Small Business Challenges
Lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic posed a challenge to small business owners throughout the United States, who struggled to keep their businesses open while facing declining profits. The United States Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey of five hundred small business owners during Q2. Over one third of the surveyed owners applied for funding from the Paycheck Protection Program, primarily seeking assistance with employee salaries and utility costs; yet, one in five of these small business owners explained that they would have to permanently close within two months if lockdowns continued. The owners cited fewer customers as a primary concern, alongside fears of a potential second shutdown if the virus peaked once more in a second wave.
"You’ve got your parent hat, you’ve got your business-owner hat, you’ve got your advertising person hat, you’ve got your IT person hat. . .you’re wearing all these hats at once, and now you’re scared. Now you’re frustrated. Now you have all these emotions going on, as well as trying to juggle all these things at once. [Clients] come into my office, and they just sit here and cry for about twenty minutes and tell me that the business that they’ve spent all these years trying to do. . . it’s just gone, and how do you not feel for that person? Because I also feel that way."
click the arrows to move through the slides