Metro Detroit small businesses weigh in on economy
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Some Metro Detroit business owners are echoing the economic stress felt by entrepreneurs across the country.
Driving the news: Confidence among American small-business owners fell for a second consecutive quarter, according to the recently released U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index.
Why it matters: The numbers signal a "growing unease" over rising inflation and the Iran war, the Chamber said in a news release.
Zoom in: The survey of 750 small-business owners took place from Feb. 25 to March 11, and if it had been done before the war started, the results would have been less striking, Neil Bradley, an executive vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, tells Axios.
Reality check: The index is still higher than this time last year, after President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs crushed business confidence.
What they're saying: "My level of confidence right now is pretty low," says Jennyfer Crawford-Williams, a local small-business advocate and creator of the All Things Detroit market series.
- Entrepreneurs are figuring out how to survive this "slow phase," with costs rising and people less likely to prioritize shopping local.
- High gas prices and immigration enforcement concerns have both created stress for entrepreneurs who travel as part of their business, she adds.
By the numbers: 53% of U.S. small-business owners said inflation was their top challenge, up from 45% in Q4.
- Just 28% said the U.S. economy is in good health, down 10 points from the previous quarter.
- Only 37% said they expect to make new investments in the year ahead.
Between the lines: It's a time of anxiety and challenge, but there's also hope that "this level of pressure can't hold forever," says Amani Olu, founder of Detroit-based marketing and PR firm Olu & Co.
- Olu works in the arts sector — which the Trump administration targeted with cuts, leading to pauses and purse-tightening — so he's seen impacts on his business outside of other across-the-board challenges, including inflation.
- "I've had to pivot and change, and it's actually been an opportunity for me," he says, to refocus his business on more holistic communications strategy work.
The bottom line: "It feels like everyone is just kind of holding still," Mark Friday, owner of Southfield-based IT and cybersecurity firm RJ Networks, tells Axios.
- "It feels like everybody's playing the game. … And then somebody hit pause, and we're just kind of waiting for it to be unpaused."