Small Business Owner Outlook: Costs, Tariffs & AI Adoption

Thanks for taking a few minutes to share how your business is doing. This helps us understand what small business owners are actually facing right now — revenue, costs, tariffs, hiring, and AI. About 5 minutes, and your honest read on things is the most useful answer.

Compared to the past 6 months, how do you expect your business's revenue to change over the next 6 months?

What are your hiring plans for the next 3 months?

• Increase headcount
• Keep headcount the same
• Decrease headcount
• Not sure yet

Over the past 12 months, how have each of the following costs changed for your business?

Have tariffs on imported goods affected your costs or pricing in the last 12 months?

• No noticeable impact
• Some impact, but we haven't changed prices
• We've raised prices because of tariffs
• We've changed suppliers or sourcing to avoid tariffs
• Not applicable — we don't import goods

If your costs have risen due to tariffs, what share of that increase have you passed on to customers through higher prices?

Which best describes your business's use of AI tools (chatbots, content generation, automation, etc.) today?

• Not using AI tools
• Experimenting with a few tools
• Using AI regularly for specific tasks
• AI is integrated into core operations
• Not sure what AI tools would help us

Thinking about the next 12 months, which of these concerns worry you most and least for your business?

• Rising costs (materials, rent, wages)
• Finding and keeping employees
• Cash flow or access to capital
• Slowing customer demand
• Tariffs and trade policy
• Competition from larger companies
• Regulatory or tax changes
• Technology disruption, including AI

Probe the respondent's single biggest worry from the prior ranking: ask for a concrete recent example of how it has actually affected their business, what they've tried to do about it, and whether it's changing their hiring or pricing plans. If costs or tariffs are the top worry, ask specifically what they've done or plan to do about pricing and sourcing. If demand is the worry, ask what would need to change for them to feel confident growing again.

What industry best describes your business?

• Retail
• Food & beverage/restaurant
• Professional services
• Construction/trades
• Healthcare
• Manufacturing
• Technology
• Prefer not to say

How many employees does your business currently have, including yourself?

• Just me (no employees)
• 2-9
• 10-24
• 25-49
• 50-99
• 100+
• Prefer not to say

How long has your business been operating?

• Less than 1 year
• 1-3 years
• 4-9 years
• 10-19 years
• 20+ years
• Prefer not to say

That's everything — thank you! Your responses will be combined with other small business owners' to track revenue, cost, and hiring trends, and won't be tied to your name.