Part of our mission at FAI is to frame policy and regulatory issues by synthesizing evidence from existing research and generating new evidence where it's lacking.
Tim Ogden, FAI Managing Director and Project Director for the Small Firm Diaries, spoke last week at Mastercard’s 2026 Global Inclusive Growth Forum. Invited to share insights into how small firms are weathering challenging and volatile times, he drew on global Small Firm Diaries findings and preliminary data from the study in the US to highlight both aspirations and pain points.
This video was recorded live on April 15, 2026.
Over the past few weeks, the Small Firm Diaries research team has been visiting US cities to share what we're seeing in the data so far—stopping in St. Louis, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, and New York, with Oakland still ahead on May 26. These conversations have been useful in both directions: hearing where our findings on growth, credit use, and jobs resonate with local audiences, and hearing the questions and pushback that have helped us sharpen our thinking.
A caveat worth stating upfront: we're roughly halfway through the research, with data still being gathered, cleaned, and analyzed. Specific numbers may change. With that in mind, here's some of what we've been discussing.
Read MoreOn November 19, 2025, FAI hosted a faiVLive webinar to introduce the Small Firm Diaries USA study. We shared early observations, and talked with expert panelists about how recent policy and program changes are affecting small businesses and organizations that support them. In this blog we’ve adapted and edited a few of the most interesting discussion points from our conversation. You can still watch the full webinar, here.
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