Richmond businesses are growing — but feeling squeezed
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
Americans are starting businesses at a record pace, and Richmonders are getting in on the entrepreneurial hot streak.
Why it matters: Small businesses employ about half of the American private-sector workforce, and they've created half of all new jobs nationwide over the last half-decade.
Driving the news: The Richmond region added more than 1,000 net new businesses between 2021 and 2023, per the latest stats from InUnison, the region's local business association.
- That mirrors the national trend, where Americans are starting new businesses at near-record rates — averaging 470,000 monthly applications in 2025 — about 66% above pre-pandemic norms, Axios' Courtenay Brown reports.
- And this year, those applications are running even higher, with the smallest companies — those with fewer than 20 employees — accounting for a whopping 95% of the economy's net job gains in the first four months of 2026, per payroll processor ADP.
Fun fact: Businesses with fewer than 20 workers account for 83% of all businesses in Greater Richmond, per InUnison.
Yes, but: Economic challenges driven by operational pressures, consumer pullback and continued "national policy uncertainty" are putting a strain on local businesses, per InUnison's annual survey of Richmond business owners.
- In response, local businesses are becoming more efficient and more intentional about where they invest their resources.
- They're also increasingly relying on AI.
- And nearly half (46%) of survey respondents say they plan to leave staffing unchanged this year amid the uncertainty.
Threat level: Local owners say most of the costs of running a business are up from last year — employee wages, rent and local taxes, including city and county meals and license taxes.
- To offset their rising costs, the majority (66%) said they raised their prices, which they reported resulted in customers pulling back on spending.
What they're saying: "That feedback loop — costs rise, prices follow, customers pull back — is one of the defining economic dynamics local businesses are navigating right now," InUnison wrote in its report.
Still, 68% of the surveyed businesses reported they were profitable, but they noted it was "efficiency and discipline" that got them there, not surging revenue.
- And the growth they are seeing has slowed compared to previous years.
What we're watching: How the state's looming $15 minimum wage and paid leave program will affect local small businesses.
- Both take effect in 2028, and the survey was conducted before they were signed into law.
The fine print: InUnison surveyed 170 local businesses across the Richmond region, representing more than a dozen industries, between Feb. 10 and March 27.
- Richmond-based businesses accounted for the largest share of survey responses (39%), followed by those in Henrico (22%) and Chesterfield (14%).