San Diego, California – April 29, 2026 – Four in five small business owners say their marketing is, at best, “somewhat” effective — and according to a new report from Enji, the 20% who feel theirs is actually working share three things in common.
The State of Small Business 2025 surveyed 245 small business owners across 40 U.S. states and 13 industries to understand how marketing actually works for the people running it themselves. The findings reveal a clear pattern: most small business owners are juggling marketing solo, in limited time, without a written plan — and the results show.
Headline findings:
• 81% of small business owners experienced burnout in 2025 — at every revenue level
• Only 20% rate their marketing as “very” or “extremely” effective
• Owners with a documented marketing plan are 3x more likely to follow through on tasks — and 3x more likely to call their marketing effective
• Owners spending 6–10 hours per week on marketing are nearly 6x more likely to call it effective than those spending 1–5
• Owners who consistently completed marketing tasks were 58% less likely to report full burnout
“What surprised us most was how clearly the data shows that consistency matters — and how big the discrepancy is between knowing it matters and actually being consistent,” said Tayler Cusick Hollman, Co-Founder and CMO of Enji and lead researcher on the report. “The owners whose marketing was actually working had a plan and kept intentionally showing up.”
“Small business owners aren’t failing at marketing because they don’t work hard enough,” said Brett Hollman, CEO of Enji. “They’re failing because their tools treat marketing like a to-do list — when it’s actually strategy, content, publishing, and measurement combined. That’s the gap this data exposes.”
The report also finds that small business owners using Enji are 1.7x more likely to rate their marketing as “very” or “extremely” effective than those using other tools.
Read the full report. Statistics are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 for citation by journalists, researchers, and bloggers.
Methodology
Survey data was collected in September 2025 from 245 small business owners across 40 U.S. states and 13 industries. Respondents were recruited via Enji’s social media channels, Enji’s email list, and Enji users who shared the survey on their own networks. Participation was voluntary and uncompensated. The sample includes both Enji users and non-users.
About Enji
Enji is the marketing project management platform built for small business owners who do their own marketing. By bringing strategy generation, task management, campaign management, AI-powered content creation, social media scheduling, and performance analytics into one connected system, Enji helps solopreneurs and small business owners turn marketing from a fragmented to-do list into a workflow that actually drives results.
Media Contact
Company Name: Enji
Contact Person: Tayler Cusick Hollman
Email: Send Email
Phone: 760-209-5360
Country: United States
Website: https://www.enji.co