Jasmine de Guzman | 24/09/2020
Small Business Bulletin: The State of SMBs, Restaurants & Supporting Local
With Q4 just around the corner, it’s important to take a cold, hard look at just exactly how SMBs are faring. It’s been a year like no other - a year that no one could predict - and more importantly a year that no one was prepared for.
As we as an industry discuss the acceleration of SMB SaaS adoption and analyze the latest impact of COVID-19, small business owners are faced with the everyday realities of changing regulations and making ends meet. Throughout the rest of 2020, we’ll be putting together this #SupportingLocal Bulletin to focus on understanding the challenges of the small business - as well as what we as an industry can do to help them.
The state of small business
Let’s start off with the state of small businesses. This pandemic has shown us how passionate and resilient small businesses owners are. Many business owners transitioned their businesses overnight - from going online, to offering delivery to finding creative new (and digital!) ways to offer their products and services.
And while we love hearing the heartwarming success stories, the reality is that while many small businesses may have weathered the initial COVID-19 storm - they are now faced with trying to survive a second wave. Back in June, McKinsey published an article on the potential vulnerabilities of small businesses due to COVID-19, and restaurants were identified as the most highly affected industry.
The restaurant industry
So how are restaurants faring now? Well let’s take a look at a few recent statistics:
So what can we as an industry do to support restaurants - as well as other local businesses?
Continuing to #SupportLocal
As an industry, it’s our duty (now more than ever) to band together to help local businesses survive. A few key tips for supporting restaurants:
Want more tips on how to support local? Join us for our webinar on Wednesday, October 7 where we’ll focus on “Boosting SMBs during the second COVID-19 wave” at 3 p.m. (CET)/9 a.m. (ET).
P.S. Stay tuned for more #SmallBusinessBulletin posts this fall