Rising costs impact all parts of the economy, but small businesses (particularly those who operate on slim margins) are feeling the pinch.

According to the QuickBooks Small Business Insights Report, 97% of small business owners are worried about inflation and say rising costs are the most significant threat their business faces. In response, 63% plan to raise prices in the next three months.

During the first quarter of 2022, 85% of small business owners said their business was being affected by inflation, and 67% had already been forced to raise prices, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Inflation can be catastrophic for small businesses, and many are worried about having to shut down.

The consumer price index, which measures the prices of goods and services, increased 8.5% in March from a year ago, while the producer price index, which measures prices paid by wholesalers, jumped 11.2% year over year in March.

Some 75% said they are currently experiencing a rise in the cost of their supplies, yet only 40% are increasing prices. That’s down from the 47% of owners who adjusted prices in the first quarter.

Fully 71% of U.S. small business owners said that Covid-19  has negatively affected their revenue, according to a survey by Goldman Sachs. The poll of 1,466 Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Voices participants was conducted by Babson College and David Binder Research from Jan. 10 to 13.

There were 31.7 million small businesses in the U.S. as of October, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, or 99.9% of all firms. Eighty-one percent of small businesses have no paid employees while 19%, or 6 million firms, do.

Moreover, a 2022 Goldman Sachs survey found that 91% of small business owners already struggle with the current economy’s impact on their industries, and 56% say the situation has worsened since the beginning of the year, painting a bleaker picture for the coming months.

Modern small businesses face multi-layered global challenges extraordinary. Following two years of COVID lockdowns, Russia’s war in Ukraine and supply chain chaos, businesses brace for a “menacing” economic storm, Bloomberg reports. 

Nearly half of small business owners handle marketing efforts on their own, reported Fundera, a marketplace for business financial solutions.

With smaller budgets than their big brand counterparts, small businesses need to be creative and resourceful about their digital marketing strategy—and many need an online presence to get there. 

We have always emphasized the importance of having a good website for your company because it can act as your best tool for marketing and sales. A poorly designed website can repulse people from your business and can cause you to lose customers before you even have them. Get in touch with HyperEffects to work on creating, enhancing, and making the website of your company more user-friendly.