Gene Marks: Numbers Show U.S. Small Businesses Are Doing Fine According to Gene Marks, owner of Marks Group PC and past AICC keynote speaker, small businesses have been doing pretty well in this country across the board. Take a look at some of the latest numbers. For more than 50 years, the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) has published a monthly report of small-business economic trends, based on a ran- dom sample of the organization’s approximately 300,000 member firms. This survey is one of the longest and most consistent of any I follow, using the same questionnaire since 1973. So where do things stand? Last year ended with a second consecutive month- ly uptick in small-business optimism, with small-business
owners anticipating that economic conditions would re- main generally favorable going into 2026. Business own- ers reported that their cost pressures moderated, employ- ment challenges eased (for most) and capital investments picked up. “The December data also delivered good news on a major 2025 pain point, with a welcome improvement in uncertainty,” reported the study’s economists. Fiserv’s Small Business Index, which aggregates con- sumer spending activity from point-of-sale transaction data across some 2 million small firms in the U.S., highlighted that monthly sales rose over the prior month in December. “December’s sales gains show the resilience of small businesses during a competitive holiday season,” said Prasanna Dhore, chief data officer at Fiserv. “Consumers focused on essentials and made selective discretionary purchases, driven by ongoing cost pressures. These pat-
terns, resulting in modest monthly sales growth, highlight how small businesses continue to adjust in a challenging eco- nomic climate.” Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks, pub- lishes its own monthly Small Business In- dex, drawn from transactions across more than 420,000 small businesses in its da- tabase. The company also reported that small-business employment increased in all eight U.S. regions and that hiring in- creased in 13 of 20 states tracked. The index also showed reported revenue was up in all U.S. regions compared with No- vember. This doesn’t mean that everyone’s do- ing great. We live in a big country. There are 33 million small businesses. We all have different challenges. The NFIB reports that members in the agricultural industry are struggling with tariffs and dramatically higher costs, some retailers are seeing slower sales (and increased competition from big box stores), many truckers are struggling with increased regulations and some service firms are struggling to convince consum- ers to spend money when other prices re- main high. Among the small businesses that I work for, finding talent remains a persistent is- sue. And the rising cost of healthcare is creating huge pressures for both compa- nies and their employees. But, for the most part, US small busi- nesses fared pretty well in 2025, and a significant majority are optimistic about the coming year. Maybe that’s the glass-is-half- full attitude of the American entrepreneur. We’ll see.
10 February 2, 2026
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