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Small businesses, big concerns
Additional surveys and studies have shown how small-business owners’ struggle for survival has played out over the last year.
A Small Business Credit Survey of thousands of small businesses by the 12 Federal Reserve banks found that increased costs were the top concern for small businesses, with 73% citing costs as the biggest concern.
Forty-two percent of small businesses specifically cited tariffs as the primary financial challenge.
A February survey by the Small Business Majority found that 60% of small businesses saw higher costs due to tariffs, and 50% ended up raising their prices because of it, up from 31% in a survey in August.
Even as overall inflation worries have dropped, tariff concerns have grown, according to a February survey by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, which found 26% of businesses cited tariffs as the top issue facing their business.
That has eclipsed a potential recession and is tied with overall economic uncertainty. Data from the U.S. courts system shows that business-related bankruptcies are up from historic lows during the pandemic and have now reached a level higher than they’ve been since 2014.
Chapter 7 business bankruptcies have nearly doubled, from 7,728 in 2022 to 14,259 in 2025. Small-business bankruptcy filings using Subchapter V, a bankruptcy subset of Chapter 11 for businesses with assets less than roughly $3 million, also have risen, according to an analysis by bankruptcy data firm Epiq AACER. Subchapter V filings have nearly doubled over the past year, rising to 314 in February. “Small businesses continue to deal with the exhaustion of Covid relief funds, rising labor and material costs, higher borrowing costs, tariffs, shifting consumer demand, and broader economic and global uncertainty,” said attorney Adam Prescott, co-chair of the bankruptcy, restructuring and insolvency group at law firm Bernstein Shur, in a blog post regarding the data.
Uncertainty’s impact on small nonprofits
In addition to small for-profit businesses, small nonprofits also are being impacted by all the uncertainty.
Jon Hoffmann, director of assessment and navigation at Elevate NP of Southwestern Pennsylvania, which works directly with nonprofits, said the biggest issue for nonprofits is ongoing uncertainty in funding from federal government sources.
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Read the full article here
by Andy Medici and Jennifer Beahm – Pittsburgh Business Times
April 30, 2026