Health Insurance Ranks No. 1 in All Nine of NFIB’s Industry Groups. Cost of Supplies: 2nd in Retail, 45th in Finance

Owners in every trade put the same problem at the top of NFIB’s list. A few places down, the list starts to look like the business you are in.

The same problem on top, everywhere

NFIB, the small-business association, asks member owners to rate 75 possible problems on a scale from 1, a critical problem, to 7, not a problem, and ranks them by the average score. The 2024 edition drew 2,873 usable responses, and its Table 7 splits them into nine industry groups. In every one, the cost of health insurance came out first. Between 38.9% and 42.1% of owners in the seven larger groups rated it critical. Its lead is narrower than the ranking makes it look, though: in each group, the No. 2 problem sits close enough that NFIB’s numbers cannot clearly separate the two.

Two more problems made the top 10 in all nine groups: uncertainty over economic conditions and federal taxes on business income. That is the shared core. Our earlier look at NFIB’s rankings in every edition since 1986 found a similar core over time, with state taxes in place of economic uncertainty.

Where the trades split

Further down, the same problem can sit near the top of one trade’s list and near the bottom of another’s. Among the seven groups large enough to compare, the cost of supplies and inventories ranked 2nd in retail, and also in the admin support, arts, hospitality, food and other services group, but 45th in finance, insurance and real estate. Credit card payment processing costs ranked 5th in retail and 51st in finance. Environmental regulations ranked 13th in agriculture, forestry and fishing and 67th in the professional, technical, education and health group. Competition from internet businesses ranked 16th in retail and 71st in construction. Each of those gaps clears the margin we apply to NFIB’s figures.

The top of the list is shared. A few places down, it is your trade’s.

Finding people depends on the work

Locating qualified employees ranked 2nd in construction and in the professional, technical, education and health group, where 35.4% and 35.0% of owners rated it critical. In agriculture, forestry and fishing it ranked 23rd, rated critical by 20.0%. Construction’s share is clear of agriculture’s, retail’s and finance’s; it is level with the professional group and manufacturing.

What it costs to stock the shelves

The cost of supplies and inventories splits differently. In agriculture, forestry and fishing 25.1% of owners rated it critical, and it ranked 3rd. In finance, insurance and real estate, 7.3% did, and it ranked 45th. On average scores, finance’s rating is clear of all six other groups; on the share rating it critical, it is clear of five, all but the professional group at 13.6%.

What to take from this if you run a small one

National lists of owners’ top problems are mostly the shared core: health insurance, taxes, the economy. They are real, and they are the same for nearly everyone. The problems particular to your trade sit a few rungs lower, and they are the ones worth comparing notes on with owners in your own industry. When you set the year’s priorities, write down the three problems that would rank high in your trade and low in most others, and put at least one of them on the list next to the big shared ones.

Three limits worth holding. These are rankings, so they show which problems owners rate as worse than others, not how bad any one is in absolute terms. The respondents are NFIB members, not every small business, and NFIB publishes no margins of error; the separation test here is our own, applied to NFIB’s averages. And the industry groups are broad: a dentist and a law firm sit in the same professional group.

Published by The Lonely Entrepreneur — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. lonelyentrepreneur.com

This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.