Main Street Monday: B of A Says Small Business Small Business Saturday a Success but Profit Margins are Disappearing
by Bob Coleman
Founder & Publisher
Small business owners found some seasonal breathing room in November, but the underlying direction is starting to turn. Profits stayed positive, helped by holiday-driven activity like Small Business Saturday. Owners estimate that weekend alone represents roughly 20 percent of annual sales, which keeps late November a critical cash flow moment for Main Street.
The problem is what sits underneath that seasonal lift. Year over year profitability growth slipped below zero for the first time in 18 months. That matters. It means that even when sales are there, margins are not holding.
Pricing pressure is a big part of the story. The share of owners raising prices jumped 13 points to 34 percent, the largest single month increase ever recorded in the NFIB survey. Moves of that size do not happen casually. Costs that were once absorbed are now being pushed through. Tariffs, input inflation, and supplier pricing are landing directly on customers.
The impact is uneven. Wholesale trade posted some of the sharpest profitability declines, especially in durable goods like electronics and furniture. Those businesses tend to feel cost pressure first and pricing resistance fastest, particularly when consumer demand is inconsistent.
Labor data reinforces the same trend. Payments to firms that are hiring fell 4.6 percent year over year in November, according to Bank of America small business account data. Hiring is not collapsing, but it is clearly slowing. Lenders are already seeing that shift in their portfolios.
Despite the pressure, owners are not backing away. Short-term optimism ticked up, and when business owners look five years ahead, artificial intelligence dominates the conversation. The 2025 Bank of America Business Owner Report shows AI is no longer viewed as experimental. It is being treated as a core tool for efficiency, pricing control, and scale.
Seasonality is still providing support, but structural stress is building underneath. Margin compression, price sensitivity, and a softer labor market are becoming part of the baseline. At the same time, the most forward-looking borrowers are investing in technology to offset those pressures.
View Bank of America’s Small Business Checkpoint Survey here.
The Post-Shutdown SBA Loan Surge: Why Expedited Life Insurance Is Critical for Timely Loan Closings
Ben Koplan
CLU, CFP®, LifeEase
Executive Summary
The recent 43-day federal government shutdown created an unprecedented backlog in SBA loan processing, blocking approximately $5.3 billion in capital from reaching 10,000 small businesses nationwide. With the government reopening on November 12, 2025, lenders are now facing a surge of loan closings as borrowers rush to access desperately needed capital. However, many of these transactions risk significant delays due to a frequently overlooked requirement: life insurance collateral assignment.
This white paper examines why business borrowers delayed completing life insurance requirements
during the shutdown, the current backlog crisis facing lenders, and how partnering with a specialized
business life insurance brokerage can prevent life insurance from becoming the bottleneck in an
otherwise ready-to-close loan.
The Government Shutdown and Its Impact on SBA Lending
Scope of the Disruption
During the shutdown period from September 30 through November 12, 2025, the SBA was unable to process or approve any new loan applications. For fiscal year 2025, the SBA had been on pace for a ecord-breaking year, having guaranteed 84,400 loans totaling $45.1 billion prior to the shutdown. The
agency had been averaging 320 loans per business day worth $170 million.
The shutdown effectively froze this momentum, preventing thousands of businesses from accessing capital for critical needs including payroll, equipment purchases, expansion projects, and working capital. States like California saw 212 loans per week valued at $126.8 million blocked, while Texas experienced 128 weekly loans worth $89 million frozen.
The Emerging Backlog Crisis
Now that the government has reopened, the SBA faces a massive backlog of applications requiring rapid
processing. Lenders are under immense pressure to close loans quickly for borrowers who have been
waiting weeks or months for funding. According to industry observers, this backlog represents “huge”
challenges as the agency works to sort through accumulated applications while simultaneously
processing new submissions.
For business borrowers, these delays have translated into postponed hiring decisions, deferred equipment purchases, and in some cases, layoffs and operational cutbacks. The urgency to close these
loans has never been greater.
Why Borrowers Delayed Life Insurance During the Shutdown
The Wait-and-See Mentality
During the 43-day shutdown, many business borrowers adopted a wait-and-see approach to completing
loan requirements, including life insurance. With no certainty about when the government would reopen
or when their loans would be approved, borrowers were hesitant to incur insurance premiums for
policies they might not immediately need.
This caution was understandable given the unprecedented length of the shutdown and the uncertainty
surrounding its resolution. Business owners facing cash flow constraints were reluctant to commit to
monthly insurance premiums when loan funding timelines remained completely unknown…
Learn more about LifeEase here.
Construction Loan Closing Documentation and Draw Administration: Meeting the SOP Requirements with Perfection — Webinar 1/7
Closing a construction loan is one of the most complex—and high-stakes—transactions in SBA lending. Even minor documentation errors can delay funding, cause upstream and downstream disruptions, or result in costly post-closing corrections. This focused training equips SBA lenders, closing specialists, and construction managers with the tools and knowledge to execute flawless construction loan closings and draw administration that fully comply with the SBA’s SOP.
Join Coleman construction risk management expert Kyle Gustafson as he walks through the key documents, timelines, and risk factors lenders must manage to keep projects on track—and SBA guarantees protected.
Call for Nominations: Coleman’s 2026 SBA Lender Professional Awards
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