How COVID Has Impacted Small Business: 25+ Statistics, Facts, And Trends

COVID-19 has presented one of the biggest challenges in recent history.

The impact of the pandemic has been felt by organizations of all sizes, all across the globe – but small businesses were amongst the hardest hit.

In this post, we’ll examine the extent of the impact COVID has had on small businesses by looking at some important statistics. 

The stats below show the scale of the problem, how the impact has varied across different regions and business sectors, and reveal the adaptations small business owners have had to make in order to successfully navigate the pandemic.

Editor’s picks

  • Businesses with only 1-4 employees were the most severely impacted by the pandemic. (Business Wire)
  • Over 70% of small businesses consider COVID-19 to have had a moderate or large negative effect as of April 2021. (Statista)
  • 70.8% of arts and entertainment venues were forced to close for at least one day. (U.S. Census Bureau)

Key statistics on how COVID-19 has impacted small businesses

Let’s start by looking at the key statistics that provide a general overview of the ways in which COVID has impacted small businesses.

Businesses with only 1-4 employees were the most severely impacted by the pandemic

According to an article published by business wire, 48% of businesses that had between 1 and 4 employees were impacted severely by the outbreak of COVID-19. Only 37% of larger businesses with 20-49 employees reported severe impact from the outbreak. (Business Wire)

45% of small businesses earned less than 50% of their pre-COVID revenue by September 2020

covid small business revenue statistic

According to Small Biz trends, this decrease was mainly in revenue rather than customer growth. Despite customer numbers still growing, customers are unwilling to spend as much as they did in a pre-COVID world. (SmallBizTrends)

75% of small businesses in the US felt their businesses will benefit from the government relief bill 

COVID relief bill statistic

According to a Zen Business survey, 75% of businesses with between 1 and 25 employees would benefit in some way from the government relief bill. However, businesses with less than 10 employees expected to see less positive impact than those with more employees. (ZenBusiness survey)

1/4 of businesses expect to recover from the pandemic in less than 6 months

The same study showed that a good percentage of small businesses expect to bounce back quickly from the effects of the pandemic. Around a ¼ expect to be back to normal in 3-6 months. (ZenBusiness survey)

Over 70% of small businesses consider COVID-19 to have had a moderate or large negative effect as of April 2021

Unfortunately, the majority of small businesses reported that the pandemic had a moderate or large negative effect on business over a year into the crisis. Interestingly though, 1.8% of small businesses reported that the pandemic has had a large positive effect. (Statista)

The impact of COVID on small businesses across the world

While the pandemic might be global, the impact has not been felt equally across different geographical regions. Local outbreaks and national lockdowns have meant businesses in certain parts of the world have been impacted more severely than others.

Here are some statistics that show how that impact has varied across different countries.

Around two-thirds of small businesses in the UK saw a drop in revenue

COVID small business statistic

But, thanks to largely effective Governmental support schemes, the majority have been able to keep afloat. 99% of small businesses in the UK expect to survive assuming there are no more lockdowns. (Goldman Sachs

70% of Australian businesses reported a decline in revenue due to the pandemic

This is similar to the percentage of businesses in the UK that saw revenues drop. This is interesting, given the fact that Australia has been one of the most successful countries at keeping the pandemic under control. Small businesses were twice as likely than large businesses to report a large decline compared to larger businesses. (Rba.gov.au)

32.7% of small businesses in Canada reported a 30% decrease in revenues in 2020

Continuing the global trend we’ve seen so far, small businesses in Canada were disproportionately more likely to have experienced a loss of revenue. 32.7% saw revenues decrease by 30% in 2020 compared to the year before. In contrast, only 17.5% of large businesses (those with 100+ employees) reported the same. (Statistics Canada

Small businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the least likely to receive financial assistance

According to a survey by the World Bank from May 2020, only around 4-5% of business owners in Sub-Saharan Africa were receiving any kind of financial assistance, and only 6-10% of those in South Asia. 

Comparatively, 30-32% of those in North America and 19-21% of those in Europe received financial help. This likely is a reflection of the wealth gap and comparative economic strength of these regions in relation to the rest of the world. (World Bank)

The impact of COVID on small businesses by US state

Next, we’ll take a look at some statistics that show the impact COVID has had on small businesses in the US by region. All the statistics below are taken from the latest figures (at the time of writing) from the Small Business Pulse Survey and is based on responses from April 5th – April 11th, 2021

Small businesses in New York and Washington D.C experienced the largest negative effect of all U.S states

New York COVID statistic

New York (38.7%), D.C (47.3%). For comparison, the national average was 27.2%. (United States Census Bureau)

Idaho was the state that saw the lowest impact on small businesses from COVID-19 

33.8% of small businesses in Idaho said that covid had had ‘little or no effect’ on their business – 12.8% more than the national average. Similarly, only 11.8% said they’d experienced a largely negative effect, 15.4% lower than the national average. (United States Census Bureau)

11.4% of small businesses in Arkansas reported a moderately positive effect from COVID

While still relatively low, it’s nonetheless surprising that over one-tenth of small businesses in Idaho benefited positively from the pandemic. This is larger than any other state and 5.2% higher than the national average. (United States Census Bureau)

The impact of COVID on small businesses by business sector

Although the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was felt across all industries, some small business sectors were worse hit than others by lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, and social distancing guidelines.

Here are some key statistics about how different sectors were affected by the pandemic.

83.5% of businesses in the accommodation and food sector experienced negative effects from the COVID-19 pandemic

Unsurprisingly, the small businesses accommodation and food services sector was amongst the hardest hit by social distancing and national lockdowns. Unlike businesses like small stores or businesses that could function remotely, many accommodations and food services businesses were fully closed or at least running at reduced capacity for over a year. (Census.gov)

Similarly, arts and culture and recreation businesses were the second hardest hit by restrictions and lockdowns

14 Businesses affected by sector

53% of arts, culture and recreation businesses reported largely negative effects from the pandemic, making it the second worst-hit behind accommodation and food businesses. (States Census Bureau)

70.8% of arts and entertainment venues were forced to close for at least one day

Closures were one of the main impacts felt by small businesses operating in the entertainment and arts. 70.8% of venues closed for at least one day, but many were forced to close for longer periods of time or run at reduced capacity due to social distancing guidelines. (United States Census Bureau)

Only 4.5% of businesses in the ‘utilities’ sector experience a large negative effect 

Thankfully, not all businesses were overwhelmingly negatively impacted by the pandemic. For example, less than 5% of businesses in the utilities industry reported large negative effects. (United States Census Bureau)  

65.8% of retail businesses reported supply chain disruptions as a result of the outbreak 

These supply chain issues also affected businesses in the manufacturing, health, and social assistance sectors. (Census.gov)

Small business COVID adaptations statistics

Many small businesses were forced to make radical changes to their operations in order to adapt to the changing global circumstances. Here are some statistics that highlight the most common adaptations. 

85% of small businesses in the US took advantage of PPP

Thousands of small businesses across the globe wouldn’t have been able to navigate the pandemic without the help of government lifelines. In the US, the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans allowed businesses to keep their staff on the payroll. The vast majority of respondents in a CBIZ survey said they took advantage of these loans. (CBIZ)

75% of SMEs had to reduce staff

19 Small business laying off staff

Unfortunately, the majority of small businesses had to let go of at least one employee in light of the pandemic, according to data from Zen Business. Loss of revenue has forced businesses to take drastic action in order to cut costs so that they can continue to operate, and that has included staff downsizing. 

According to the survey, 27.4% of small businesses laid off 2-5 team members, and 14% laid off over 11. Only around a quarter of SMEs didn’t report any layoffs due to the pandemic (Zen Business)

40% of businesses increased marketing spending

Despite widespread loss of revenue, 40% of respondents to a CBIZ survey said they planned to increase marketing spending over the following 6 months. Much of this marketing spend will likely have been allocated towards digital channels as small businesses seek to connect with consumers at home and capitalize on the boom in consumer social media use due to national lockdowns. (CBIZ)

29% of small businesses updated policies

This is according to a survey conducted by Score. Small businesses were forced to be agile and adapt their policies and practices in order to keep pace with the rapid upheaval of the business landscape and changing consumer trends. (Score)

Over half of small businesses with 2-10 employees now offer remote work as an option 

In a survey conducted by Zen Business, 51.8% of small businesses with 2-10 employees reported that they now offer remote work as an option for employees. This change comes as 55% of small businesses were forced to go remote during lockdown due to lockdowns and government regulations. This trend towards remote enablement was one of the biggest adaptations made by businesses in all sectors. (Zen Business)

Related Reading: 28 Latest Remote Work Statistics You Need To Know.

Post-pandemic trends and predictions

COVID-19 had a huge impact on the world as we know it, and has changed the business landscape more than anyone expected. Here are some predictions and statistics relating to how small businesses will recover and adapt in a post-pandemic world as we move on to a ‘new normal’.

31.4% of businesses expect it to take more than 6 months to return to normal pre-pandemic levels of operation. 

According to an article published by census.gov, around a ⅓ of businesses expect to return to normal operation in 6 months or more. However, as governments roll out vaccinations, some businesses may be able to return to normal sooner than expected. (Census.gov)

Remote work is here to stay and is set to increase among small businesses by 16.5%

Remote work COVID statistic

The pandemic led to a business-wide adoption of remote work, and many small businesses have begun to recognize the benefits of working remotely. According to Zen Business, remote working could increase in small businesses by as much as 16.5%. (Zen Business)

41% of small businesses expect to hire new staff over the next year

Despite the pandemic causing many businesses to be forced to lay off staff, it seems that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Almost half of businesses expect to expand their teams over the next year, which is a positive sign for employees and small business owners. (Small Biz Trends)

Final thoughts

As you can see, COVID has impacted small businesses in many profound ways. But with widespread vaccine role outs, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s hope that the next year sees small businesses bounce back and return to business as normal.