Insights from Small Businesses on the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Dr. Tendai Ndoro
CEO – SLIPPA (Strategy Leadership Institute in Private & Public
Affairs)
@ June 2020
This study
was conducted by Dr. Tendai d. ndoro as Regional Director of the NJ Small
Business Development Center at Rutgers-Newark, Rutgers Business School. The small
business research was to guarge the sentiments as well as determine the needs
and concerns of Essex County small businesses given the economic injury that
has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 650 anonymous small
businesses in Essex county were targeted and 10% of the businesses responded.
The survey was conducted for 5
weeks from May 15 to end of June 2020. The number of years in business varied
with mostly established and mature businesses providing feedback in the
survey. Profile of businesses that responded
to the survey were from startup to established small businesses.
Survey Result Insights of Small Businesses:
Businesses were asked specific questions
to guarge their emotional sentiments they were experiencing; access to capital;
needs and concerns about COVID-19 pandemic. The results were as follows:
Business Current Sentiments
About COVID-19:
Surprisingly, businesses expressed
very positive sentiments. Important key sentiments were as follows:
1.
Positive sentiments toward Continuation
of Business Operations: The business responded were determined to keep
their businesses open. 95% of businesses sought to continue with their business
operations. 4.69% said maybe and none of the respondent were at the time
thinking of closing their businesses.
2.
Positive Sentiments toward Resilience
by adapting to the pandemic: Despite the severity of the pandemic with the
ensuing shut down, businesses owners were positively optimistic and were
determined to be resilient. Most businesses were seeking to pivot to adapt to
the new environment despite the pandemic challenges.
Businesses
were asked: What are you experiencing currently as a result of the pandemic
challenges? (Check all that apply), Most of the business owners expressed a positive
resilience sentiment consistent with the attitude that they were looking to continue
operations despite the disruption created by COVID-19. Most of their responses were
surprisingly showed resilience factors despite the severe economic injury they
are suffering due to the pandemic as indicated below:
# Field Percentage
1 Economic loss 15.25%
2 Food insecurity 1.36%
3 Housing insecurity 2.71%
4 Traumatized 2.03%
5 Anger 2.37%
6 Anxiety/Panic
5.08%
7 Confused & Helpless 3.73%
8 Sadness 4.41%
9 Overwhelmed 7.80%
10 Adjusting 11.53%
11 Coping
9.49%
12 Cautiously
Optimistic 9.49%
13 Pivoting 4.75%
14 Recovering 8.14%
15 Resilience 10.51%
16 Other 1.36%
3.
Negative sentiments toward anticipated
high cost of doing business: Due to the situation being a
public health crisis, businesses were anticipating high cost of doing business
which would have a significant impact on recovery and sustainability.
Access to Capital:
The most
salient needs businesses had was access to capital although 25% of the
respondents indicated that they opted to use their funds to keep the business
going during the initial shutdown. In addition, businesses were looking for ways
to diversify their revenue earnings as well and mitigate business liquidity by
finding ways to manage cash reserves. Responses to the concerns predominantly
focused on ability for business recovery and sustainability; the length of
economic recovery and length of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Business Consulting
Needs:
Businesses were asked: Which of
these CARE Act consulting services do you need most assistance with? (Check all
that apply) the results indicated that the top 4 technical assistance needs
were: (a) sales and revenue diversification assistance; (b) Digital marketing
& general marketing assistance; (c) budgeting/Accounting/Cashflow
management assistance; (d) other assistance which predominantly mention the
needs for sourcing and affording PPEs (personal protection equipment)
# Field
Percentage
1 Cybersecurity systems 3.33%
2 IT/Cloud Computing
4.67%
3 Intellectual Property protection 4.67%
4 Supply Chain management 2.67%
5 Sourcing PPEs 3.33%
6 PPE needs assessment 4.67%
7 E-Commerce 4.00%
8 Sales & Revenue
diversification 11.33%
9 Digital
Marketing/General Marketing 10.00%
10 Business model pivoting 8.00%
11 Human Resources management 5.33%
12 Establishing Telework/remote
working systems 4.67%
13 HR Performance/production
measurements 2.67%
14 Risk mitigation 4.00%
15 Credit Counseling 6.00%
16
Budgeting/Accounting/Cashflow Mgt. 10.00%
17 OTHER: What other
assistance should we be offering that would help with your business RECOVERY? 10.67%
Business Concerns
about COVID-19
Businesses were asked: What other
concerns do you have about Your Business and the Economy right now? (check all
that apply) most of the small businesses indicated that the top 4 conferences
they had are (a) business recovery and sustainability; (b) Length of economic
recovery; (c) Length of COVID-19 pandemic; (d) maintaining payroll
Field Percentage
1 Business recovery
and sustainability 17.51%
2 Maintaining payroll
11.28%
3 Employee retention 3.50%
4 Consumer confidence 6.23%
5 Adapting to new consumer
behaviors 8.95%
6 Higher costs of doing business 10.89%
7 Maintaining Health, Safety &
Sanitation in the business
5.84%
8 Sourcing and finding PPEs for
Employees/Clients 3.50%
9 Length of economic
recovery 14.40%
10 Length of COVID-19
pandemic. 14.01%
11 OTHER: Any other concerns you
would like to share 3.89%
Conclusion:
Since this research was conducted around the May/June
time frame, it is worth noting that concerns about the length of the pandemic
and length of economic recovery would predetermine business recovery and
sustainability. If the pandemic continues beyond a reasonable or bearable time
for small businesses it would compromise the hope small business have be
feeling that they can adapt and survive the pandemic, public health crisis and
economic disruption it has caused. For the small business, some of these positive
sentiments may not last long.
No comments:
Post a Comment