75% of U.S. small business owners confident in future growth

Small businesses have long been a cornerstone of economic mobility in the United States, often representing a vital thread in the story of the American Dream and a pathway to greater prosperity. As civic leaders look to reinvigorate economic opportunity for all Americans, new research released by the Capital One Insights Center reveals that integrated, or "all-in-one" financial tools and seamless — continuous and uninterrupted — access to credit are helping small business owners manage operational challenges, improve efficiency and unleash growth to help realize that dream.

This research is the latest installment by the Insights Center to better understand the strategies and resources small business owners use to maintain and grow their businesses. In previous years, research by the Capital One Insights Center explored how digital tools play a foundational role in helping owners build resilience and adapt to uncertainty. This year’s study, conducted among 1,155 small business owners nationwide, sought to uncover how business owners are unlocking efficiency and new levels of growth in order to run their businesses as intended and reach the goals they’ve set for themselves.

Just as every business and its owner are unique, so too are their definitions of success — and that success is often defined by more than just a balance sheet. When asked to characterize what the American Dream means to them, small business owners cited a number of goals and achievements, including autonomy and flexibility, profitability and financial security and impact on family and community. 

But among their many possible responses, the ability to grow and scale their business was the most common singular theme. One defined it as “growing from a small manufacturer into a trusted company,” while another described “financial stability” and “growing a business that creates jobs in our local community.” Or as one small business owner remarked, “turning an idea into a successful enterprise that reflects personal vision, effort, and resilience.”

Encouragingly, the data suggests these aspirations are grounded in strong optimism and confidence for the future. Currently, three out of four (75%) small business owners express high confidence in their business’s future, and 69% say their business is actively primed for future growth. 

To understand the strategies small business owners are specifically leveraging to achieve this growth, the Insights Center survey examined the variety of tools they use, how they access and deploy capital and the internal hurdles that stand in their way. Respondents represented a wide array of industries, providing a comprehensive view of the national landscape. A significant focus was placed on identifying divergent strategies across three key sectors: manufacturing, hospitality and professional services businesses. Together, these sectors make up over 10.5 million companies — nearly a third of all small businesses in America. The research reveals that while confidence is universally high, the path to achieving growth goals requires overcoming hidden operational friction. 
 

Achieving growth requires a balance of dedicated focus and operational flexibility. However, research shows that fragmented financial systems impact the efficiency of small businesses. The scale of this issue is clear. Nearly half (47%) of small business owners surveyed reported that their operations either stayed the same or became less efficient over the past 12 months, reinforcing a stubborn, ongoing trend across the US landscape. 

The findings show that the most significant hurdles to growth are not related to product quality or market demand, but rather are the result of back-office friction and tools that often don’t “communicate” with each other, leaving small business owners with too much manual data entry and too little visibility into their overall financial health, resulting in critical information gaps that force reactive rather than proactive decision making.  

For small business owners who face back-office friction (47% of small business owners polled), operational challenges top the priority list. In fact, nearly half rank budgeting and saving (50%) and securing internal approvals (48%) as their primary pain points. This operational friction takes a heavy, quantifiable toll on both the business’s bottom line and the small business owner’s well-being — a burden felt most acutely in the manufacturing sector, while hospitality generally fares better: 

• Personal Toll: Expense management is a nearly universal operational challenge, with 78% of small business owners reporting that it creates personal stress and uncertainty — a sentiment that spikes to 87% in manufacturing, compared to a slightly lower 76% in hospitality.

• Cash Flow Squeeze: 72% say these internal challenges make it harder to manage and predict cash flow, which can leave owners more vulnerable to unexpected financial disruptions. This squeeze is most severe in manufacturing (85%) and slightly more manageable in hospitality (63%).

• Customer Deficit:  When small business owners spend more time managing administrative tasks, they have less time to focus on customer service. Two-thirds (66%) of small business owners indicate that friction in expense management pulls them away from serving their customers. Once again, small manufacturers are hit hardest at 79%, while hospitality small business owners report a 63% detraction rate.

When internal operational friction creates an ongoing cash flow squeeze, small businesses lose the financial predictability and confidence required to scale.  

To address this pain point and free up capacity to focus on future growth, small business owners are heavily relying on one-stop financial solutions. Nearly four in five (79%) business owners use integrated accounting and bookkeeping platforms. Furthermore, 84% of credit card-holding owners rely on their business credit cards to manage their day-to-day financial operations. 

Business owners reported encouraging results: 51% of small business owners said integrated tools fueled growth by directly freeing up their time, while also unlocking other sought-after efficiencies like improved cash flow visibility, improved inventory management and fewer accounting errors.

Beyond basic integration, the data also reveals a distinct group of highly efficient small business owners who are adopting more advanced financial and analytical tools. More than half (53%) of these highly efficient businesses say their performance is driven by the adoption of data and analytics. Tech-forward business owners are more likely to use predictive cash-flow forecasting and automated reconciliation to help scale their businesses — a strategy prominently used in the professional services sector, where 54% of firms lead the charge in data-driven optimization. 

Crucially, the analysis shows this cohort does not view technology in a vacuum; they see it intrinsically linked to capital. This group is 8% more likely to depend on an integrated, “all-in-one” platform that brings together credit and financial management to drive their expansion plans — a synergy that peaks in professional services, where tech-forward owners are 12% more likely to view integrated credit as essential to their operations compared to their traditional peers.

While integrated financial systems create the operational capacity for growth, the research reinforces that access to credit remains a key factor in the overall financial health of small businesses. 

More than 71% of small business owners report that over a quarter of their total spending is done with credit cards. Two-thirds (66%) of small business owners explicitly name credit as a key driver of growth, while a similar share (67%) say credit cards are very important or essential for managing everyday expenses. Ultimately, seamless access to credit is identified by 77% of small business owners as a key factor in achieving business resilience.

As integrated systems ease the ability to apply for and deploy credit, small business owners can more easily pivot from managing daily expenses to actively investing in their future. This fluid access to credit also creates a tangible multiplier effect for local economies. When evaluating key factors linked to a small business owner’s plans to hire new staff, three specific variables stand out: current team size, recent efficiency gains and the share of business spending placed on credit cards. While all three are statistically linked to hiring plans, an owner's recent efficiency gains show the strongest relationship with their intent to hire, closely followed by their use of business credit cards.

In addition to credit lines, rewards programs — like cash back, points and travel rewards — help small business owners offset daily expenses and serve as a direct catalyst for growth. The research finds that 84% of small business cardholders intentionally maximize their credit card rewards, while a majority of owners (58%) prefer flexible rewards that can be used fluidly across cash, travel or other expenses. 

In that sense, rewards are an important secondary stream of operating capital that can be deployed strategically, particularly for the nearly one-third (31%) of owners looking to expand their businesses.

More than three-quarters (76%) of small business owners report strong confidence in their financial position, credit standing and ability to access credit. At the same time, more than half (52%) say economic uncertainty is a critical or major challenge for their business today, and more than one-third (36%) identify this uncertainty as a key barrier to operating as planned. 

In this environment, small business owners warn that any disruption in their ability to access credit could have immediate, significant consequences for their businesses, employees and personal financial well-being. If credit access were reduced, more than one out of four owners (28%) would be forced to completely scrap their expansion plans — a risk that jumps up to 32% in the asset-heavy manufacturing and hospitality sectors.

While the desire for growth and identifying operational efficiencies is shared by small business owners nationwide, the operational strategies they use to achieve those goals vary significantly by industry.

While broader economic uncertainty challenges all industries, manufacturers face unique headwinds as they balance cash flow, competition and market signals with the need for capital during times of financial stress. Despite these pressures, manufacturers report a powerful link between credit access and business expansion. Although 22% cite cash flow as a primary operational hurdle, more than half (52%) find that integrated financial tools reduce manual errors and reconciliation issues, helping insulate them from risk. 

To bridge these operational gaps, manufacturing owners are looking directly to technology to drive faster decision-making. When asked what change to your financial reporting and accounting tools would make the biggest positive difference for the business and why, one responded:

“The most impactful improvement would be enhanced real-time insights and greater automation in our financial systems. This would streamline processes to minimize manual work and enable quicker, more informed decision-making.” — Manufacturer based in Florida

When credit access improves, manufacturers shift into high growth mode — overwhelmingly prioritizing major capital allocations like investments in new equipment (86%), inventory (82.6%), staffing (71%) and expanding into new markets (74%). Ultimately, these strategic investments serve a much larger purpose for manufacturers:

“Living the American Dream means building something meaningful, generating long-term wealth and knowing the company can outlast you.” — Manufacturer based in Texas

Small business owners in the hospitality industry are highly sensitive to macro pressures, with 35% identifying broader economic uncertainty as a major challenge to running their business, and 34% citing a fundamental lack of financial visibility as a key operational barrier. At the same time, approximately half (51%) say that integrated financial tools help free up administrative time. Because margins are often tight, having immediate access to financial data is a critical requirement for day-to-day survival:

“I wish my accounting software gave real time cash flow updates so that it would help me make decisions faster and more accurately.” — Hospitality business owner based in Massachusetts 

Hospitality businesses lead other sectors in turning credit card rewards into capital as 34% of hospitality business owners reinvest rewards directly back into operations — and with improved credit access, hospitality owners overwhelmingly prioritize top-line revenue growth, with 78% saying they would invest in marketing to reach new customers. For these business owners, building a stable business provides an anchor for the broader local workforce:

“I’ve been in the restaurant industry since my teenage years. Started off [as a] dishwasher, then after high school, I went to cooking classes. Eventually I got hired as a sous-chef [and] worked my way up. Owning my own restaurant means the world to me. It is giving me and my family stability as well as [stability for] the families of all my workers.” — Restaurant owner based in Pennsylvania

Professional services businesses face a distinct set of operational pressures centered on client management. Nearly one-third (29%) identify reaching new customers as a primary barrier to operating as they originally intended — nearly double the rate of the manufacturing sector (15%) — while 41% cite difficulties collecting payments from their clients. To alleviate this friction, owners heavily favor consolidated administrative ecosystems: 

“Being able to integrate and maintain an all in one software option that contains all our necessary needs in one platform would streamline our work.” — Professional Services provider based in New York

Although they rely heavily on credit access for day-to-day expenses, professional services owners are 40% less likely than other sectors to reinvest their efficiency gains back into aggressive business expansion. While integrated financial tools successfully ease their daily administrative burdens, the data suggests these firms are less likely to translate those time-savings into market expansion or new opportunities.

The dream of starting, scaling and leaving a legacy of a thriving small business remains a powerful economic force in 2026. However, fully realizing that dream requires moving away from fragmented, manual back-office tasks and toward a unified one-stop financial system.

By combining the efficiency of integrated financial tools with the flexibility provided by stable access to credit, small business owners are successfully breaking through back-office bottlenecks and overcoming operational challenges. They are shifting time and focus from administrative burdens to unlocking strategic growth. Ultimately, the integration of smart technology and access to credit is helping small businesses thrive, adapt and continue serving as the essential drivers of the American economy. 

“For a small business owner to be living the American Dream, they are able to make strong profits consistently, help their community by adding jobs and services and create stability for their employees and their families.” — Professional Services provider based in North Carolina

Note: all data in this report is from self-reported, anonymous research of U.S. consumers broadly, not specifically from or about Capital One customers or employees.

The Capital One Small Business survey was conducted March 19-April 10, 2026 among a sample of 1,155 business owners defined as those with more than one employee and total annual revenues of up to $20 million. 

The surveys were conducted online and the data were unweighted.

Results from the full survey have a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.

The Capital One Insights Center combines Capital One research and partnerships to produce insights that advance economic opportunity. As a platform for data and dialogue, the Center strives to help changemakers build thriving communities and develop financial tools that enrich lives. The Center draws on Capital One’s deep market expertise and legacy of revolutionizing the credit system through the application of data, information and technology.

This material has been prepared by the Capital One Insights Center, a non-partisan center for objective research and insights, and is provided solely for general information purposes. Unless otherwise specifically stated, any views, analysis or opinions expressed herein are solely those of the Capital One Insights Center’s staff, researchers and listed partners (if applicable) and may differ from the views and opinions expressed by Capital One Financial Corporation, other departments or divisions of Capital One Financial Corporation, or its affiliates and/or subsidiaries (Capital One). Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. 

The data relied on for this report are based on self-reported survey data from anonymous respondents across the United States. Survey respondents included may or may not have relationships with any number of financial institutions and/or products. 

Analysis and conclusions constitute the Capital One Insights Center’s judgment as of the date of this report, may not be indicative of future results and are subject to change without notice. Furthermore, the analysis and views will not be updated or otherwise revised to reflect information that subsequently becomes available or circumstances existing, or changes occurring, after the date of publication. No representation or warranty is made with regard to any computation, graphs, tables, commentary, analysis, judgement or data included in this material.

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