Raising Prices, Cutting Costs, Holding the Line: What Business Owners Are Actually Doing in 2026
Sentiment surveys tell you how business owners feel. Our Mid-Year Pulse Check asked something more concrete: what have you actually changed about how you run your business since January? The answers show a small business economy that's adjusting on multiple fronts at once, not waiting to see what happens.
What's Changed Since January
Since January, 33% of business owners have raised prices, 31% have sought new or additional financing, 31% have adopted new technology or AI tools, and 30% have reduced operating costs. Smaller shares have reduced headcount or hours (16%), renegotiated supplier terms (16%), hired new employees (14%), or built up cash reserves (9%). 18% report no significant changes at all.
The Cost-Cutting Divide
The cost-cutting numbers deserve a closer look, because they move in different directions depending on who's answering. Businesses that have already secured working capital with Fora Financial report cutting operating costs at nearly twice the rate of businesses still deciding whether to seek financing, 44% compared to 24%. The same pattern shows up, less dramatically, in reduced headcount or hours: 23% among already-funded businesses compared to 14% among the still-deciding group.
Cutting Costs While Investing, Not Just Surviving
At first glance, that might read as bad news for the funded group, more cost-cutting sounds like more distress. But the same businesses cutting costs at a higher rate are also raising prices more often (48% versus 28%) and hiring more often (30% versus 8%). Read together, this looks less like survival mode and more like businesses actively managing every lever available to them, cutting where it makes sense, investing where it makes sense, often at the same time.
What It Means If You Haven't Made a Move Yet
The businesses still weighing whether to seek financing show the opposite pattern: less cost-cutting, less price adjustment, less hiring, and a meaningfully higher share, 22% compared to 8%, making no changes at all. If that's closer to where your business is right now, the data suggests it's worth asking why. The pressure is real this year, and it's hitting nearly everyone. What differs is whether that pressure is turning into an actual decision on pricing, costs, or hiring, or just sitting there unaddressed.
Findings are drawn from Fora Financial's 2026 Mid-Year Pulse Check, an online survey of over 300 U.S. business owners fielded between late June and mid-July 2026. The customer/prospect comparison reflects 84 respondents identified as existing Fora Financial customers against the remaining 248 respondents, treated as the prospect cohort. This is a directional comparison, not a controlled study, and should not be read as evidence that funding itself causes the behaviors described.
Since 2008, Fora Financial has distributed $5 billion to 55,000 businesses. Click here or call (877) 419-3568 for more information on how Fora Financial's working capital solutions can help your business thrive.
