Three in four small business owners in Wales take their business worries home with them at the end of the working day, a study suggests.
New research from Novuna Business Finance reveals that 74% of Welsh small business owners say worries about everyday business issues keep them awake at night, as concerns over the impact of economic volatility and geo-political uncertainty reach a high (45%).
Beyond concerns over unprecedented market uncertainty, Welsh small business owners said they worried at night about the prospect of further tax and interest rate hikes (34%) – a worry that has been more prevalent among small business owners since the National Insurance hike for businesses that took effect last April.
These worries come at a time when, last month, Novuna Business Finance data revealed that around one in four Welsh-based small businesses (23%) predicted growth for the first three months of 2026. But growing a business in a challenging climate can be stressful for business owners, as this month 28% of Welsh small business owners said they had broken sleep at night, worrying about retaining existing business. Managing cashflow (37%) was also a worry, as were business rates (16%). One in five also said they had been kept awake at night worrying about the effects of unpredictable or extreme weather on their business locally (20%).
At a time when the UK Government is considering an EU reset, forging closer ties with Brussels, the research also indicates that around one in seven small business owners in Wales still feel the impact of Brexit on their business, with 16% saying worries over legacy impact of Brexit to their business still keeps them awake at night.
The findings are part of the Business Barometer study from Novuna Business Finance. With small business owners grappling with challenges on a daily basis, Novuna Business Finance asked 1,000 business owners which worries kept them awake at night as a measure of the business concerns that were taken most seriously, issues that business owners could not switch-off from.
The research dismisses assumptions that it is businesses in trouble that worry the most. In fact, the opposite is true; small businesses that are growing are most likely to report stresses and strains. Small business owners predicting significant expansion in the first quarter of 2026 were most likely to say business worries kept them awake at night (85%, up from 75% two years ago).
Joanna Morris, Head of Insight at Novuna Business Finance, said:
“Our latest data suggests that working hard on growth plans comes at a human cost for many Welsh small business owners, many of whom take their business worries home with them and struggle to switch-off. When business owners are kept awake at night working through enterprise issues, we gain a sense of the intensity of some of these concerns for entrepreneurs. Further, our research suggests that sleepless nights are not just confined to businesses that are struggling to grow. Managing fast-paced or significant growth can also be stressful for established businesses. Among those enterprises surveyed that predicted significant expansion this quarter, there was a significant rise in the percentage of business owners that said business worries kept them awake at night.”
