Margaux & Max were able to stay afloat with Dinges’ Facebook livestreams and creative marketing, even though the store was still closed for personal shopping.
Photo: Je Donna Dinges
Small business owners have faced a bit of a whiplash over the past year when Covid-19 flooded the country, with restrictions leading to closure, reopening and limited operations in markets across the country at the discretion of state and local leaders.
New data from the Q1 2021 CNBC | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey finds that experiences of Main Street entrepreneurs reflect this period of unpredictability.
While just over half of small business owners say they were able to stay open throughout the pandemic, 20% of small business owners say their businesses have been temporarily shut down due to the pandemic and that they have since reopened, but only on limited capacity. In addition, 10% of small business owners say they have closed and have yet to reopen. Another 4% say they closed, reopened and then closed again.
The back-and-forth sentiment weighed on the sentiment of small business owners and led the main street community to show strong support for President Biden’s Covid $ 1.9 billion emergency relief plan, according to the January 25 to January survey. nationwide among 2,111 small business owners. . 31 using the SurveyMonkey platform.
Je Donna Dinges reloaded her clothing and accessories boutique, Margaux & Max, at the beginning of March 2020 in a new, larger location. Within days, Covid businesses began to climb nationwide, closing the store in Ferndale, Michigan.
Je Donna Dinges opened in a new and bigger place with her boutique Margaux & Max, just when Covid started distributing in the US within days, she had to close in March 2020.
Je Donna Dinges
She has yet to reopen her personal business store, a conscious choice for Dinges, as she has an autoimmune disease and wants to limit her exposure. But the entrepreneur is not scared. To keep her head above water, she holds lively fashion shows she presents on Facebook nights in her store, featuring her style models of different sizes with clothes and accessories. Her customers tune in, Dinges says, and then shop and buy their purchases during the week.
“I’m very concerned about my own health … and I’m also very concerned about my clients,” Dinges said. “I decided to stay closed, but not to do business.”
More broadly, sentiment for small businesses declined to a new low in the first quarter, the CNBC survey found. Confidence fell from a score of 48 to 43 quarter-on-quarter, the lowest since CNBC and SurveyMonkey followed confidence in Main Street in 2017. What’s more, the number of small business owners who say they believe they have been down for more than a year has dropped from 67% in the fourth quarter to 55%.
The trust differed depending on the race of business owners. According to the CNBC survey, the fear of permanent closure is high among owners of black small businesses, with 37% claiming that they can survive more than a year under current conditions, compared to 59% of white small business owners and 55% of Spanish small businesses.
Black-owned enterprises that still have to open temporarily after the temporary cessation due to the pandemic (25%), compared with 8% of the small white-owned enterprises.
Despite the challenges, the Small Business Confidence Index found in the survey that black small business owners remain optimistic with an overall sentiment score of small businesses higher than their peers.
The salary protection program was a lifeline for some, but the program was adjusted after businesses and advocates shouted last year that the PPP did not serve smaller lenders. In January, when the $ 284 billion program was restarted, financial community institutions that typically serve smaller or mission-based businesses gained first access to the portal.
To date, more than $ 103 billion has been approved for more than 1.4 million small business loans, according to the Small Business Administration. According to the SBA, 82% of all loans were made to businesses that asked for less than $ 100,000, indicating that smaller businesses asked for help. In addition, nearly a third of the loans went to businesses in rural communities. Approval times have been extended with anti-fraud measures, and loans are no longer approved as last year.
Understaffed small businesses
Administration officials said they believe money for the PPP will not run out, as happened in April 2020 when the program was first launched, and lawmakers continue to pursue transparency around demographic profiles of corporate loans. President Biden has promised to include aid to small businesses in his $ 1.9 billion pandemic package in the form of grants and funding, as the small business community is likely to need continued lifelines when the OBP closes in March.
‘If the administration really gets grants directly to businesses and business owners, it will help the capital and working capital of those businesses, rather than just acting effectively as a gateway to their employees, which of course was the intention of the PPP. It’s invaluable in its own way, “said Brian Blake, director of public policy for the Community Development Bankers Association.
Dinges said she struggled last year to get PPP financing, eventually turning to Kabbage for a small business loan after previous rejections. She is considering applying for a second loan this year and, despite ongoing challenges, feels optimistic about the future. Its sales have dropped by almost 40%, but it could be much worse because of all that Main Street has endured over the past year.
“I definitely feel hopeful. As I drove through my community, I looked at empty store windows, which was sad. “But I look at empty storefronts of large retailers,” Dinges said. And it just occurred to me that these big retailers are folding and that I’m still standing … the loyalty I get from my customers really moves me. ‘