A new survey from Goldman Sachs through its 10,000 Small Businesses program (via Axios) finds that more than half of small business owners. Here are some findings from the survey. (However, for many of those reading this, it will sound too, too, familiar.)
52% | Percentage of survey participating small-business owners who have stopped paying themselves in a bid to keep their businesses afloat
42% | Percentage of small business owners who have begun laying off employees or cutting worker pay
33% | Owners who have dipped into personal savings to stay operational
28% | Say the legislative uncertainty has caused them to consider closing their business
38% | Say they will have to lay off more employees or cut employee compensation
20% | Said they will not be able to pay their commercial rent through the end of the year without additional help from Congress
59% | Said their revenue has been negatively impacted.
86.5% | Of those whose revenue has been negatively impacted, 86.5% attribute it to changing customer behavior
44% | Said the decline in revenue is due to more restrictive state and local regulations.
Black business owners have struggled even harder
61% | Black business owners who say they have forgone paying themselves as a result of congressional inaction
57% | Black business owners who say that less than half of their pre-COVID revenue has returned.
“The economy is dependent on fiscal support to sustain momentum in the near term and to generate reflation in the longer term. This electoral outcome is the one that most jeopardizes the prospect of fiscal stimulus over both time horizons and therefore is the one that is most threatening to the economic outlook. With monetary policy largely bled dry, fiscal policy is the only game in town when it comes to managing the economy. That means that fiscal stimulus is critical to the economic outlook.”
Eric Winograd
Senior Economist | AllianceBernstein
Infographics: Goldman Sachs