The Effect of the Pandemic on Small Businesses

Hello, welcome to Beanstalk! For our first blog post, we will examine how the outbreak of COVID-19 and the pandemic has affected small businesses in the past two years. To begin with, over 40% of small businesses announced that they were at least temporarily closed due to COVID in the months following march, 2020. Of these businesses, 2% closed permanently by July 2020. This means that the COVID-19 Pandemic resulted in the closure of at least 60,000 small businesses across the country, from Alaska to Florida. As of May 2021, 34% of small businesses were still closed, proving the long-lasting and harmful impacts of the pandemic on a huge number of entrepreneurs. Even now, with the USA pulling back almost all COVID-19 restrictions and limitations on travel and consumption, many small businesses still face issues with reopening physical locations.

The devastating blow of the COVID pandemic was not just felt by store owners, though. Most businesses had to cut down on their number of employees, having far-reaching effects on communities across the nation. On average, small businesses had to reduce employment by 39%, reaching almost 50% in the Mid-Atlantic region. The starkest declines were in the retail, arts and entertainment, personal services, food services, and hospitality businesses. This demonstrates how, even though most small businesses were able to remain open through a combination of remote service as well as partial-reopenings, their employees suffered due to minimal in-person service demand.

Unsurprisingly, the mental well-being of business owners suffered in the last two years. As author Janice Litvin has stated, “unreasonable workloads and deadlines eventually cause burnout.” 42% of small business owners have reported recently experiencing burnout. This is a combination of mental exhaustion and pure fatigue, as most businesses have had a difficult time moving to a post-pandemic workplace. Around 50% of small business owners have not taken a vacation in the past year, further compounding their exhaustion. One third of business owners have not gotten enough sleep in the last two years as well.

However, people are optimistic as well. More than half of business owners belief their mental health will improve by the end of 2022, while more than 60% believe their business will increase revenue this year. Hopefully, with the help of not-for-profits like Beanstalk, we can all work together to ensure that small businesses come out of this year unscathed and more prosperous than ever!

Citations:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/america-united-states-covid-small-businesses-economics/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsegal/2022/01/12/covid-related-burnout-is-having-a-big-impact-on-small-business-owners-survey/?sh=4aaaa2fe70c8