Lending Tree recently surveyed small business owners, and the results by and large show that many don't believe there is going to be a return to normal anytime soon—if ever. This level of pessimism does consequently range from city to city, but overwhelmingly, the numbers do speak for themselves.
Small businesses were among the hardest hit during the crisis and continue to deal with pandemic fallout. By mid-April, it was estimated that just over thirty percent of US small businesses had ceased operations. And given the feedback received at the end of June, almost ten percent said that they doubted their businesses would recover.
The survey conducted from April to June looked at those businesses located in some of the country's biggest cities. The study found that at least 64% of owners say they need four months or more to recover. While 12% did say that the virus had little effect on their company.
Those cities where the most pessimism regarding the future can be seen, tend to be those where there is currently a resurgence in cases. Among them: Austin and San Jose for example. Whereas, places like Salt Lake City and Raleigh have the least amount of pessimism in terms of the future of small businesses. In Austin for instance, over sixty percent expect that it'll take more than four months for any sort of recovery to happen. And just over sixteen percent don't see a recovery happening at all for their business.
The original epicenter of the pandemic, New York, also bears a pretty pessimistic outlook. Over 65% did say that they expect at least four or more months of things not looking anything remotely like "normal." And consequently, only 7% of NYC businesses say that the events of the past few months had little effect on them. Even where pessimism isn't as rampant, most small business owners across the board are predicting that things will remain in this state of limbo until 2021.
Largely, more pessimistic attitudes can be seen in industries that were slammed the hardest in the first half of 2020. The restaurant industry for one…Over seventy percent say that it will be a long time before things revert to normal. And nearly twenty percent do not expect that once things do turn around that it'll look anything like what the normal of 2019 was.
Regardless of where business owners fell, they mostly did all agree that the key is to reopen safely; meaning, social distancing practices in place, extra sanitization efforts, masking and just in general, paying attention to those safety details that are there for the health and well being of customers and staff alike.
First Union Lending is here to help. We've been working with small business owners around the country during this difficult time. We want to see our clients make it through this and ultimately thrive. Call today to see how our loan programs can work for you!