Sandy K. Baruah President and Chief Executive Officer at Detroit Regional Chamber | Twitter Website
Sandy K. Baruah President and Chief Executive Officer at Detroit Regional Chamber | Twitter Website
The end of March brought a shift in revenue expectations for small businesses as concerns about tariffs mounted. According to recent reports, 18% of small business owners foresee an increase in revenue owing to tariffs, while 44% expect revenues to decline. Meanwhile, 38% of owners believe tariffs will have no discernible effect.
Trade uncertainty is anticipated to persist by 68% of owners into April, with 42% predicting it will continue until December. Regional variances show New York leading in tariff-related anxiety among small business owners at 55%, followed by Pennsylvania at 52%, Florida and Massachusetts both at 48%, and New Jersey at 45%.
Industry-specific analysis highlights significant worry about tariffs in the wholesale trade sector at 76%, followed by mining at 60%, and retail at 57%. Other concerned sectors include restaurants, travel and tourism, construction, transportation, manufacturing, and art/music services.
On a different note, the adoption of artificial intelligence among small businesses is on the rise. A striking 82% of businesses incorporating AI did so within the last two years, and 96% plan to sustain their investment, with 70% intending to increase it. Main applications are content writing and creation, image creation and presentations, and email automation.
Small business sentiment worsened in March, with only 21% of owners anticipating economic improvement, down from February’s figures. However, plans for capital investment remained stable. Concerns about labor quality and inflation continue to top the list of issues among small business owners, with labor quality being the foremost concern for the past two months.
Job openings remain a challenge, with 40% of small businesses reporting vacancies they could not fill. On the upside, 38% of owners increased compensation recently, and 19% have plans to raise wages in the near future.
Financial conditions saw a slight downturn, with a small percentage of business owners optimistic about better credit conditions. Despite this, sales in March displayed positive momentum, showing a 1.8% increase from February and a 5.5% rise compared to March 2024.
Further insights and data are available in various reports such as Alignable’s April Tariff Report, the SBE Council Small Business Technology Use Survey 2025, the NFIB Jobs Report, and the Fiserv Small Business Index.
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