversing a 3-month slide) and year-over-year sales at small businesses rose 3.6% compared to July 2024.

Learn more about this data from Fiserv May Small Business Index, published on Aug. 4, 2025.