How Small Businesses Have Been Affected By Covid

    In this day and age, wanting to shop at big enterprise companies is an easy way to buy essential things like clothing and other necessities especially during the pandemic because so many businesses had to close and many people had to transition into doing every day things online. Covid affected everyone, it didn’t impact just one person but many people. Small businesses have been one of the most impacted by the pandemic. Covid shut down one-third of all small businesses in March and some never fully recovered.

      Shopping small builds local communities. It was a way for people to spend their money on something good. Tax dollars stay local and reenter the community in schools or other services. Your money doesn’t go to places that support things like child labor and trafficking like a lot of bigger companies do, and you might not even realize it. Small businesses create more jobs and opportunities for local citizens resulting in a better economy. However, “it has definitely been a challenge to work during the pandemic and very difficult at times to move forward with work, and keeping our business open during this pandemic. We have a manufacturing business, so we have the combination of employees who have to show up in person, and actually make the product on site (that is about 20 out of 25 employees), and then we have a few office staff and sales/marketing people (about 5 out of 25) who could work remotely and from home,” says a local small chocolate business owner. When the pandemic hit, most small businesses did not anticipate the widespread closing of businesses and stores. They were aware of the two-week shutdown like everyone else, but beyond that, no one was expecting to be quarantined for very long. Business owners cared about the safety and wellness of their employees and it became a top priority. If cases spiked in their business, then they would have to shut down and close their doors which was the last thing they wanted to do.

    It was hard to keep up with the changing mandates, guidelines, and rules especially in a small business since they are dependent on customers to pay employees and also keep their business running. I experienced this first hand because during the pandemic I worked at a small dance studio. When everything moved online, we couldn’t dance in studios anymore. We had to set up a space at home to take a ballet class and most people did not have the space to take a full class. Our spring show was canceled and all of our hard work felt like it went to waste. It was honestly heartbreaking, and I know many other people felt that way in the dance community with a lot of things coming to a close. Teachers had to learn to navigate zoom and teach a class from there. They had to figure out how to play music and with zoom, it can be very difficult to see if the dancers are with the music or if their timing is right. When things progressed in the pandemic, we were able to go back to studios but it had its limitations. With the social distancing mandate, we had to dance in squares to limit contact with other people and there was no partnering. Some people stayed home to stay safe so while people were dancing in studios there were also people on zoom who were following along with the combinations. “To the public, the pandemic has not been too difficult to deal with operationally. The hardest part is having to be firm with customers on our policy, which usually follows the county guidelines”, says an employee with a local dance company. With vaccines and boosters coming out, guidelines for Covid constantly change. Having people follow those guidelines has been a difficult task for a lot of businesses. One local business owner expressed that they “felt a lot of relief when the vaccine came out and people could choose to protect themselves a bit if they wanted to. But it is still on them to have to draw the line of safety and require employees to be compliant when sometimes they don't want to be.” This new normal is something that many people will have to get used to and it continues to be a challenge today.

     Not only did Covid impact the businesses and organizations themselves, but also the people who worked at those businesses. Mental health became increasingly more important throughout the pandemic. “Personally it affected me pretty heavily. It boosted my anxiety and panic attacks, I worried about how I was going to support my daughter with no income. How I was going to protect her from the virus”, said an employee at a small school. People worried about their income, how they were going to provide for their families, and more. There was fear of being able to keep their jobs and just the virus itself. “My education suffered greatly going to distance learning and trying to keep my grades up my senior year”, says an employee at a small ice cream shop. A lot of high school students had jobs at small businesses and the worldwide shutdown on top of trying to maintain good grades started piling up on them. As a high school student who is working for a small business during the pandemic, it is very hard to balance everything. Not only are you worried about yourself but also the people close to you. Being in isolation and everything just coming to a complete stop was overwhelming for many individuals.

    In conclusion, the impact Covid had on small businesses is still evident today. The pandemic is a global event where there will be ripples throughout society that are both seen immediately and also those we don't know yet. Ultimately I am so grateful for all the small business owners and employees who have persevered throughout this pandemic. It hasn't been easy and there's been a lot of pivoting. Continue to shop local and support small businesses when you can; they need it!