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The 2026 audience survey results

What 104 online business owners told us about running a business right now

From inconsistent sales and never-ending to-do lists to AI, automation and the numbers people wish they understood. Here is what is really happening behind the scenes.

104 responsesCollected in 2026Multiple-choice + coded written answers

The big picture

Most people have offers. The harder bit is selling them consistently.

Creating the product is rarely the end of the story. More than half of respondents already had one or more offers, but said their sales still felt inconsistent.

56%

had offers but inconsistent sales

19%

were just starting out with no offer yet

felt very confident they understood what was happening in their business

What people were struggling with most

Written answers were coded into overlapping themes, so totals can exceed 100%.

Time, capacity, overwhelm or getting things finished46.6%

Sales, income or conversions32.0%

Visibility, traffic, leads or list growth22.3%

Technology, systems or automation19.4%

Clarity, prioritisation or strategy17.5%

The biggest problem wasn’t a shortage of ideas. It was having the time, capacity and clarity to get the right things finished.

Goals

What business owners want next

List growth came out on top, but many people were also looking for ways to simplify their business and make it run more smoothly.

Grow a list, audience, leads or visibility47.6%

Automate, systemise or simplify35.9%

Create, finish or launch offers and content25.2%

Increase sales, revenue or profit20.4%

AI in business

AI is already mainstream, but it is used more for thinking than doing

Strategic brainstorming and content creation were far ahead of analysis and automation. Vibe coding, however, was already being used by almost one in four respondents.

How people currently use AI

Respondents could choose more than one answer.

Brainstorming and strategic planning76.7%

Creating content59.2%

Analysis and reporting39.8%

Automating tasks35.0%

Vibe coding new tools22.3%

Which AI tool do people use?

Based on the 89 people who answered this question.

56.2% Both Claude and ChatGPT

23.6% ChatGPT

11.2% Another tool

9.0% Claude

65.2% used Claude either alone or alongside ChatGPT, while 79.8% used ChatGPT alone or alongside Claude. Many business owners are choosing tools by task instead of committing to just one.

Buying preferences

The types of business offers people want to buy right now

Practical resources that do part of the work came out ahead of traditional coaching. People want help turning an idea into an action plan, moving their data and completing a task.

1Ready-made Claude or ChatGPT skills55.3%

2Interactive tools that create an action plan51.5%

3Tools that sync and analyse data automatically44.7%

4Toolkits with templates and tools to get the work done42.7%

5Training on using Claude Cowork to automate tasks37.9%

6Self-directed courses31.1%

5.8%

selected group coaching

3.9%

selected one-to-one coaching

The shift is clear: people still want to learn, but they increasingly want offers that also help them implement, analyse or produce the finished result.

Automation wish list

What people most want to take off their plates

Content and email were the two biggest groups of repetitive tasks people wanted to streamline.

Content, blogging, social media, Pinterest or video25.2%

Email, newsletters, sequences or inbox management20.4%

Client or member onboarding, follow-up and admin15.5%

Data collection, research or analytics5.8%

18%

couldn’t yet identify a repetitive task they wanted to automate

The opportunity hiding in that number

People can know they are short on time without knowing which task is the real bottleneck. Automation support may need to begin with spotting the right process, before introducing the tool that fixes it.

The business data gap

Business owners want better data. Very few have a system that gives it to them.

This wasn’t simply about checking page views or email opens. We asked whether people understood commercially useful numbers such as customer lifetime value, where their highest-value leads came from, average order value and which activity was actually driving revenue.

5.8%

track everything and make mostly data-driven decisions

57.3%

weren’t confident about their business numbers or said they were winging it

34.0%

couldn’t identify which number they should track

Why more data isn’t being tracked

Don’t know where or how to find it48.5%

Don’t have time or forget44.7%

Track it but don’t know how to use it17.5%

Do people know their highest-value lead source?

Want to track it but don’t know how45.6%

Have a rough idea31.1%

Know it exactly10.7%

This is the gap I’m building Money Metrics Data Engine to fill

Launching in Q3 2026, it is designed to bring the useful numbers together automatically, including lead-source value, customer lifetime value, offer and funnel performance, and the journey from subscriber to customer.

Bookkeeping

Spreadsheets still dominate small-business bookkeeping

60.2%

manually track their bookkeeping in spreadsheets

23.3%

use software such as Xero or QuickBooks

4.9%

have automated spreadsheet tracking

Twelve times as many respondents used manual spreadsheets as automated ones

Manual spreadsheets60.2%

Automated spreadsheets4.9%

14.6% also admitted they put bookkeeping off until the last possible minute and then spent weeks lost in their figures.

One rule once, rather than the same job every month

Money Metrics Data Engine will also address this by automatically categorising income and expenses. Once a rule is created, matching future transactions are assigned automatically and pulled into a profit and loss dashboard.

Email and content

Having analytics is not the same as using them

89.1%

lack a reliable automated email-analysis system

Among the 46 respondents shown this question, most relied on manual checks, didn’t dig into the data or meant to track it but lacked a dependable system.

76.2%

aren’t consistently tracking content results

Among 42 respondents, most weren’t tracking which content brought visitors and leads, found Google’s tools overwhelming or forgot to check them.

Access

Pull the relevant numbers together without hunting across platforms.

Meaning

Understand what the numbers say about the business, not just whether they went up or down.

Action

Know what to repeat, change, stop or repurpose next.

Tools

Which platforms are people using?

These figures describe this audience, not market share across the whole online-business industry. Respondents could choose more than one tool.

40.8%WordPress.org

34.0%ThriveCart

24.3%Kit

22.3%MailerLite

17.5%ConvertBox

17.5%Thrive Academy or Learn

Airtable

Interest is high, but the learning curve is real

32.0%

currently use Airtable

14.6%

tried it but struggled to get their head around it

35.9%

haven’t used it but are curious or would use it for the right tool

A simpler route into Airtable is on the way

I’m developing an Airtable course for people who can see the potential but need help getting past the blank-base stage and building systems they will actually use.