Owners' biggest recurring problems are rising costs, finding good staff, uncertainty, uneven cash flow and winning new customers. That is what the two largest US surveys show. Buying back your time will not lower your costs or taxes. It does help with sales, hiring and cash, which are the problems that need the owner's attention most.
What owners say: the NFIB survey
The National Federation of Independent Business runs Small Business Problems and Priorities every four years. The 2024 edition is based on 2,873 member owners who rated 75 problems by mail from February to mid-April 2024. According to Small Business Trends' summary of the report, the top ranks were:
- Cost of health insurance
- Cost of supplies and inventories, with 20% calling it critical
- Uncertainty over economic conditions, 22% critical
- Federal taxes on business income, 25% critical
- Locating qualified employees, 28% critical
- Fuel costs, nearly 25% critical
- State taxes on business income, 22% critical
- Uncertainty over government actions, 23% critical
Electricity costs ranked 10th. Interest rates rose from 56th place in 2020 to 13th. NFIB members are not a random sample of all US businesses, so read the list as the view of established owners.
What owners say: the Federal Reserve survey
The Federal Reserve Banks run the yearly Small Business Credit Survey. The 2026 report covers 6,525 employer firms with 1 to 499 employees, surveyed from September to November 2025. It found that:
- Rising costs of goods, services or wages were the most common financial challenge.
- More than four in 10 firms named tariff-related costs, and 77% reported rising costs, tariffs or both.
- Reaching customers and growing sales was the top operational challenge.
- Hiring or keeping qualified staff came second.
- Slightly more firms reported revenue falling than rising in the prior 12 months.
The 2025 report, from 7,653 firms surveyed in late 2024, gives percentages: 75% named rising costs, 56% paying operating expenses and 51% uneven cash flows as financial challenges. 57% named reaching customers and growing sales as an operational challenge, up from 53% the year before.
Which problems more owner time can fix
Sort the list into two groups. Some problems come from outside, and your time will not move them. Others depend on what you do each week.
Mostly outside your control:
- Health insurance costs
- Taxes on business income
- Energy and fuel costs
- Interest rates
- Economic and government uncertainty
- Tariffs and supplier prices
You can plan for these. Review prices, shop for insurance at renewal, build a cash buffer and talk to your accountant about taxes. Rules differ by country and state, so get advice for your case. Extra hours alone will not change them.
Helped by more owner time:
- Reaching customers and growing sales. Sales needs regular, focused effort: follow-ups, referrals, proposals, staying in touch with past clients. It is often the first thing a busy owner drops.
- Hiring and keeping good people. Writing a clear role, interviewing well and training new hires all take time you rarely have in a full week.
- Uneven cash flow. Invoicing on time, chasing late payments and reviewing cash weekly reduce surprises.
- Rising costs. Reviewing prices and margins and dropping unprofitable work takes a few focused hours a quarter.
These are the problems where a free afternoon each week makes a difference.
Why sales slips first
Reaching customers topped the Fed's list of operational challenges. For an owner who also does the work, the reason is often simple. Client work has deadlines, and selling does not. When the week is full, follow-ups wait, past clients hear nothing, and the pipeline empties a month or two later.
A small fixed habit protects it:
- Block one or two hours a week only for sales and follow-ups.
- Keep a short list of past clients and warm contacts, and write to a few each week, one to one.
- Follow up on every open proposal within a week.
- Ask each happy client for one referral when a project ends.
Keep outreach personal and to people you chose. Rules on business email differ by country, such as CAN-SPAM in the US and GDPR and PECR in the UK and EU.
Where to buy the time
Hand off the routine work that keeps you away from sales, hiring and cash. Typical candidates:
- Bookkeeping and invoicing.
- Scheduling and inbox triage.
- Routine client updates and admin.
- Social media posting.
- Data entry and reports.
For a sense of cost, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay of bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks at $24.36 an hour and secretaries and administrative assistants at $23.23 an hour, in May 2025, in US dollars. Freelancers and agencies set their own rates.
The time you free only helps if you put it on the right problem. Book it in the calendar for sales, hiring or cash before it fills with email.
A quick check: which problem is yours
- Revenue flat or falling: your problem is likely sales. Free time for follow-ups and referrals.
- Work turned away or late: your problem is likely people. Free time to hire and train.
- Profit fine but bank balance tight: your problem is cash. Free time for invoicing and weekly cash checks.
- Margins shrinking: your problem is pricing. Free time to review prices and drop low-value work.
- Costs rising from outside: plan, price and buffer. More hours will not fix this one.
Next steps
For sales, start with how to ask for referrals and follow-up emails after no response. For people, read how to hire your first employee. For cash, see how to improve cash flow. To free the hours, use how to delegate tasks.
Nive is being built for this problem: you write how your business works and how you sound once, and it drafts emails in your voice for you to review and send. Join the waitlist to get the demo first.