[qz-guide-hero id=”434623238″ title=”💡 The Big Idea” description=”Small businesses have been ravaged in the pandemic. What will it take for them to come back stronger than ever?”]
By the digits
500: Maximum number of employees a company can have to qualify as a small business
83%: Small businesses that don’t access bank loans or venture capital
66%: Small businesses that had no online presence at all before the pandemic
70%: Small businesses that have sped up their digitization during the pandemic, according to one survey
DIY: How to support local small businesses during the reopening
Independent restaurants, coffeeshops, hardware stores, pharmacies, bookshops, and other local businesses have struggled to survive the pandemic, relying on quick pivots and generosity from their local communities to see them through.
But even as things reopen, these businesses aren’t out of danger. Government PPP loans are set to expire at the end of May, and downtowns are still quiet.
🚶 Go inside the shop
🛍️ Do in-store pickup instead of delivery
💸 Just buy something (and tip well)
One big number
30%: Bite of restaurants’ delivery revenue typically taken by apps like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats
The billion-dollar question
How can small businesses come back better after the pandemic?
During the pandemic, residents and policymakers found a new appreciation for small businesses of all kinds, understanding that they and their employees are essential to communities and to prosperity. Now that the public health crisis shows signs of subsiding, people and governments shouldn’t abandon that attitude, writes Tim Fernholz. Local and national governments can do more to bolster small businesses with the same tools they used during the pandemic. Technology adapted ad hoc for a crisis can increase efficiency and equity during boom times.
Charting US employment by business size
About half of US employees work at a small business, but far fewer work at the smallest—less than 25% of all US employees work at a business with fewer than 100 employees.
Quotable
“Surviving [the pandemic] is a competitive advantage in and of itself. It’s very discouraging to see so many businesses that we used and patronized, especially restaurants, that did not make it in the last year.”
—Greg Hunicutt, who runs a construction business in Houston, Texas
Commonly held question
Do tech companies give back to small businesses as much as they take?
Commerce has been shifting online for years, but Covid-19 supercharged the move as consumers do more of just about everything digitally, from payments to grocery shopping. Small businesses around the world have responded, with about 70% of them speeding up their digitization, according to a 2020 survey.
But third-party online services aren’t free, and the expense can add up. Small business owners have to decide whether these services give back as much as they take. As to whether it’s worth it, that depends—in advertising, for example, monopolistic companies like Google and Facebook have tight control over the industry. But in the more fragmented market for payments, competition can help keep a lid on costs to the entrepreneur. The more competitive the market for small-business tech, the more likely it is to end up helping small businesses make money.
📚 Read the field guide
The pandemic exposed small businesses vulnerabilities—and how to fix them
The case for small business is more than economics
Do tech companies give back to small business as much as they take?
How to support local small businesses during pandemic reopening
📣 Sound off
Has your favorite local business survived the pandemic?
In last week’s poll about indoor air, 41% of respondents said they were worried about the air quality where they leave. We wish that weren’t warranted.