A new Hometap survey of 1,000 U.S. small business owners released May 6, 2026, found that 78 percent are concerned about the current economic environment, yet 68 percent still expect their business to grow over the next year. The Boston-based fintech, which surveyed owners via AYTM in April, paired sentiment data with a hard look at how owners are actually funding operations day to day.
The headline takeaway is that personal capital, not formal lending, is the engine on Main Street. Personal savings is the most common funding source, cited by 67 percent of respondents, followed by credit cards at 38 percent and bank loans at 22 percent. Government programs and home equity trail far behind.
What The Survey Actually Found
Hometap’s funding source ranking puts a finer point on a long-running pattern. Bank loans land in third at 22 percent, SBA loans show up for only 11 percent of owners, and home equity loans round out the bottom at 7 percent. The gap between personal capital and formal lending is striking, especially given how much policy energy has gone into expanding SBA access over the past two years.
The report also breaks down the tariff impact by generation. Fifty-five percent of millennial owners say tariffs have caused them to scale back investments, compared with 48 percent of Gen X owners and just 34 percent of Baby Boomer owners. Younger operators are getting hit hardest, likely because they run tighter inventory cycles and have less retained earnings to absorb a sudden spike in duties.
Why The Funding Mix Matters For Self-Employed Owners
The headline is not just that owners are optimistic; it is what they are optimistic about. Most solo owners are funding operations from their own savings and credit cards, which carries real downside risk if a tariff shock, a slow quarter, or a healthcare bill lands at the wrong time. Personal capital is also expensive when measured against the productive uses to which it could be deployed elsewhere.
For freelancers and microbusiness owners moving from side hustle to full-time, the data is a warning sign. Leaning on personal credit cards at a 38 percent prevalence is a short-term solution that quietly compounds against the owner’s long-term wealth. The owners who do reach for SBA financing are still in single digits, even though the program is designed for exactly this segment.
What Self-Employed Owners Should Do Next
Solo owners should map their current funding stack and stress test it against a 90-day revenue dip. If personal savings or credit card balances are doing the load-bearing work, the next step is to open a dedicated business line of credit or explore SBA microloan options for working capital, not capex.
Owners who already track cash flow trend data from OnDeck and Ocrolus can pair that visibility with the Hometap funding mix question to size their actual exposure. The two together produce a sharper read than either alone, and that combined read is what lenders will want to see when an owner does decide to formalize their stack.
What To Watch Next
Hometap has signaled that the funding mix and tariff impact will remain part of its survey cadence through 2026, with quarterly pulses in addition to the annual benchmark. If the personal capital share holds at 67 percent through the back half of the year, the data point will become a clear talking point for SBA and state-level capital access programs that want to argue for expansion.
Self-employed owners should also monitor Hometap’s product roadmap, which focuses on home equity investments rather than loans. Whether home equity holds at 7 percent or climbs as rates settle will reveal how willing owners are to tap an asset they typically leave alone, and that signal will shape the lending product mix that becomes available to the segment in 2027.
Photo by Christin Hume: Unsplash
