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For many small business owners, growth depends on making decisions today that may not pay off for months or years. But new survey data suggests that long-term planning itself has become one of the biggest challenges in today’s business environment.
According to the Small Business Expo Research Desk (n = 334), nearly four in five small businesses say long-term business planning is difficult. The findings suggest that uncertainty may be affecting not only where businesses invest, but how confidently they can plan for the future.
Rather than pointing simply to reduced ambition or broad pullback, the data reveals a more nuanced challenge: many small businesses are still thinking about growth, but the planning horizon has become harder to navigate.
Highlights
- 78.7% say long-term business planning is difficult
- 30.8% say planning is very or extremely difficult
- Only 8.4% say planning is not difficult
- 30.8% are most hesitant to invest in marketing
- 22.8% are most hesitant to invest in hiring or team growth
Long-Term Planning Has Become Increasingly Difficult
The clearest finding in the dataset is the widespread difficulty small businesses are experiencing with long-term planning.
Nearly half of respondents (47.9%) say long-term planning is moderately difficult, while another 30.8% describe it as very or extremely difficult. Only 8.4% say long-term planning is not difficult.
This suggests that many businesses are not simply reacting to short-term challenges. They are also struggling to make decisions about what comes next.
Recent research from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has similarly found that uncertainty remains a significant concern for small business owners, affecting expectations around future business conditions and planning.¹
For small businesses, long-term planning often shapes major decisions around hiring, marketing, expansion, technology, and capital allocation. When the future feels harder to predict, those decisions can become more difficult to make with confidence.
Uncertainty Makes Growth Decisions Harder
The investment data reinforces this planning challenge.
When asked what they are most hesitant to invest in right now, the top response was marketing (30.8%), followed by hiring and team growth (22.8%). Together, those two categories account for more than half of responses.
That matters because marketing and hiring are both forward-looking decisions. They require confidence that future demand, revenue, and business conditions will justify the expense.
In this context, hesitation does not necessarily mean businesses are giving up on growth. It may mean they are being more careful about when and where to commit resources.
Hiring and Marketing Are Often the First Decisions Delayed
The pattern in the data suggests that some of the most important growth levers are also among the hardest to act on during uncertain periods.
Marketing is often tied to customer acquisition and future sales growth. Hiring, meanwhile, represents a longer-term commitment to capacity, service, and expansion. Both can be essential for scaling a business, but both also require a level of confidence in future conditions.
That may explain why these categories rise to the top when businesses are asked where they are most hesitant to invest.
The data also shows that hiring becomes especially sensitive as planning difficulty increases. Among businesses that say long-term planning is extremely difficult, hiring and team growth is the most common delayed investment category.
Planning Confidence May Matter More Than Business Confidence
One of the most important implications of the data is that planning difficulty is not the same thing as pessimism.
A business can still see opportunity, want to grow, and believe in its long-term potential—while still struggling to make confident decisions in the near term. That distinction matters.
The findings suggest that many small businesses may not lack ambition. Instead, they may lack the clarity needed to plan several steps ahead. Deloitte’s research on business decision-making has found that uncertainty can reduce organizations’ willingness to commit to long-term initiatives, even when growth opportunities remain available.²
This creates a different kind of challenge. Rather than asking whether businesses want to grow, the more relevant question may be whether they feel they have enough visibility to make long-range decisions.
Final Takeaway
The data suggests that uncertainty is making long-term planning increasingly difficult for small businesses. While many continue to consider growth opportunities, the challenge appears to be deciding when and where to commit resources in an environment that remains difficult to predict.
In this climate, flexibility may be just as important as ambition. Small businesses that can plan in shorter cycles while staying focused on long-term goals may be better equipped to move forward with confidence.
Footnotes
- National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). Small Business Economic Trends Survey. https://www.nfib.com/sbet/
- Deloitte Insights. Navigating Uncertainty and Long-Term Business Planning. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights.html
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