Everybody in this world has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Small businesses are vulnerable because of the quarantine. Small businesses have hit a financial crunch.
According to Small Business Administration lists there are approximately 30 million small businesses spread across the United States, and all, in some way, are being affected by this pandemic. They employ 59 million people.
A recent Brookings Institution analysis shared that businesses with fewer than 250 employees estimated that 54 percent of businesses and 47.8 million jobs fall into categories of immediate or near-term risk. The smaller the businesses with less than 10 employees are more vulnerable to the economic fallout of the coronavirus.
Retailers across the country have closed or reduced operations that could last months.
They are also hoping they will be able to open soon.
“I want this pandemic to be over so I can see my customers and make them feel beautiful again,” Mimma Marrollo, owner of Elite Hair Designs, said.
With the businesses being shut down owners have no cash flow coming in. They have to turn to the banks to get loans. If they are lucky they get a loan from the bank. But the banks are also declining a lot of loans.
Banks are running out of money.
According to NBCnews, the $350 billion in the Small Business Administration’s emergency coronavirus relief fund was gone within minutes.
JPMorgan Chase received over 60,000 applicants for the Paycheck Protection Program within the first five minutes. Two weeks later, only 27,000 loans have been approved.
More than $1.8 trillion may be needed to meet the needs of small business owners.
According to The New York Times, the Senate has passed a $484 billion relief package on Tuesday.
The loan is to distressed small business and provide funds for hospitals and coronavirus testing.
There were intense rounds of negotiations between Democrats and the Trump Administration that was unfolding when the small business loan program created a $2.2 trillion stimulus law quickly ran out of funding that under many of desperate applications.
Restaurants are also facing a big change. From small diners to giant chains, everything is going to be different. Some are still saying open and doing takeout and some just closed immediately.
Customers are also scared to order takeout. Takeout operations won’t keep the business alive.
Many employees are getting laid off and are nervous they won’t be getting their waitressing job back.
“The restaurant I worked at let me go due to the coronavirus and said they will hire me back when it’s over. I am scared they won’t because other people might need the job more than me,” Riley Underwood, human resource major, said.
They don’t know where the workers have been and who they were in contact with.
Large chain restaurants are well-funded restaurant groups that have resources to ride out the shut down.
A news report on CNBC, said that more than 15,000 will announce they are closing their stores due to the financial impact of the coronavirus.
Independent restaurants that make up two-thirds of America’s dining may not survive because they do not have the resources like the large chain restaurants.
On March 16, Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia, announced there will be a $25,000 cash flow boost for small and medium-sized businesses. This means that Australian government has responded to the dangers of the economic fallout from the coronavirus.
