We’re releasing two new reports from Alignable today, reflecting the turbulent small business recovery. Unfortunately, many of December’s gains in the recovery have been lost in January, largely due to Omicron combined with skyrocketing inflation. The reports are based on a new survey of 6,305 small business owners conducted from 1/15/22 to 1/30/22, along with 665,000 responses since March 2020.
Road To Recovery Report
The first report is Alignable’s January Road To Recovery Report, which highlights these trends:
- Only 30% of all small businesses are fully recovered now, down 13% from Dec.
- Inflation dominates as the greatest concern among small businesses
- However, Omicron worries have grown, as more than two out of three (68%) of small business owners are nervous that it will negatively impact their growth now or later. (That’s up 24% from December).
- When asked if Omicron has already had negative effects, 53% in the U.S. and 57% in Canada said, yes, it has impaired their recovery.
- For minority-owned businesses, the situation is even more severe: 63% say Omicron has impacted them.
The following chart shows the percentage of small businesses that have fully recovered, generating as much or more than they earned prior to COVID. Compared to last month, almost all sectors have seen a decrease in fully recovered businesses. And restaurants are in the worst shape, with only 14% reporting a full recovery, down from 32% last month.
January Rent Poll
The second report is Alignable’s January Rent Poll, which offers a bit of a silver lining, as the overall rent delinquency rate among SMBs has remained the same in January as it was in December: 26% of U.S. small businesses and 33% of those in Canada were unable to pay rent in full and on time this month. Like December, these are the lowest small business rent delinquency rates since the pandemic began.
However, some negative trends surfaced in this report, too:
- 44% of minority-owned businesses still can’t afford the rent (up 1% from December)
- 39% of restaurants (up 5%) couldn’t cover January rent, along with 38% of salons (up 12%) and 33% of retailers (up 8%) compared to Dec.
- New York now has the worst rent delinquency rate among small businesses at 33% (up 3% from Dec.). Other states saw improvement including Massachusetts, California and Georgia.
To read the full January Road to Recovery Report, go here.
To see more of January’s Rent Poll results, go here.
