Optimism for small businesses has risen by 2.2 points month-over-month for July, according to the National Federation of Independent Business's (NFIB) small business optimism index. The reading may be at its highest point since February of 2022, but it is still below the 50-year average of 98.

NFIB Research Center Executive Director Holly Wade joins Wealth! to give insight into the rise of optimism and what it means for small businesses nationwide.

"So this last month, there was a higher number of those [small business owners] that said that they expect sales to increase. They're working or competing with their neighboring businesses, so they're having to kind of adjust those prices accordingly to keep their customers," Wade says. "We all know that consumers and also businesses are having a bit of price fatigue... So easing off those pressures have relieved a lot of stress among small business owners, and they're expecting sales to even improve over the next three months."

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This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino