Published
May 05, 2026
When Mityne Lewis opened Peas in a Pod Daycare in Chicago, disaster planning was the last thing on her mind. She was focused on the kids in her care, the families counting on her, and the community she serves. Then a disaster hit, and suddenly everything she'd built was at risk.
"I strongly recommend every small business prepare yourself so that you're ready for any possibility," Lewis said afterward. "Don't treat a disaster as something that might happen. Treat it like it could happen any day, because it can."
Lewis isn't an outlier. Nearly half of small business leaders say their company has already been negatively affected by a disaster or major disruption. Among those, 70% described the impact as bad, and most needed three months or longer to resume normal operations.
The confidence problem
New preliminary research commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Verizon surveyed small business owners and decision-makers nationwide. The findings reveal a pattern worth paying attention to: 94% of small business owners are confident they would completely recover from a disaster. Yet only 31% have a disaster plan, and just 20% have set aside a disaster budget.
That gap between confidence and preparation has real consequences. About a third of small businesses say they could only continue paying employees for weeks, not months, during a temporary closure. When 45.9% of the American workforce is employed by a small business, payroll disruptions don't stay contained. They ripple outward into families, neighborhoods, and local economies.
Perhaps the most striking finding: small business leaders estimate that disaster preparedness would cost about 30% of annual revenue, but the actual cost is closer to 5%. That misconception alone may be keeping thousands of businesses from taking a first step.
To help close this gap, the U.S. Chamber Foundation recently announced a new strategic partnership with Verizon at our 2026 Building Resilience conference. Verizon is serving as the premier sponsor of the Small Business Readiness for Resiliency (R4R) program, which has already supported nearly 5,000 businesses with disaster preparedness. The goal is straightforward: help America’s small businesses better prepare for and recover from disruptions and strengthen the communities that depend on them.
The other preparedness gap
Disasters aren't the only force that small businesses are underprepared for.
A new whitepaper titled 'AI in Action’ from our team at Hiring Our Heroes looked at AI adoption among small and mid-sized businesses in sectors like construction, manufacturing, and home services. Early adopters are seeing real results from practical applications: automating scheduling, streamlining back-office paperwork, predicting equipment maintenance issues before they cause downtime. These aren't moonshot use cases. They're the kind of fixes that give a busy entrepreneur back hours in the week.
But most small businesses haven't gotten there yet. Workforce readiness is the biggest barrier. Very few employees have received formal AI training, and cost uncertainty paired with a lack of trusted guidance makes the problem worse. For many owners, the obstacle isn't skepticism—it's not knowing where to start.
Alongside the U.S. Chamber and with support from Google.org, we launched Small Business B(AI)sics, a national initiative that delivers free, hands-on AI training through local chambers of commerce—no prior technical experience required. State and local chambers across more than 25 states are hosting in-person sessions in communities nationwide designed for the realities of Main Street, not Silicon Valley.
The connection between the two
The small business owner who takes time for a disaster plan or an AI training is doing something powerful: betting on their own future and giving their business every advantage possible. One is about protecting what you've built. The other is about building smarter. In both cases, the issue isn't a lack of awareness or motivation. It's a lack of accessible, practical support.
That's what drives our work at the U.S. Chamber Foundation. Not just celebrating small businesses during weeks like National Small Business Week, but making sure the resources exist to help them prepare for what's ahead, whether that's the next natural disaster or the next technological shift.
Jamal Gaines, a small business owner who kept his doors open after Hurricane Helene, put it simply: "Don't wait until something happens to get organized. Having a game plan, whether it's knowing how you'll reach your clients, protect your gear, or shift locations, can make all the difference."
That advice works for disaster preparedness. It works for AI. And the small businesses acting on it aren't just protecting themselves—they're helping their communities thrive.
Get small business tips and program news delivered to your inbox with our monthly newsletter, The Connector.
