Report: 53% of N.Y. small firms worried about closing this year due to inflation

A recent survey report finds 53 percent of small businesses in New York state expressed concern that if inflationary trends don’t improve, they could shutter by year’s end. 

That’s the third-highest rate of worry among the 50 states, with only small firms in Illinois and Colorado more concerned (54 percent each), Nationally, 47 percent of U.S.–based small businesses said inflation could potentially be their undoing by year’s end.

The data comes from Alignable’s “Q3 2022 Road To Recovery Report.” It’s based on a poll conducted among 3,564 small-business owners from July 9 to Aug. 4, along with historical data from 675,000 small-business owners surveyed since March 2020.

Alignable is an online referral network for small businesses with more than 7 million members across North America. The organization established a research center in early March 2020, “to track and report the impact of the coronavirus on small businesses, and to monitor recovery efforts, informing the media, policymakers, and our members.”

One of the biggest reasons for worry comes down to this statistic: 91 percent of small companies reported higher costs for gas, labor, supplies, or more, but only 61 percent have been able to charge customers more to cover those expenses.

More than three-quarters of small businesses queried by Alignable said the cost of supplies and inventory are more than 10 percent higher than before COVID, with 39 percent saying those costs have jumped more than 25 percent.

Further details about the poll findings are available at: https://www.alignable.com/forum/alignable-road-to-recovery-report