During the past four years, many businesses have been like Dana Dunmyer’s—in a holding pattern.

Now Dunmyer, who froze hiring at his Ohio-based tech business since 2021, anticipates adding employees in 2025 after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

New business inquiries began streaming in right after Trump’s Nov. 5 election win, Dunmyer told The Epoch Times.

“Suddenly, the tunnel has been lit up; we see the end of it,” he said. “Before, we were just looking for ways to contain costs ... now, we’re very confident we will expand.”

Dunmyer’s tech firm, TQI Solutions, and two smaller businesses employ 97 workers and contractors.

A pair of recent surveys of businesspeople—including one that Dunmyer answered—reflect optimistic views similar to his own.

He is among more than 81 percent of small business owners who said they would consider hiring new staff if Trump won the election, according to the Freedom Economy Index. Dunmyer also was among 83 percent of that survey’s respondents who said they would plan to expand their business and invest more in it following a Trump election victory. Conversely, 87 percent reported they would have considered shuttering their doors if Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, had won.

That survey, conducted every two months, is a joint project of two conservative business-boosting groups, PublicSquare and RedBalloon.work.  The latest available report reflected the views of 613 respondents a couple of weeks before the Nov. 5 election.

A post-election survey conducted by Teneo, a global CEO advisory firm headquartered in New York City, produced similar results.

In its report, Teneo described what it called “The Trump Effect” this way: “Despite some concerns over trade and tariffs, the prospect of lower taxes and decreased regulation is leading to new optimistic highs.”

Teneo said it “took the pulse” of more than 300 global CEOs and 380 investors and found that almost 80 percent of CEOs predicted the economy would improve in the next six months—45 percentage points higher than in the previous year.

About 64 percent of the Teneo survey’s respondents foresee “a positive impact on their business” after Trump returns to the White House on Jan. 20.

Optimism Outweighs Concerns

On a cautionary note, “CEOs and investors are closely monitoring escalating geopolitical tensions, investor activism, and trade negotiations,” Teneo said. Still, more than 64 percent of respondents asserted that “potentially disruptive Trump administration policy shifts in tariffs, along with rollbacks in taxes and regulation, will have a positive impact on their businesses in 2025.”

Now poised to become the 47th president, Trump is expected to make good on campaign pledges, which included dropping the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent, cutting government spending to curb inflation, and imposing tariffs on many imported goods. Teneo’s survey said the latter seems to be causing concern among some businesses, but their optimism outweighs the concerns.

Dunmyer said he is in favor of tariffs to level the playing field for American businesses.

“The economy is being propped up so much by so many other countries,” said Dunmyer, who has clients in 110 nations. He has used contractors and outsourced some work to foreign countries because his customers are “pounding, pounding, pounding to get it cheaper, cheaper, cheaper.”

In some foreign countries, “they could be charging us 18 bucks an hour for the same thing that we get here for 50 and 60 bucks an hour,” he said.

Biggest Effects of Inflation, Crime, Taxes

Tariffs, however, didn’t top the list for businesses in the Freedom Economy Index, said Andrew Crapuchettes, CEO and founder of RedBalloon, which unites “no-woke” employers with like-minded employees.

Compiling the survey data during the past year consistently showed that small businesses—those with fewer than 500 employees—were hurting mostly from the combined effects of higher taxes, inflation, and crime—their top three concerns, Crapuchettes told The Epoch Times.

He said many now feel confident that Trump will alleviate those conditions; they had feared “being trapped in another four years” of the current administration’s policies.

“Crime is a big factor, particularly in larger metros where they’re dealing with shoplifting,” said Crapuchettes. He said that one business owner said crime was so prevalent that he felt like he should pay retail workers “combat pay to be at the job.”

Another said he was “not excited about selling a $20 sandwich to my customers because of inflation,” Crapuchettes said. But businesses were forced to pay more for labor, materials, and supplies—and, to stay afloat, they began to charge more to consumers as a result.

Against these headwinds, many business owners felt “tired of fighting” and had been leaning toward “throwing in the towel” if Harris had won the election, Crapuchettes said.

One surprise from the survey: Even though many people pushed for Harris to become the first woman president, women business owners “skewed harder against Harris” than men did, Crapuchettes said.

He said women were 7 percentage points more likely to consider reducing staff than their male counterparts; they were also 8 percent more likely to prepare for greater inflation under a potential Harris presidency and 5 percent more likely to consider closing their businesses.

Dunmyer said that since 2021, when Harris took office as vice president along with President Joe Biden, inflation has increased, and government regulations have been added; both have had an impact.

Business ‘Nosedived,’ One Owner Says

Dunmyer said many of his clients put new projects on hold, adding that some became so cautious about cutting costs that they were almost in “conserve-pencils-and-toilet-paper” mode.

Similar concerns exist in the landscaping industry, according to Joe Merenda Jr., a business-owner in Webster, New York, near Rochester. He told the Epoch Times that landscaping is a service that many people view as a luxury; they will cut his services if money is tight.

“I’ve had a few customers tell me they couldn’t afford services anymore,” opting to do their own lawn-maintenance work, to hire “the neighborhood kid,” or just largely neglect their lawns, he said.

Conditions for his business seemed to have worsened more as time passed, Merenda said. He curtailed his service area, saving on fuel—which is more expensive now than during Trump’s first term in office. And, after largely absorbing increased expenses for a time, “trying to be the nice guy,” Merenda reluctantly hiked the prices he charged customers.

In his line of work, it’s common to see a slowdown in August, when many people are taking vacations and making back-to-school preparations for their children. Business usually picks up again in September.

“But this year, it nosedived,” Merenda said. “It was so bad, I actually had to check my advertising to see if it was still up.” He then paid for more advertising, which did draw “a little bit” more business, “but it was still quite challenging,” Merenda said.

Hope on the Horizon

Like Dunmyer, Merenda anticipates adding staff if demand for his services goes up. He expects that will happen, considering the positive mood he has noticed around him. “People are kicking their heels together right now, like, ‘Wow, this is good,’” he said.

In anticipation of Trump’s second term, Dunmyer has seen attitudes shift dramatically among fellow businesspeople.

He met with 12 colleagues on Dec. 19, and “the consensus was that we have all witnessed positivity, openness to doing new business, renewed business, and new ideation around investing in the future,” Dunmyer said.

People are “no longer fearing when the next shoe will drop and how big government can find a new way to crush us,” he said.

Many commented that “the grass is greener, trees are taller, skies are bluer,” Dunmyer said, adding he sensed “mostly relief and hope for better days ahead.”