NFIB Research Center Executive Director Holly Wade joined Bloomberg's "The Close" for an exclusive interview to discuss the results of NFIB’s latest Problems and Priorities survey. Using data from the report, Wade analyzed how uncertainty over future economic conditions continues to impact small business owners in how they operate their businesses and prepare for the months ahead.

“One in four small business owners in our monthly survey are saying that [inflation] is their single most important problem in operating their business. Thankfully, fewer are feeling the pressure to increase their prices, or have increased their prices in the last three months. So, we’re seeing a bit of easing in that department,” Wade said.

“There are many areas of the [current] economic conditions that are unclear for [small business owners]. One is government regulations and taxes, and what that will look like for them in the next year or two…[There is] a lot of talk about whether we’re heading into a recession, whether it’s soft landing or a hard landing, and all of this is of a lot of concern and entails a lot of stress on small business owners in how they operate their business going forward.”

“The last four years have been difficult for a lot of small business owners, whether it’s on the federal level or in their states, dealing with and trying to figure out the regulatory complexities that they might have to comply with. And then on the tax front, a lot of those Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions that were particularly beneficial for small business owners are going to expire in about a year and a half. So that potential tax increase is of concern to small business owners in how they’re going to absorb those costs going forward. They’ve had to absorb a lot of costs over the last few years as far as inflation – whether it’s their supplies or inventory – in operating their business, and this could potentially be another hit for increasing costs…but Congress can do something about that and help them out.”