Main Street Businesses Stay Resilient Amid Pandemic’s Impact
While revenue loss is a key concern, businesses are pivoting strategies, according to the CBIZ Main Street Index
The survey, which was conducted
“The CBIZ Main Street Index shows that although businesses are still dealing head-on with the pandemic’s impact over one year later, their overall tone is optimistic and they are leveraging varied strategies for growth,” said
The data was assessed from an overall perspective, as well as based on company size, region and industry. Key findings include:
- Businesses continue to feel COVID-19’s impact — 14% of businesses reported a severe impact from COVID-19, 30% cited a significant impact and 26% reported a moderate impact. This data marks a marginal shift from the index’s Q4 2020 release, in which 15% of businesses reported a severe impact, 28% cited a significant impact and 25% reported a moderate impact.
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Revenue loss remains top of mind on
Main Street — 61% of businesses noted revenue loss as a key concern. This compares to 68% of businesses in the index’s Q4 2020 release. Employee safety and a prolonged sales cycle or pipeline standstill were among other key concerns from the Q1 2021 data.
- Despite the pandemic’s continued impact, the majority of businesses have a positive outlook — Almost three-quarters of businesses indicated positive or very positive levels of business confidence, noting factors like distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, adaptability, e-commerce and economic recovery. Alternatively, approximately one-quarter of businesses indicated negative or very negative levels of business confidence, with reasons including the pandemic, decreased revenue, uncertainty and political factors.
- Evidence of growth and reinvestment stand out amid an uncertain business climate — While 58% of businesses reported a modest or significant decline in revenue, 22% noted modest or significant growth in marketing efforts and 24% cited modest or significant growth in new products and/or services.
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Businesses are evolving as the environment changes — Businesses have implemented, or plan to implement, a variety of strategies in response to the pandemic. These include modifying recruiting strategies, increasing employee benefits and leveraging funding such as Save Our
Stages and The Barstool Fund . On the remote workforce front, 19% of businesses plan to keep staff working full-time remotely following the pandemic and 52% intend to keep staff working part-time remotely.
To view an interactive infographic with data from the index, visit the CBIZ website.
*Note: Not all of those surveyed in the CBIZ Main Street Index are clients of CBIZ.
About CBIZ
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