Poll Shows Increase in Small Business Recovery

The latest small business poll from Alignable reveals both good news and bad news. Starting with the good news, among 5,818 small business owners polled in December, many reported long-missing revenues and customers returned in the last month of 2021.

Among the businesses surveyed, 43% reported monthly revenues that matched or exceeded pre-COVID levels. Those numbers represent a 16% increase over 27% in November—the largest monthly jump in recovery revenues seen in all of 2021. 

Now for the bad news: while 43% of small business owners say they’ve fully recovered, the majority (57%) reported they have yet to recover. Most predict it will take until the middle of 2023 until they experience full recovery.

Looking ahead, 44% of those polled said they’re worried the omicron variant of COVID-19 will affect them negatively, while 44% say they’re not worried about omicron at all.

While inflation is the No.1 concern among small businesses surveyed, fears over the government forcing shutdowns due to increasing COVID-19 numbers has doubled in a month from 11% in November to 23% in December.