Mid-Year Check-In: What Business Owners Are Telling Us About the Rest of 2026
At the start of 2026, Fora Financial's Annual Business Insights Report found business owners walking into the year with real optimism. Three in four expected revenue growth. Just over half expected favorable economic conditions. Now that we're at the midpoint, we went back into the field to ask a simple question: is that optimism holding up?
The short answer is yes, mostly. The longer answer is more interesting.
Performance Is Tracking Almost Exactly to Plan
Seventy-five percent of business owners say their business is meeting or exceeding the expectations they set at the start of the year, including 28% who say they're outperforming plan. That's remarkably close to the 76% who told us back in February and March that they expected revenue to grow in 2026.
That consistency is worth pausing on. Early-year optimism is often the first thing to crack when conditions get harder. This year, it hasn't.
Cash Flow Was Already the Top Challenge, and It's Still Climbing
Cash flow was already the single most-cited challenge in our annual report, named by 55% of business owners. Since January, 57% say cash flow has become more challenging still, ahead of inflation and rising costs (42%) and access to capital (33%). It's the same pressure from earlier this year, showing up again and getting sharper.
That matters for how business owners should be thinking about the second half of the year. Cash flow pressure that's already the top issue and still climbing needs active management now, whether that means renegotiating terms, tightening receivables, or lining up working capital before it's urgently needed rather than after.
Recession Caution Is Real, but It Hasn't Stopped Anyone
Sixty percent of business owners think a recession before the end of 2026 is at least possible. That's a meaningful number. But it hasn't translated into paralysis: 68% say they're moving forward with their plans, either as normal or more carefully, and only 6% report actively pulling back. Seventy percent say they're at least somewhat confident about finishing the year strong.
Put simply, business owners are worried about the macro picture and building anyway. That's a more useful signal than sentiment alone, because it's backed by action.
Where the Action Is Actually Happening
Since January, business owners have been leaning on a few concrete levers:
- 33% have raised prices
- 31% have sought new or additional financing
- 31% have adopted new technology or AI tools
- 30% have reduced operating costs
Demand backs this up. Forty-five percent of business owners say customer demand has strengthened over the past six months, more than double the 22% who say it's softened.
One More Thing Worth Knowing: Tariffs Aren't the Rising Pressure
Since January, just 11% of business owners say tariffs have grown more challenging, well behind the 42% who say inflation and the 57% who say cash flow. Whatever the tariff story was earlier this year, it isn't the pressure accelerating right now. That distinction belongs to cash flow.
A Pattern Worth Knowing About Too
A closer look at the data shows something else worth flagging. Business owners who've already secured working capital with Fora Financial are hiring, raising prices, and adjusting costs at meaningfully higher rates than business owners still weighing their options, some of the widest gaps in the entire survey. That's correlation, not proof that funding causes the difference, but it's a pattern worth knowing about. We dug into that comparison in more depth in a separate piece, worth a read if you're deciding whether to move now or keep waiting.
The Takeaway
If you're running a business right now, the data says you're not imagining the pressure, and you're also not alone in pushing through it. Cash flow is the real story of 2026 so far, more than inflation, more than tariffs, more than recession fears. The businesses that treat it as an ongoing discipline rather than a fire to put out later are the ones most likely to count among the 70% who feel confident about finishing the year strong.
If cash flow is the thing keeping you up at night, Fora Financial can get you an approval decision in as little as 4 hours and funding in as soon as 24 hours. Apply now to see if you qualify.
Findings are drawn from Fora Financial's 2026 Annual Business Insights Report (fielded February-March 2026) and 2026 Mid-Year Pulse Check (fielded late June-mid-July 2026, over 300 U.S. business owners).
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.
