New Small Business Report Has Silver Lining

By: Multi-Unit Franchisee
Published: March 16th, 2021

A new State of Small Business Report has been released by Alignable and though it offers some bleak findings, there is some good news too. The report finds small business optimism has emerged around several of President Biden’s PPP changes, and the new May timeline for widespread vaccine distribution. This shift in vaccine availability should help 28% more small businesses to recover in 2021, according to the Alignable poll taken during the first week of March.

However, Alignable’s report reveals that 78% of all small businesses are still experiencing negative financial effects (up 10% from last month). And 58% report feeling significant impact (up 12% from Feb.). 

Here are some further findings on small businesses from the report:

• Revenue hits a new Covid-era low: 58% are collecting less than half of their pre-Covid sales.
• Cash flow Is worse than ever: 41% say they have one month or less of cash on hand (up 9% from Feb.).
• Statistics are even worse for 56% of minorities and 51% of women business owners, who have only four weeks until they deplete their reserves.
• Rent woes hit a new 2020-2021 high: 49% of small business owners say they can’t pay their March rent, up 11% from Feb. and 16% from Jan. And 67% of minority-owned and 53% of women-owned businesses couldn’t afford this month’s rent.

You can view the full report here.

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