🆕September report: Small business trends (7 things to know)

Time to get over this daunting Humpday. I have faith in us. So, let’s get into it.

Today’s Feature Story digs its claws into a new small business trends report just out for September. 

After that story comes the following sections: 

• The Knowledge Base  

• Self Help (untapped superpower)

• Facts & Stats (insane profits)

• Get Hacking (AI trap)  

Appetizer: Vote in the Tournament of Best American Inventions.

Let’s crack open today’s Feature Story…

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Feature Story

7 Key Things from the Newest Small Business Trends

Full report’s here. 

#1 Small businesses have the highest numbers in professional services and real estate.

#2 Construction is currently the fastest growing industry by hourly wages (wages up 3.27%).

#3 The Midwest is leading small biz growth.

#4 Report showed 44% of employer firms have contract workers on their payroll.

#5 Women own 44.6% of U.S. small businesses.

#6 Roughly 20% of American small businesses are minority owned.

#7 A top reason for shopping small is better customer service with detailed product knowledge than large businesses. 

Details on The Good News

The Midwest is rolling. Ohio had the highest small business jobs growth index in June of 2025. Dallas was the strongest growing metro area. 

Construction is booming there. It’s why Dallas and Ohio topped the list in small biz job growth. 

It’s also a good thing that wages are rising in the construction world. 

Good news for the hardworking folks already swinging hammers. Also great for young people choosing trade schools over four-year colleges.

Don’t forget white-collar folks who might get laid off due to AI. Many are seeing hope in the blue-collar world of construction. 

Those “magic little robots” can’t paint a house, can’t fix plumbing, and can’t put on a roof. Even the biggest AI hype-man or woman would admit that.  

Contract Workers

More and more small businesses are finding out they can save money by hiring contractors instead of full-time employees. 

Employees are valuable. But they cost small business owners a lot:

• Onboarding

• Payroll tax

• Red tape

• Worker’s comp insurance

• Benefits

Health insurance is a huge part of rising costs that are making contractors more affordable. 

“59% of employers intend to make cost-cutting changes to their health insurance plans next year.” ~CNN

Better Service in the Age of AI

Nearly every large business has hopped on the AI bandwagon. 

No choice. They feel like they’ll get left behind if they don’t.

Sure, many are only doing a dog and pony show with AI. They change their slogan or landing page, inserting “AI-First” and other vague notions.

But others are going all in on AI. And how’s that gonna go in terms of customer service?

Not too good! Just look at Meta. They have pitiful customer service for their main product, Meta Ads. 

If an advertiser has a problem, good luck getting a human to help. Heck, good luck finding any way to even get in touch with a human service rep at Meta, even if you could actually talk to them.

Small business owners who do pick up the phone have an advantage in some industries. Owners who know their products inside and out will have an advantage over a chatbot filled with FAQ data. 

Large businesses will become more and more out of touch with their customers if they let little robots do all the connecting. 

Now, who cares if the product is a cheap shirt from Temu? Chatbots can handle that. 

But wedding dress boutiques need a hands-on salesperson to help the shoppers.

Some Bad News Details in the Report

Seems many small businesses are struggling. So, they’re taking on debt.

Overall, about 40% of small businesses have $100,000+ of debt.

The Bankrate report revealed 59% of small biz owners had applied for some sort of financing in the prior year.

Worse? 56% of those who applied needed the funds simply to cover operating expenses!

I’m no economics professor. But that sounds like doomsday for those small businesses. 

Taking out loans to cover normal expenses means something’s out of whack. 

And it’d be easy to blame the “economy” or “tariff uncertainty.” Those things play a role for some biz owners. Usually, though, serious financial problems are directly related to the business itself. 

It’s been my experience that people who are “good with money” are also good at business. 

Doesn’t matter what kind of business they’re in (unless they have zero experience in that industry). 

The Bottom Line

Times are changing fast. 

Many trends are overhyped, though. 

That’ll self-correct sooner or later. 

Sooner would be better for employees generally. 

As for small business owners, most of the trends on this report are positive. 

Good thing. Because when small businesses are in good shape, the entire economy benefits.  

Onward now to The Knowledge Base and a smooth marketing trick by Five Guys…

Self-Help

Reading books is a superpower. It’ll grow in power every year from now on.

Because few people have the patience to do it.

I don’t care how fast TikTok tutorials are. That’s too easy.

Reading makes you smarter for having put in the time.

Reading the most helpful books multiple times is even more powerful.

It’s an easy advantage for you. All it requires is focus and patience. Not big brains or a perfect smile or body.

Facts & Stats

Bonus: Nvidia earns $3.6M per employee, which is roughly $153M less than which company? Answer at end of email.

Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

This hack does two things. 

• Saves you from losing your ability to create content

• Keeps your content from being average

You must edit your AI-written content. Most people don’t. They let ChatGPT write it and they figure that’s good enough. 

It’s not. It’s plain for everyone to see there’s no human input. The same AI-written phrases are run into the ground over and over (i.e., “It’s not about X—it’s about Y”).

LinkedIn is the best example. 8/10 posts are unoriginal. Because the same brainless ghostwriter wrote them→ ChatGPT. 

AI makes us lazy. I don’t care how clear and concise the little robot writes. It won’t matter because the writing is nothing special. It’s the average of all writing. Not unique. Cannot stand out.

The human behind the bot has to input something. So, erase lines. Add your human thoughts. Or it’s nothing special. Anyone could’ve written it. That’s the opposite of branding.

Thanks for reading Inbox Hacking. Please share it with your peeps - it’s sugar-free but stings a bit.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: OnlyFans’ revenue is $156M per employee and Nvidia’s is “only” $3.6M per employee (Scott Galloway newsletter).

“If your stories are all about your products and services, that’s not storytelling. It’s a brochure. Give yourself permission to make the story bigger.” ~Jay Baer