The Struggles of Small Businesses Due to Covid-19
Due to the recent and ongoing pandemic we are living through, many parts of our world we once knew have changed. Something that was poorly affected due to this pandemic is the struggle of small businesses. Since no one knew this pandemic was coming, no one properly knew how to prepare for such chaos. Honestly, how does one prepare their small business to have no business for months on end. The truth of the matter is you flat out cannot. There are several factors that have played along that caused these small businesses to struggle.
Lockdowns
The lockdowns that were placed on cities and states had the most effect on small businesses. With the government declaring a state that nothing can be open besides “essential businesses,” this excludes the openness of small businesses. When no one is allowed to come into stores, there is no cash flow coming into the business. Lockdowns drastically effected small businesses. Some small businesses even had to shut down or were run out of business.
Supply chain issues
As previously stated, when our nation was in a state of lockdown, it made some supply chain operations difficult, or near impossible, to complete. With borders being closed, some small businesses could not even receive their supplies that were needed to run the business itself. Factors like such increased worry and stress on small business owners.
A positive impact of covid-19
Although this pandemic has brought hardships to many small businesses in such an unexpected way, it has also allowed for the flourishment of other types of small businesses. Due to closures and lockdowns, many people turned to their “quarantine hobby” and turned it into an online business. The idea of online small businesses thrived during the peak of the pandemic. Since everyone in the world was inside the house on their phones, many customers turned to online shopping. Due to this, small business that had an online base or an online creation thrived during this pandemic.