Important Avenue Companies Keep Resilient Amid Pandemic’s Affect
CLEVELAND – (BUSINESS WIRE) – CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE: CBZ), a leading provider of financial, insurance, and advisory services, has released the CBIZ Main Street Index for the first quarter of 2021 to assess the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the small and Medium Business Measure (SMB) marketplace. The results show that, despite ongoing challenges, businesses on Main Street remain resilient and remain optimistic.
The survey, conducted between February 8 and February 26, 2021, analyzes responses from over 2,480 Main Street companies with fewer than 100 employees in the US and across 27 industries. * The index assessed a range of topical issues, including The Overarching Impact of COVID-19, Business Confidence, State of Growth or Decline, Key Concerns, and Response Strategies.
“The CBIZ Main Street Index shows that while companies are still directly dealing with the impact of the pandemic over a year later, they are overall optimistic and employ different growth strategies,” said Philip Noftsinger, executive vice president of CBIZ. Inc. “A key takeaway from the data is that companies feel they can weather the storm. The index results show how flexible and innovative the SMB market can be in such a business climate, while remaining focused on short-term and long-term goals. ”
The data was assessed from an overall perspective as well as according to company size, region and industry. The main results include:
Companies continue to feel the effects of COVID-19 – 14% of companies reported severe effects from COVID-19, 30% reported significant effects, and 26% reported moderate effects. This data represents a slight shift from the fourth quarter 2020 index release, where 15% of companies reported severe impact, 28% significant, and 25% reported moderate impact.
Loss of revenue continues to be a major concern on Main Street – 61% of businesses said lost revenue is a key concern. This corresponds to 68% of the companies in the index publication for the fourth quarter of 2020. Employee safety and a longer sales cycle or a downtime in the pipeline were, among other things, important data from the data for the first quarter of 2021.
Despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic, the majority of companies have a positive outlook – almost three-quarters of companies reported positive or very positive business confidence, taking into account factors such as COVID-19 vaccine distribution, adaptability, e-commerce and economic recovery were. Alternatively, around a quarter of companies reported negative or very negative business confidence, due to, among other things, the pandemic, drop in sales, uncertainty and political factors.
In an uncertain business climate, there are signs of growth and reinvestment – While 58% of companies saw moderate or significant sales decline, 22% saw moderate or significant growth in marketing efforts, and 24% saw moderate or significant growth in new products and / or services.
Businesses evolve as the environment changes – companies have implemented or plan to implement a variety of strategies in response to the pandemic. These include changing recruiting strategies, increasing employee benefits, and leveraging funding like Save Our Stages and The Barstool Fund. In the remote workforce space, 19% of companies plan to keep employees working full-time remotely after the pandemic, and 52% plan to keep employees working part-time remotely.
Visit the CBIZ website for an interactive infographic using data from the index.
* Note: Not all of the respondents in the CBIZ Main Street Index are CBIZ customers.
About CBIZ
CBIZ, Inc. is a leading provider of financial, insurance, and advisory services to businesses in the United States. Financial services include accounting, taxation, government health advice, transactional advice, risk advice, and valuation services. Insurance services include advice on employee benefits, advice on retirement plans, property and casualty insurance, payroll and human capital advice. With more than 100 corporate offices in 31 states, CBIZ is one of the largest accounting and insurance broker companies in the United States. More information is available at www.cbiz.com.
