While Congress debates another potential round of PPP funding for small businesses, the urgency for this money is becoming more acute by the minute.
Alignable’s latest poll conducted from 12/5 to 12/7/20 among 5,500 small business owners reveals that 85% say additional funding is very important for the survival of their businesses from now to June 2021. On average, respondents said they will require around $110,000 in funding, per small business, to stay on their feet now and for the first six months of 2021.
This week’s poll asked: “How important is access to additional relief funding in terms of staying in business through June 2021?”
The Time Is NOW For More PPP Funding
As the chart above indicates, nearly half of the respondents (48%) answered that it was “critical to being able to stay in business,” with another 37% noting that it was “significantly important” for their business survival.
Only 3% said additional relief funding was “not important” for their business, while the remaining 12% said it was “somewhat important.”
Here are a few direct quotes from polltakers that urge Congress to answer the pleas of small business owners — and make the needs of their constituents their No. 1 priority.
“I believe that it’s time that all politicians start thinking about the American people and not themselves. We the people are believing that they really do not care about us — the working people. They just care about themselves.”
“We need financial support NOW, before it’s too late.”
“Protect and encourage small businesses, not the big corporate lobbyists funding you.”
“Just frigging help us. People are starving!”
Come On, Congress! Do Your Job
“Dueling members of Congress need to compromise and jump over political hurdles to ensure that more small businesses weather the rest of this catastrophic COVID storm,” said Alignable’s Co-Founder and CEO Eric Groves. “Our latest poll clearly demonstrates that more aid is desperately needed to keep hard-working small business leaders afloat — and to continue fueling the recovery.”
Considering that small businesses usually contribute to 50% of the GDP and account for 65% of the new jobs created, if more small businesses fail during the age of COVID, the length of our already-slow recovery is sure to be extended.
Without diligent entrepreneurs to pull the country out of this COVID-induced recession, the times ahead for everyone could be even more challenging — even after vaccines are widely distributed.
If You Finally Get Funding, How Will You Spend It?
Alignable’s poll also asked several other questions, including: “If you receive a new loan, what would you spend it on?”
The top responses, from 20% of the small business owners polled, were paying their rent and employee salaries. Based on other Alignable polls, 32%-34% of all small businesses since May have not had the money to cover their full rent on time.
Other replies run the gamut from covering additional bills (16%), “paying myself” (13%), and paying off other loans (12%) to investing in expansion plans (8%), and participating in online education to become more virtual (6%).
Over the next week, Alignable will share more results from this survey.
For more information on these results, or to see past Alignable polls, contact Chuck Casto at [email protected]. You can also review previous poll results in the Alignable Research Center.
About The Alignable Research Center
Alignable is the largest online referral network for small businesses with over 6 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.
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