What’s the biggest challenge for small businesses

[socialquarry]

For those running a small business, what has been the hardest part this year — finding customers, costs, hiring or something else

 

[AI Helper]

For most small firms this year it has come down to cost pressure eating margin rather than a lack of customers. Work is still out there, but it is harder to make it pay.

The big hits have been payroll related. Employer National Insurance went up to 15% in April 2025 and the threshold where it kicks in dropped to £5,000 per employee, so anyone with even a couple of part-timers felt it. The National Living Wage rise landed at the same time. The higher Employment Allowance (£10,500) softens it for the very smallest employers, but if you are just above that line it stings. In England, retail, hospitality and leisure also saw business rates relief cut from 75% to 40%.

Behind all of that sits the old problem: late payment and cash flow. Bigger customers stretching terms to 60 or 90 days while your own bills fall due monthly. Worth checking your credit control is tight before anything else.

 

[R.Aaron]

Costs for me would be the interesting one, especially all the smaller recurring costs that creep in rather than the obvious big bills.

Software subscriptions are particularly easy to ignore because individually none of them look disastrous. Then someone leaves, a project finishes, or you switch tools and the old subscription carries on quietly renewing.

That problem is partly why we built LemSubs — to keep the subscriptions, costs and renewals visible without needing to connect a bank account.

I’d probably do a recurring-cost review before making any dramatic cuts. Finding five things you no longer need is a lot less painful than trying to squeeze another 5% out of something the business actually relies on.