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Posted: Wed 4th Nov 2026
4 min read
Seven in 10 small business owners (71%) say rising costs have affected their business over the past year, according to Enterprise Nation's latest Autumn 2026 Small Business Barometer.
The figure is in line with a year ago (69%), suggesting cost pressure has stopped rising, but is not yet easing.
The Q3 Barometer, which took place in the weeks running up the Budget on 28 October, found little change across the 23 measures compared with a year ago, suggesting that the Q2 Summer Barometer 2026 now looks like a low point, with measures such as expansion confidence and owner pay returning to roughly where they stood in autumn 2025.
Aaron Asadi, CEO of Enterprise Nation, said:
“After a turbulent summer, it is encouraging to see small business confidence steady. But steady is not the same as strong.
“Most owners are still feeling the squeeze from rising costs, and more of them name customers spending less as their biggest financial challenge than tax.
"What small businesses need is a climate in which they can win and keep customers, and support for the newer businesses that are showing the most ambition.”
Historically the biggest worry for small firms has been tax. But in the latest Barometer, that has been overtaken by a nervousness about consumer buying power.
More than half of owners (54%) name customers spending less as their biggest financial challenge, compared with 9% who name taxes and business rates.
Seven in 10 (71%) also expect higher costs to reduce their profits over the next three months. Even so, 72% are confident their business will survive the next 12 months.
Expectations of steep rises in energy and operating costs have settled well below 2023 levels. Four in 10 (40%) expect energy costs to rise by 10% or more, down from 68% in spring 2023, and 29% expect the same for operating costs, down from 58%.
Business age is the clearest dividing line in the data. Among businesses under a year old, 69% expect to grow in the next three months, compared with 20% of those trading for seven years or more.
Younger firms are also about twice as likely to seek external funding: 57% of those under three years old, against 25 - 29% of older firms. A third (34%) of businesses under a year old would like to export, against 11% of the most established.
Overall, half of owners (50%) expect to expand in the next 12 months, level with a year ago and up from 41% in summer. A quarter (25%) expect their staff numbers to grow, with technology (59%) and food and drink (53%) well ahead of business services (10%).
London owners are markedly more upbeat. 73% expect to expand, against 43% elsewhere in the UK. Nearly half (47%) expect to grow their workforce, compared with 18% elsewhere, and 90% are confident of survival, compared with 67%.
Two-thirds (67%) of owners who pay themselves a salary draw less than £20,000 a year, compared with 70% a year ago.
Pay differs far more between groups than over time. 62% of solo owners earn under £10,000, compared with 31% of those with employees, while half (50%) of owners of businesses with six or more staff take £30,000 or more.
