This year has had a rocky start out of the gate. The coming of the new decade was supposed to bring about new beginnings, but from floods in Indonesia to the bushfires in Australia, and now the worldwide pandemic of Coronavirus, 2020, has started on a downward spiral. Many are seeing the effects of the virus, schools closed, to work being halted, and things shut down. Small businesses are also being widely affected by the spread of the virus. With many companies forced to shut down in many states, this is causing a massive dent in their incomes.
According to the online article base, Axios over 96% of small business owners are already feeling the considerable impact that the closure is having. Most of the focus has not been on small businesses at all, but more about the stock markets and the bailouts for the more giant corporations. Over half of the small businesses say that they will not be able to continue their company longer than three months due to the economic burden that this is causing by the pandemic. A survey conducted by Goldman Sachs was held on March 16th and the 17th to find out just how drastically the businesses were being affected. Of the 1,500 business owners that the survey used for their data point, a little bit more than half of the owners said they would only be able to operate for about three months after the quarantine shut down was over. Only around 13% of them were confident in their contingency plans for continuation.
Business owners are worried about the coming days of this pandemic, and how much of a strain it's going to put on their businesses. Congress is weighing whether it wants to provide loans and grants to help sustain these businesses in this time of need.
While many are being affected by in-person sales, other businesses have been turning to online sales to continue to make a profit. According to Marketing Land, there was evidence in the early months between January and February that the online shopping rate increased to 52% and a conversion rate of 8.8%, this search was done across 5 billion U.S. retailer sites. In the coming months depending on how long it takes to control the spread and the ongoing quarantine going on across the country, it's sure to not slow down anytime soon.