March 2022

Washington, D.C. (April 7, 2022)—Today, the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF) released its March Small Business IQ Poll of 500 small business owners. High inflation remains the top concern among small business owners with 43 percent of respondents naming it as their first or second source of unease. For the first time since the poll launched in May 2021, the price of gas specifically takes second place among entrepreneur concerns.

As anxiety over the cost of gas has risen, support for U.S. energy independence that will bring down long-term costs is also strong. Eighty percent of small business owners broadly support increasing domestic oil and natural gas production. Parsed out by political affiliation, 77 percent of Democrat small business owners agree.

Other key takeaways include:

• The Small Business Intelligence Quotient (SBIQ), an index tracking overall small business optimism about the economy, ticked up just shy of a point to 56.1. Even with stronger sales and more hiring, small businesses are still lackluster in their optimism for the economy with the SBIQ generally staying flat since September.
• Sixty-seven percent of business owners say the Biden administration isn’t doing enough to tackle inflation or supply chain issues.
• Tax increases are not popular with small business owners, with 59 percent of them saying they will hurt the economy.

View more polling details and crosstabs here.

Elaine Parker, President of the Job Creators Network Foundation, released the following statement:

“Just like families taking a trip to the grocery store or to the gas pump, small businesses are feeling the extra inflation financial squeeze and want the Biden administration to do more to address it. Priority number one should be to get out of the way of domestic energy production and use his bully pulpit to encourage more drilling, not demonize traditional, reliable sources. Cleaner energy alternatives—such as wind or solar—are all fine and good, but they aren’t ready to take center stage. On Main Streets across the country, this is an opinion that stretches across the partisan divide. The White House should take note.”