America\u2019s small businesses can\u2019t catch a break.<\/p>\n
After two years of shutdowns and restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they\u2019re straining to keep up with price increases without losing customers to larger competitors. They are struggling to keep positions filled as competition for workers remains at a fever pitch. And just at the moment that many business owners begin to recover and shore up their depleted savings, they\u2019re worried that the Federal Reserve\u2019s medicine for inflation will bring fresh hardship: higher borrowing costs and timid consumers.<\/p>\n
Surveys show that small-business sentiment has taken a markedly pessimistic turn in recent months \u2014 even more so than that of professional forecasters and of corporate executives.<\/p>\n
In June, the National Federation of Independent Business measured its lowest reading ever for economic expectations. The nonprofit Small Business Majority, in a survey in mid-July, found that nearly one in three small businesses couldn\u2019t survive for more than three months without additional capital or a change in business conditions. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce\u2019s Small Business Index for the second quarter showed that inflation had skyrocketed to the top of owners\u2019 concerns. Seventy-five percent of participants in Goldman Sachs\u2019s small-business coaching program reported that higher costs had impaired their finances.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n New from me: Small businesses got help to weather the pandemic, but keep taking hit after hit — from high prices to rising interest rates — and no more help is on the horizon. https:\/\/t.co\/i8jxDb4H49<\/a><\/p>\n — Lydia DePillis (@lydiadepillis) July 26, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n