Small Business Checkpoint
November 2022
Key takeaways
- Small businesses are facing rising operational costs including from rent payments which have surged. In October, the average rent payment per client was up 16% year-over-year (YoY), over 20% higher than in January 2019. This, together with other inflation pressures, has led to a profit squeeze, with small business account inflow-to-outflow ratio slowing since early 2022.
- To tackle these inflationary pressures, small businesses have increased borrowing. Business credit cards have been a popular choice of funding, with elevated spending per client growth at 16% YoY in October. This stands in contrast to debit card spending per client, which has slowed meaningfully over the past few months.
- But some relief can be found in moderating wage inflation, particularly in the restaurant industry. Restaurants’ payroll payments grew at a similar pace to overall payroll payments in October, after leading by nearly 10 percentage points on a YoY basis earlier in the year.
Read our full analysis for a more in-depth look at these trends.
