BOSTON– While several small- and medium-size business (SMB) sectors have shown some strong signs of recovery over the past month, 43% of minority-owned SMBs still struggled to pay their rent in full and on time in December, according to Alignable's Monthly Rent Poll of 5,818 small business owners.
The survey took place during December.
The company said its December Road To Recovery Report does offer an “encouraging increase” in revenue for many small businesses, “as they end yet another year tackling the challenges of a global pandemic.”
The survey found 43% of small businesses reported achieving pre-COVID levels of monthly revenue, demonstrating that they have fully recovered from the financial effects of the pandemic.
“Even more impressive, this represented a jump of 16% over the 27% of SMBs that had fully recovered in November,” the company said. “And many of those figures are supported by Alignable's December Rent Report, which shows that only 26% of all SMBs suffered from rent problems in December. That's the lowest monthly level of small business rent delinquency reported since the pandemic began.”
Solid Improvement In Rent Issues Overall
According to Alignable, that 26% figure represents a 9% improvement over the 35% of small businesses unable to pay rent in November.
“While it should be noted that the 43% statistic from minority business owners reflects a 6% improvement over November's figure of 49%, it still points to an ongoing lack of support for disadvantaged businesses,” Alignable said.
In releasing the findings, it added, “since the pandemic began, those business owners have told us how much they struggled to receive PPP funding and any other help required to overcome the negative effects of the pandemic.”
Women-Owned Businesses Still Struggling
Alignable reported that beyond minority-owned businesses, its survey found small enterprises owned by women have also encountered more struggles along the way and “it's telling to see that a larger percentage of businesses owned by minorities or women (or both), consistently have more rent challenges. Despite some improvement from November to December, it's clear more work needs to be done to help level the playing field for minority-owned and women-owned small businesses.”
Other Findings
According to Alignable, other findings in its survey include:
- In November, 40% of small retailers reported they couldn't make rent, but in December, that number dropped by 15% to just 25% -- an all-time low for retailers during the pandemic.
- Beyond retailers, other industries that showed double-digit improvement in their rent situations include automotive (car dealers, repair shops, etc. -- down 17%), travel/lodging (also down 17%), and beauty salons (down 19%).
- Based on its poll, the only two states that did not witness an improvement in small business rent delinquency in December were Michigan and Massachusetts. Other states including New York, which usually vies for the top spot on the list of states with the most rent-troubled small businesses, saw a dip of 14% between November and December. Other states that saw some vast improvements in the SMB rent situation included: Maryland (down 18% to 23%), Florida (down 9% to 21%), Illinois (down 9% to 27%), and Texas (down 7% to 23%).