Alignable’s July Small Business Report

July’s Road To Recovery Highlights

Alignable released its July State Of Small Business Report, based on responses from 5,911 small business owners polled from 7/2/21 to 7/19/21, as well as input from 635,000 businesses over the past 16 months.

With the Delta variant boosting COVID infections, there are still many companies continuing the “work from home” model. In-house IT staff have become remote support, with new problems in a still-wide learning curve for internal business communication and data-sharing.

The Good News

76% of small businesses are fully open: a new 2021 record, up from 68% in June.
Revenue numbers are up by 15 percentage points in July. In June, 57% said they only had 50% or less of the monthly revenue they earned prior to COVID. But in July, that number dropped to 42%.
56% of small business owners are more optimistic about their future.
Only 22% report being significantly impacted by COVID in July vs. 30% last month.

The Bad News

An increase in supply costs: 80% said they’re experiencing higher supply costs than they had prior to COVID. And 27% note that costs have increased more than 25%.
Translation: 67% of small businesses are still trying to recover.
50% of all small business owners say it’s more difficult to hire now than it was prior to COVID.
74% of restaurant owners are struggling to hire employees, as well as 66% of small business owners in transportation, 63% in the automotive industry, 62% in manufacturing, 59% in the beauty sector, 56% in construction, and 47% in retail.

Key Findings From Alignable’s July Rent Poll

While there are some positive signs that the recovery is having an increase in rent payments, there are also many other indications that rent is continuing to be a major struggle for many small business owners across North America. 40% of restaurants could not pay full rent in July, showing the extended effects of labor shortages and inflation on this industry.

In addition, 64% of nonprofits, 50% of entertainers/artists, 48% of small businesses in the transportation sector, and 43% of event planners. 35% of ALL small businesses in the U.S. could not pay their July rent in full or on time (that’s slightly better than June, which was 37%).

52% of minority-owned small businesses still could not afford their rent in July; 37% of women-owned businesses are in the same predicament, and 23% of veteran-owned businesses are still struggling with rent.

With more than 6 million members and millions of connections across more than 30,000 local communities, Alignable joins small business owners across North America, driving leads and prospects, build relationships, and share advice. It has a free, and paid version. Consider it a mix between LinkedIn and Facebook.