How To Keep Supporting Your Local Small Businesses During COVID-19 (2023)

FAQs

How to manage your business during COVID? ›

The government can use economic development programs to encourage growth in the state or region. It may provide tax incentive programs, grants, loans, and subsidies to companies interested in setting up a new business in the area to promote a business-friendly environment.

By supporting a small business, you're also supporting the local community. Spending your money there helps to stimulate the local economy and keep business booming within your local region.

Considering the uncertainty and unprecedented challenges that this period presents, it is important for businesses to change how they operate and serve their customers. A shift in strategy will help businesses take better care of employees, satisfy customer needs, and enhance the company's financial health.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) helps small businesses get started and stay in business. The SBA allows people to create and run businesses by giving advice, giving them access to business and disaster loans, and helping them get contracts with the federal government.

They create job opportunities

Clearly, one of the most important ways small businesses benefit the community is by creating job growth and providing locals with job opportunities – an overall positive in terms of a healthy economy and a happy community.

"I am so grateful for your support of my small business. Thank you for your continued support and loyalty. Your trust and loyalty in my brand has been invaluable and it has helped me to grow and thrive. Your patronage has been a huge factor in my success and I am forever grateful for it.

It shows you care about your local community

The number one perk to consider, for obvious reasons, is that supporting local means that you care about the community that you live in. You'll be able to put money back into your community and the other people who call it home, too.

How can small businesses avoid failure? ›

You have to maintain good customer service. It becomes a strategy to avoid business failure. You have to be able to make sure your customers stay loyal to your product. For example, you could do this through a sales promotion or by offering a lucky draw.

No matter how bold or ambitious your plans are to grow your business, the key to your business's success lies in three critical, interdependent components: operational excellence, customer relations/communications and financial management.

Across the full sample, 43% of businesses had temporarily closed, and nearly all of these closures were due to COVID-19. Respondents that had temporarily closed largely pointed to reductions in demand and employee health concerns as the reasons for closure, with disruptions in the supply chain being less of a factor.

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic impacted the payroll of 45.3 percent of companies with employees. This breaks down to 39.2 percent having reduced the hours/benefits/pay of their employees, 5.9 percent increased the hours/benefits/pay of their employees, and 0.2 percent saw a different impact on their payroll.

CSR initiatives are often broken down into four categories: environmental, philanthropic, ethical, and economic responsibility.

Which of the following is a reason for business failure? ›

The most common reasons small businesses fail include a lack of capital or funding, retaining an inadequate management team, a faulty infrastructure or business model, and unsuccessful marketing initiatives.

Independent businesses provide their local economies with new jobs, products, revenue, services and more. Charitable and innovative contributions - Small businesses not only contribute economic benefits to their community but also charitable and innovative ones as well.

Economists, however, identify six major functions of governments in market economies. Governments provide the legal and social framework, maintain competition, provide public goods and services, redistribute income, correct for externalities, and stabilize the economy.

A local small business tends to make more local purchases, which requires less transportation (less pollution and congestion). Additionally, since they are set up in a town or city, it will generally reduce traffic, habitat loss and resource depletion.

Local businesses also tend to support one another through volunteer work, donations, participation in community activities, and simply by shopping at each other's businesses. There's a sense of pride in being part of a community and providing quality products and services for the betterment of its residents.

“Independent businesses are the lifeline of every community.” “Authenticity and hustle – that's why you should support independent businesses.” “Buy Local or Bye Bye Local.” “You can't buy Happiness but you can Buy Local and that's kind of the same thing.”

Marketing plan

The number one issue for small businesses is reaching new customers. For many business owners, this is the most important section, and much time is devoted to developing it. For without demand, there are no sales.

What makes small business effective? ›

Successful small businesses are customer-focused, which means they understand the needs of their current customer bases. Satisfied customers can drive profits through repeat business and referrals.

Local support means funds from tax sources, gifts, endowments, penal fines, or other funds received from local sources, excluding state and federal aid as stated in this act.

When you purchase at locally owned businesses rather than nationally owned, more money is kept in the community because locally-owned businesses often purchase from other local businesses, service providers and farms. Purchasing local helps grow other businesses as well as the local tax base.

In 2020, 6.0 percent of companies canceled, 9.7 percent postponed, 8.2 percent decreased, and 1.5 increased some of their budgeted capital expenditures during the coronavirus pandemic. A total of 1.7 percent of companies introduced new unbudgeted capital expenditures.

Across the full sample, 43% of businesses had temporarily closed, and nearly all of these closures were due to COVID-19. Respondents that had temporarily closed largely pointed to reductions in demand and employee health concerns as the reasons for closure, with disruptions in the supply chain being less of a factor.

How businesses are changing due to COVID 19? ›

Many businesses across the country saw their supply chains interrupted, demand for their products and services decline, shortages in supplies and inputs, and government-mandated closures. At the same time, the federal government implemented programs designed to help keep employees on payrolls.

Among key industries, accommodation and food services (including hotels, restaurants, and similar businesses), retail, and manufacturing were proportionately hardest hit by job losses since the start of the pandemic, while healthcare was impacted least.

Independent businesses provide their local economies with new jobs, products, revenue, services and more. Charitable and innovative contributions - Small businesses not only contribute economic benefits to their community but also charitable and innovative ones as well.

Some of these include inflation, cost of raw materials, insurance costs, low demand for products and services, and other general business costs. As many industries recover from the effect of the pandemic, the costs of doing business and maintaining profitability are major concerns.

Recovery strategies are alternate means to restore business operations to a minimum acceptable level following a business disruption and are prioritized by the recovery time objectives (RTO) developed during the business impact analysis.

As far as what companies benefit from the coronavirus, examples include essential businesses like grocery stores and pharmacies who remained open to serve customers throughout the pandemic. These businesses have not experienced the financial hardships others have.

While drastic process changes normally tend to fail or are challenged by employee resistance, the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced this impediment so that organizations actually experience how alternative (i.e., more simple and digitalized) working alternatives can look like.