Even though the economic picture seems to be improving, it’s still a tough time for small businesses.

The latest Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Insights survey shows that while 37% of businesses say they are growing, and close to half are in better financial health today than a year ago, 48% say cash flow is a problem. And though inflation has been moderating, 53% still find it to be their biggest challenge. Just under half say that their operating costs have increased in the previous three months, and 43% say they expect those costs to go up even more in the next three months.

Most policy watchers predict that costs should go down in the next three months. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower interest rates at its meeting later this month, which should effectively reduce costs. But as this survey shows, it takes some time for those savings to trickle down to small businesses. As inflation moderates, it doesn’t mean costs are coming down. In fact, three in 10 small businesses say they’ve increased their own prices in the last three months, while 29% plan to increase their prices in the next three months. The average price hike was 14%.

The area where small businesses could get the most immediate relief from a rate cut is loans. The survey indicates that 78% of them have used a form of financing in the last 12 months, and a quarter said the cost and availability of financing have deteriorated in the last three months. Financing problems have led 25% of companies to cut personnel and operating costs, while 18% have dipped into their internal cash buffers.

While percentages of businesses reporting negative impacts on this quarterly survey are dropping slowly, the number of businesses that are working through financial challenges are still significant. And while an interest rate cut will certainly help things, small businesses will be on the far end of seeing relief. Since 99.9% of all enterprises qualify as small businesses, and they employ nearly half of the U.S. workforce, it is imperative that any economic benefits transfer to them sooner rather than later.

No matter how large your business is, there are endless duties and responsibilities that come with the CEO’s role, and sometimes, talking to people outside of your own company gets pushed to the wayside. Mike Seckler, the CEO of HR support solutions company Justworks, makes it a point to get outside of his company, meeting his own goal of at least one meeting with a fellow CEO each week, and 10 each month. I talked to Seckler about why he does this and how it impacts his business. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

A trader works on the New York Stock Exchange floor as shares drop Friday afternoon.

A worse-than-expected August jobs report on Friday pushed the stock market to its worst week of 2024. An increase of 142,000 non-farm jobs was reported last month, more than July’s new job total, but well below the 160,000 analysts expected. The federal government also adjusted job growth totals for June and July downwards: July from 114,000 to 89,000, and June from 179,000 to 118,000. In fact, last month was the weakest August for job growth since 2017. “August payroll data indicate risks are rising as the labor market is clearly softening,” Carson Group strategist Sonu Varghese wrote in an email to Forbes.

While job growth was weak last........

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