What 2026 taught small business & how to take the lessons into 2027.

Running a business during 2026 has been, and continues to be, a challenge and a rollercoaster, but there are some lessons and trends that we can take into the next year that can have a transformative effect for small businesses.

I don't think I need to over explain the challenges that business has faced in 2026, because it's felt by founders and owners everywhere. In many ways, it's been a year that has simply rolled on from the previous two or three. Let's just name some top line challenges:

• Unpredictable pricing - fuel, energy, supply chain, rent, rates etc etc.

• Overstretched customers - less money to spend, more cautious, overwhelmed & indecisive

• Digital transformation - fear & hope for AI world, rapid speed of change, challenges of keeping up, unclear strategy for adopting.

• Bad news - living in a constant loop of negativity and lack of hope with a sense that all is doomed

• Climate change - this year has forced us to face a new future where the weather & its consequences has a tangible effect on business

• Bitty support - where to get help and how is still unclear, patchy and excludes swathes of businesses that aren't in the right sector, growth phase or size.

Any of those sounds familiar?

As in all of life, however, & in the face of challenge, we often find opportunity. In fact as entrepreneurs, that's our thing right? What lessons can we learn to take into 2027 and how does that affect a strategy to stay resilient and agile in the face of rapid change?

Here are some of the stand out opportunities I see as providing the hope, support & the creative petri dish that we all need to build businesses in this future world.

1. Community - data shows us that businesses and their leaders/owners/founders who take time to hang out together & share do better. Peer to peer support regularly produces positive figures around better profit margins, better resilience, better leader wellbeing & better innovation. Maybe 2027 is the collaboration era that we all need. Better not to wait for help from on high, but deliver change from the ground up.

2. Collaboration - we're all newbies to this new world, we're all learning 'on the job' so open source help, building collective offers and value or developing working groups and support, holds the key to unlocking better, trusted learning, better strategies & louder voices to advocate for what businesses needs to thrive.

3. Communication - in a noisy world, we're surprisingly bad at comms. Externally this looks like marketing the stuff we do over the difference we make. Internally it looks like transactional workforces & muddy leadership. Like never before, businesses have an opportunity to say what they really want to with purpose & clarity. Why this business in meaningful, why being part of this business is transformative. Why this business is making this community better.

4. Innovation - from adversity comes change and change is here to stay. 2027 is the year we can get ahead to innovate rather than just keeping up. What if the business model changed? What if the working week was 4 days. What if leadership got radically self reflective and transformative?

5. Championship - a radical seeking out of what goes well is essential for the wellbeing of all business. And a lot does go well. This could be an internal audit of what goes well in a business to a collective stepping up to a soapbox to shine a light on the innovative, the positive, the supportive, the success.

6. Underpinning - the foundations of crystal clear vision, mission & purpose in each and every business is now an essential not a nice to have. Business has the opportunity to be the change we seek, who 'do good' in our communities & for our planet. Trading only on money making won't cut it for much longer.

7. Sustainability - in its fullest form, underlined by UNSDGs, supported by everyone & delivering transformative change. Adopting integrated sustainable strategies is a fundamental function of business & delivers the right mix of economy, community, equality, growth, biodiversity & stability that we all want.

   
   

About the Author

Emily Whitehead is a business owner of nearly 25 years and has been running her own coaching consultancy for nearly 20. MBA writer and teacher, founder of Simply Club, exec coach and trainer with multiple business schools and national business support programmes, Emily has a wealth of real life and theoretical experience to share with business founders, owners and leaders. You can meet Emily over on LinkedIn too.