By: Héctor C. Moncada D.
The opening months of 2026 have arrived with a familiar but intensified weight. Tariffs remain at historically elevated levels, oil markets are in turmoil following the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, and small business owners are contending with inflation that has proven more stubborn than anyone hoped. And yet, against that backdrop, something unexpected is happening: entrepreneurs are not pulling back. They are adapting, and in many cases, they are growing.
JPMorganChase’s annual Business Leaders Outlook survey found that 71% of middle market and small business leaders enter 2026 optimistic about their company’s prospects, with 73% projecting increased revenue. That confidence is not naive. Top concerns cited include economic uncertainty at 49%, revenue and sales growth at 33%, and tariffs and labor costs, both at 31%. Business owners are clear-eyed about what they are facing. What separates the ones moving forward is not the absence of pressure, it is the quality of their response to it.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce tariff levels currently sit at eight to ten times higher than at the start of 2025, contributing to ongoing inflation and supply chain pressure that is reshaping how small businesses plan, price, and invest. For entrepreneurs operating lean organizations, those forces are not abstract policy debates, they show up in vendor invoices, staffing decisions, and customer behavior every single week.
Andrew Swiler, founder of Ironback.ai and a serial entrepreneur based in Barcelona who has built, acquired, and exited companies across three continents, argues that the businesses struggling most right now are not struggling because of the economy, they are struggling because of operational fragility that the economy is now exposing.
“Uncertainty doesn’t create weak businesses,” Swiler says. “It reveals them. The companies I work with that are holding up well have one thing in common: they’ve embedded efficiency into their daily operations, not just their quarterly planning. When costs spike or a market shifts, they can adjust without panicking because they’ve already done the hard work of understanding where their time and money actually go.”
His firm, Ironback, embeds trained AI operations specialists inside specialty trade companies to build and run AI tools from within, a model Swiler says is increasingly attractive to business owners who want results without the overhead of building an internal tech team from scratch.
A Bank of America survey found that nearly three out of four small business owners expect revenue to increase this year, and nearly 60% are actively making expansion plans, even as 88% report that inflation continues to affect their operations. The picture that emerges is one of disciplined ambition: owners who are watching costs closely while still betting on themselves.
For Tolani Ogun, founder and owner of CarDonationPlace.com, a nationwide vehicle donation platform that connects donors with vetted charities, economic pressure has actually reinforced the case for what her business does.
“When people feel squeezed, they look for ways to do more with what they already have,” Ogun explains. “A car sitting in a driveway is an asset that’s losing value every month. We help people turn that into a meaningful tax deduction and a real contribution to a cause they believe in.”
Ogun notes that charitable giving tends to be more resilient than conventional wisdom suggests during economic downturns, particularly when donors can see a direct, transparent connection between their contribution and its impact on a local community.
Financial resilience has emerged as the defining strategic priority of 2026, with analysts emphasizing that businesses combining proactive cash flow management with disciplined receivables practices are better positioned to sustain growth through changing market conditions. But financial resilience alone does not explain who is winning. Visibility matters just as much.
David Quintero, CEO of NewswireJet, a Florida-based press release distribution and media outreach company, has watched his clients recalibrate how they think about PR spending under economic pressure.
“The instinct when budgets tighten is to cut marketing first,” Quintero says. “That’s almost always the wrong call, and the data bears it out. Clients who stayed consistent with their press release cadence through the difficult months of late 2025 came out the other side with more media placements, stronger backlinks, and measurably better search visibility than those who went quiet.”
He points to specific client outcomes as evidence: a product launch supported by a structured distribution campaign that generated coverage in eleven outlets and drove a 35% increase in inbound inquiries within six weeks.
“Journalists are still writing stories. The brands showing up consistently are the ones getting mentioned. PR is not a luxury for stable times, it is how you stay on the map when the noise is loudest.”
Cybersecurity has emerged as one of the most pressing operational concerns for small businesses in 2026, with 60% of small business owners now reporting active concern about digital threats, a figure that underscores how quickly risk exposure has grown alongside digital transformation. But the broader resilience conversation extends beyond any single threat category. It is fundamentally about building organizations that can absorb shocks without losing direction.
That challenge is particularly acute for businesses operating across borders, which is an increasingly common reality in a global economy where digital infrastructure has made international operations accessible to companies of almost any size.
Daniel Oz, CEO and founder of Marry From Home, which enables couples worldwide to legally marry online through a U.S. county process conducted over video, runs a business that is inherently multi-jurisdictional and emotionally high-stakes.
“Our clients are navigating legal systems, time zones, and emotional milestones all at once,” Oz explains. “When the economic environment becomes uncertain, they need more reliability from us, not less. That means our processes have to be airtight, our communication has to be clear across languages and cultures, and our team has to be prepared for complications we cannot always predict.”
He notes that global instability has, paradoxically, increased demand for his services, as legal restrictions in certain countries shift and more couples seek alternatives that give them certainty.
Companies that invested in technology, employee training, and trusted partnerships through the turbulence of 2025 came out stronger and more resilient, proving that strategic adaptation, not company size, drives long-term success.
That is the thread connecting these entrepreneurs, regardless of how different their industries appear on the surface. The vehicle donation space, online marriage services, AI operations staffing, and press release distribution share almost nothing in terms of product or customer profile. What they share is a leadership posture: the decision to treat economic uncertainty not as a reason to contract, but as a pressure test that sharpens focus, eliminates waste, and clarifies what actually matters to customers. In March 2026, with oil markets rattled and tariffs at a decade high, that posture is not just admirable, it is the practical difference between businesses that survive this year and those that thrive beyond it.
