Well, unfortunately, a lot of small businesses were simply destroyed by the pandemic and/or the ensuing response to it. Many businesses operate on pretty thin margins and don’t have months’ worth of emergency funds sitting around to keep the lights on, a lot of businesses have been able to scrape by and make it through though.
The government took steps, which were far inferior to just being open per usual, but in an attempt to keep businesses afloat they sent out billions of dollars in small business loans which were otherwise known as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). This loan was created and implemented specifically to help businesses keep their full workforces employed through the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses burned through these funds quickly and it was discovered that many of the businesses that claimed the money did so fraudulently and with no intention of using it for the purpose which with it was meant. All around, as a small business owner, it’s important that you be ready for anything, even something as unlike as a global pandemic.
At this point most things have opened back up at least to some degree but the damage has been done and certain sectors of small business in America will never recover from the immediate change in culture. The good news coming out of all of this is that those businesses that do still remain open are almost all adapting new ways to make business work for them during such strange and unfamiliar times. New industries and service opportunities are making themselves available constantly, you just have to know where to look. The most recent problem, ironically enough, is that businesses just aren’t able to hire enough employees back to work anymore. Government unemployment benefits are too generous for most of the unemployed to really want to go back to work until they have to, so they aren’t.
The impact of the Small Business
One thing people often don’t understand is that small businesses may not on their own employ a ton of people but together small businesses comprise half of the jobs in the country. In underprivileged communities small businesses can make up almost all of the jobs in the area, where big business just won’t be willing to go.
Small businesses shutting their doors is not only going to hurt the business themselves but it trickles down across the whole community when those now ex-employees have no money to spend, and that just moves across the community.
Protecting your Small Business Long-Term
Of course nobody is immune to economic hardship but the best thing you can do to avoid it is keep your business plan adaptable, look for new ways to bring in money and cut costs on your end. If the pandemic has shown business owners one thing it’s that we need to always be ready for anything, even the craziest stuff. The government will NOT always be there to give you a handout so you do need to do your best to build up those emergency savings and get plans in place to keep the doors open long-term!
Adaptability is important, those that were able to think on their feet and come up with fresh new engaging ideas at the beginning of the pandemic have done great for themselves, consumer spending actually went up slightly over the course of this all believe it or not so their was money to be had out there. The unfortunate thing is that most of it seems to have ended up in the hands of big business and not the small businesses that really need it.
Garner North Carolina Small Businesses
You can always come here to the Garner Citizen for all of the most recent news about businesses and happenings in the Garner area.
