Written by Michael Powe, Ph.D. and Emi Morita of Main Street America.
Main Street America distributed our Spring 2025 Small Business Profiles Survey on April 10. We closed the survey on April 29 after hearing from 1,587 business owners in more than 500 cities and 47 states, plus the District of Columbia.
Our small business surveys focus on businesses that operate within downtowns and neighborhood commercial corridors. Our research has found that these businesses tend to be small, with modest staffing and limited revenue. In our Spring 2025 survey, more than half of all responding Main Street businesses (52%) have only one or two full-time staff members, and 93% have fewer than 20 staff members, including full-time, part-time, seasonal, or temporary employees. Fifty-three percent reported that their family and friends frequently or occasionally help staff the business on an unpaid basis.
Main Street businesses also operate on tight budgets. More than a third (36%) generated less than $100,000 in gross revenue in 2024, and more than half (54%) generated less than $200,000. Less than one quarter (23%) generated more than half a million dollars in gross revenue in 2024.
These businesses are often the backbones of their communities, serving as important employers, community amenities, gathering spaces, and regional destinations. Understanding their unique needs is crucial for supporting local economies. Here are some insights from the Spring 2025 survey that explore the economic anxieties and concerns that Main Street businesses across the U.S. are facing.
Note: This summary of the survey results includes quoted responses to open-ended questions, with attribution information limited to the U.S. state of the respondent. We also include select attributed quotes that we received from advisors as comments to a draft write-up of the results.
Main Street business confidence is at the lowest recorded level
Main Street business confidence has fallen dramatically compared to our previous surveys. Since 2022, we have asked Main Street business owners, “As you think about the next three months, how confident are you that your business will perform successfully?” In Spring 2025, confidence scores were an average of 6.7 out of 10, and only 40% indicated a confidence score of 8 or higher. These are the lowest confidence levels we have seen in our data, and the confidence drop compared to the Fall 2024 survey is the most significant change we have seen since we began measuring Main Street business confidence.
We saw even lower average confidence levels among Main Street business owners who had launched businesses in the past five years (avg = 6.6; n = 467); owned businesses with only one or two full-time employees (avg = 6.5; n = 739); or owned retail businesses (avg = 6.4; n = 535).
“The results reflect exactly how I’m feeling: uneasy,” said Mindy Bergstrom, owner of Cooks Emporium, in Ames, Iowa. “It seems like every week brings a new wave of emails about price increases or shipping delays, or even freight increases. It’s hard to predict what the next few months will hold for products and supply chains.”
Our Spring 2025 survey respondents also reported weakening revenues and profits at their businesses. Nearly half (48%) said their profits had decreased over the past three months, and 39% had declining revenue. For comparison, in Spring 2023, we asked Main Street business owners how revenue had changed from 2021 to 2022, and only 21% reported declining revenue.
Main Street business owners are concerned about rising costs, decreasing customer spending, and the impacts of potential new tariffs
Given frequent news about trade policy, inflation, and consumer spending, we asked Main Street business owners what current concerns they had for their business. They reported concerns about the rising cost of supplies, inventory, and equipment (72%); decreasing customer spending (68%); and impacts of potential new tariffs (50%).
Among Main Street businesses that make, manufacture, or produce their own packaged goods, concerns were more widespread but echoed the same pattern: 88% of respondents expressed concerns about the cost of supplies, inventory, and/or equipment; 74% expressed concerns about customer spending; and 53% expressed concerns about the impact of potential new tariffs.
Faced with these concerns, about two-thirds of responding Main Street business owners (67%) indicated that they had either already increased prices in the first quarter of 2025 or that they planned to increase prices soon.
The economic hardships Main Street business owners face are personal and directly impact their households
In this survey, we introduced new questions about the personal economic impacts Main Street businesses have on their owners. These include whether they earn an income from the business (as a wage or otherwise) sufficient to cover basic living expenses in their area, and whether their household well-being depends on the profitability of their business.
Sixty-five percent of Main Street business owners indicated that they either do not or only sometimes earn an income from their business sufficient to cover basic living expenses in their area. These proportions are even higher for Main Street businesses launched in the past five years (79%; n = 478); with only one or two full-time employees (72%; n = 764); in the retail sector (72%; n = 542); in the food and beverage sector (71%; n = 275); or businesses that make, manufacture, or produce their own packaged goods (72%; n = 377).
“When you look at the survey’s findings — escalating costs, decreased consumer confidence, and slowing sales — combined with the already low revenue many businesses are earning — it’s no wonder that some business owners are not making a living wage,” said Katherine Raz, author of Storefront Revolt and owner of The Fernseed in Tacoma, WA. “But seeing [that 65% of business owners are not paying themselves a living wage] is alarming. It underscores the urgent need for fair rent structures, better access to capital, and opportunities to build equity by owning our storefronts. Targeted policies to build in this kind of stability would help keep Main Streets thriving.”
Similarly, 65% of respondents said that their household’s well-being depends on the profitability of their business. Profitability is an especially important factor for the household wellbeing of millennial business owners (73%; n = 320); male business owners (74%; n = 362); business owners with businesses launched more than 25 years ago (82%; n = 260); and owners of professional service businesses (82%; n = 159) and personal service businesses (83%; n = 108). Interestingly, profitability is a less important factor for the household wellbeing of owners of Main Street businesses launched in the past five years (56%; n = 479) and owners of businesses with only one or two full-time employees (61%; n = 748).
Providing Support for Main Street Business Owners
“Healthy Main Streets, filled with local businesses, help to stabilize local economies and position a community to attract more growing businesses,” said Ilana Preuss, Founder and CEO of Recast City. “Our Main Street businesses give people a place to connect and come together. This survey shows that these businesses are in a state of emergency again.”
Our national survey of Main Street businesses sheds light on the acute and long-term challenges business owners face. Main Street America is committed to meeting the needs of small business owners in this moment by increasing outreach and developing new resources and programs. To learn about available grants, educational resources, and networking opportunities, please visit our Small Business Support page and subscribe to receive updates.
Looking for more data? Dive into the survey results here >
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