WCSC-TV
June 16, 2020
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – All 50 states have given businesses the green light to reopen under certain conditions, yet many small business are keeping their doors shut.
Small Business for America’s Future, a new coalition of small-business owners and leaders, recently found that 1 in 4 businesses have considered closing permanently because of the coronavirus pandemic. The task force has justified its creation because small businesses employ half our country.
Small Businesses for America’s Future was created to help small businesses raise their issues to our members of Congress and state legislators, prioritizing Main Street over Wall Street.
The Co-Chair of SBAF, Frank Knapp Jr., is from South Carolina, and he says we are losing small businesses daily.
“Consumer demand is way off,” Knapp said. “Even though we’ve opened up restaurants and hotels, still consumer demand is low. So we need to help the hospitality industry get back on their feet again and survive until things get kind of back to normal.”
Knapp also says that in SBAF’s recent study, only about 4.5 million Paycheck Protection Program loans have been given, while there are 30 million small businesses in the U.S..
“If we want to get out of this recession that we’re in, we need small businesses,” Knapp said. “And we need them to be healthy, and we need them to start rehiring. That’s going to be crucial for our state’s economy, for Charleston’s economy, and for the national economy. Small businesses must be helped so that they can help everybody else.”
SBAF also found that 13% of businesses are facing the possibility of having to declare bankruptcy.
Charleston County officials say the county won’t know the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic on small businesses until licenses renewals are processed in January 2021.