Alignable: 48% Of Small Businesses Risk Closing in Q4, New Poll Says

DATA INSIGHTS | BREAKING NEWS | PRESS RELEASE | 

48% Of Small Businesses Risk Closing For Good 

COVID Wreaks Havoc On More SMBs As Q4 Proceeds, New Poll Says

Boston, MA, November 25, 2020: Though Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and other traditional sales-driving events are just around the corner, an increasing percentage of small business owners fear they won’t make enough money during the rest of Q4 to stay afloat. 

Based on this week’s Alignable Q4 Revenue Poll of 9,201 small business owners, 48% could shut down permanently before year’s end.

In fact, this number jumped from 42% just two months ago, demonstrating how several factors have converged to devastate small businesses: COVID resurgences, forced government reclosures, elevated customer fears, and a surge in online shopping at Amazon and other national ecommerce giants.

These findings were calculated by comparing small business owners’ answers to two questions: “What percentage of Q4 2019 revenue/sales are you anticipating for Q4 2020?”  and “What percentage of Q4 2019 revenue/sales do you need to achieve in Q4 2020 to stay in business?”

Main Street Devastation On The Horizon

Several direct quotes from polltakers paint a more vivid picture than the poll statistics alone: 

• “COVID has raised its ugly head again. I’m a caterer and I’ve had no work in November and my clients are cancelling for Dec. This is so sad. I have worked so hard to build my business the last 14 years. My business has gone from half a million to not even 200,000. This is devastating for any business.”
• “COVID closings are killing this country! My business is on hold -- no art walks or gallery openings, and I can’t even open my studio. Everything’s online."
• “Because therapeutic massage is so ‘up close and personal,’ I have only come back to about 40% of my previous clientele. I am afraid that the governor will shut us down again, which will be the end of my business. I also believe the ‘ruling elite’ does not care about small businesses.”

In keeping with these sentiments, this week’s poll also found that 50% of consumer retailers could close for good and that figure is up from 45% only two months ago. However, these concerns extend beyond Main St. establishments.

In fact, 47% of small B2B firms are also struggling to keep the lights on and might not make it to next year. And that figure was just 38% when small business owners were asked about their Q4 projections in late September.

“COVID continues to wreak havoc on many industries despite the valiant efforts of industrious and talented small business owners everywhere,” said Alignable’s Co-Founder and CEO Eric Groves. “What’s really needed right NOW is another round of federal funding for small businesses suffering the most. That could help sustain some of them as they try to power through this bleak period."

Sales Suffer Across Many Industries 

Looking more closely at industry trends, here’s how different categories compare. 

Topping the list, a whopping 62% of travel and hospitality professionals anticipate Q4 revenues below what they need to stay in business. 

The same concerns were voiced by owners of gyms (61%), beauty salons (60%), health and wellness shops and spas (46%), restaurants (45%), marketing and advertising agencies (45%), entertainment companies (43%), construction businesses (38%), law offices (36%), and even accounting firms (25%). 

While many small business owners across several industries are facing challenges staying open, the loudest cries for help are coming from B2C shops and services with closure risks of 45% to 62%. 

Though the economic outlook for many of those retail operations appears dire, if more consumers join shopping movements like #MyMoneyStaysLocal, those shoppers can help save several of their local merchants. Concerned consumers and small business owners can learn more about how shopping locally can expedite a community’s recovery at MyMoneyStaysLocal.org.

For more details regarding Alignable’s Q4 Revenue Poll, including the methodology behind it, please contact Chuck Casto at chuck@alignable.com.  For past polls and coverage, please go to the Alignable News Center. 

About The Alignable Research Center

Alignable is the largest online referral network for small businesses with over 5.5 million members across North America.  

We established our research center in early March 2020 to track and report the impact of the Coronavirus on small businesses, and to monitor recovery efforts, informing the media, policymakers, and our members.