COVID-19 Small Business Insights
Core Strategy Partners
First published October 2020
It has been an unprecedented time in our nation’s history as the spread of COVID-19 has impacted U.S. and global markets with a crippling effect.
From ‘Wall Street’ to ‘Main Street,’ the effects of the pandemic on small businesses can be felt across every avenue of the American economy. Domestically, 43 percent of businesses were forced to close temporarily, leaving more than 40 million Americans unemployed, according to research from the National Academy of Sciences and US Department of Labor, respectively.
Small businesses employ 47 percent of the private sector workforce. In an effort to reduce mass layoffs, save the small business sector, and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses, lawmakers on Capitol Hill passed the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Nearly 5 million PPP loans were approved by June 30, 2020, and the average loan amount was just over $100,000, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Small businesses that received the PPP loan are eligible for loan forgiveness if at least 60 percent of the allocated funds are used for payroll expenses. The remaining funds can be used on mortgage interest, rent and utilities.
Are small businesses going to survive in the wake of COVID and what do they need from government and financial institutions to survive?
At Core Strategy Partners we were wondering how fellow small business owners are dealing with this new normal. We set out to do what we do best; gather in-depth insights and offer ways to turn those insights into action. We spoke with small business owners across the nation about their experiences. The following pages reveal what we discovered.