Small Businesses Owners Adapt to Supply Chain Disruption, Rising Inflation

Truist’s annual Small Business Pulse survey enquired about small business owners to see how they have overcome the challenges they are facing to grow their business due to economic uncertainty and rising inflation. The top business concerns, according to the survey, include the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, rising costs, economic uncertainty, supply chain issues and labor shortages.

• 67% of respondents said their workforce has changed over the past year, and 24% have open jobs, while 23% lost key workers and 18% shifted to contractors.

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• 65% of respondents experienced issues with supply chain in the past year, which impacted their businesses in many ways, including through lower profitability (45%), reduced sales (42%), and loss of customers (36%).

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Small business owners have taken many actions to overcome the issues and challenges they have faced the past few years:

• Supply chain issues have prompted small business owners to search for new supply sources (48%), use local suppliers (45%) and adjust delivery schedules (37%).

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• 81% of respondents have taken action to retain employees by increasing wages (41%), offering remote work (27%), provided training (22%) and offering additional vacation time (21%).

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• 90% of respondents have taken action to address for inflation by accepting lower profits (39%), changing purchasing to reduce expenses (36%) and reevaluating pricing (35%).

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“It’s encouraging to hear that while uncertainties in the market remain, small businesses are being proactive to make investments to achieve business goals,” Scott Stearsman, head of small business for Truist, said. “This resiliency we’re seeing indicates the COVID-19 pandemic helped our small business leaders learn to better prepare for the unforeseen and continue to be inspired to build better lives and communities. Our survey found that they are more optimistic about their finances than at any time in the past three years, and this includes 2019, even before the pandemic. Despite the fact that small business owners are facing many challenges and concerns, their future financial well-being is not one of them.”