There are somewhere around 36 million small businesses — referring to those with fewer than 500 employees — in this economy. And right now, the vast majority of them don’t plan on growing much anytime soon.Just 7% of small business owners said the current moment is a good time to expand, according to survey data published on Tuesday by the National Federation of Independent Business. That’s the lowest level since October 2024.John Ibes owns a landscaping and design firm in Minneapolis. On Tuesday morning, he was on his way to build a new set of doors for a custom-designed shed.“The old ones weren’t right,” Ibes said. “So I’m gonna be out there cutting steel and getting ready to build the doors.”Ibes does a lot of that manual work himself — because he likes to, but also because he has just five employees. He’s heard from a number of job seekers in the last two months.“They’ve worked for years in their own companies, or I think a couple of them actually got laid off recently,” he said.But Ibes said many of them don’t have the skills he needs. That’s a challenge for small business owners nationwide, said Celeste Carruthers, a labor economist at the University of Tennessee.“Currently, there’s about as many job seekers as there are job openings,” she said. “(But) the candidate might just not have the right mix of skills.”So business owners may be wary of taking a chance on new hires, Carruthers said.“Even in the best of times, the prospect of expansion for a small business is gonna be a pretty risky one,” she said.And it’s far from the best of times for small businesses. Holly Wade, executive director at the National Federation of Independent Business research center, said Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index report for April can show why.“So those inflation pressures are becoming more difficult and challenging for small business owners,” she said.Inflation is the biggest challenge for 16% of respondents to NFIB’s survey, the highest share in over a year.Beth Wood, owner of 21 Bar and Grill in Keene, New Hampshire, said one of her highest costs is tomatoes.“As crazy as that seems — a case of tomatoes is over $100,” she said.That’s up from $65 a few months ago. Fortunately, Wood’s new spring menu leans more toward pesto, with less red sauce.