A Designer's Perspective: Covid-19 Business Impact by the Newton Needham Chamber of Commerce

This morning I attended a webinar called Covid-19 Business Impact, organized by the Newton Needham Chamber of Commerce.

As a branding designer, this year I've worked with many companies who were either looking to use their downtime to do a face-lift and others who needed to do a pivot to move their business online - fast.

And I've personally thrived on the challenge of working with creative small business owners who are energetic to take this opportunity to go online and engage with their first digital Zoom conference or make their first online sale from their own e-commerce website. Solving solvable challenges is fun.

But, I've been curious about the other side of the coin. The ones that aren't reaching out. The ones that don't see the opportunity and just see the cost. Or the limits. Where does this leave them? So I signed up for this webinar to see what I would learn.

Most of the webinar was spent reviewing answers to a questionnaire which was responded to by 248 Massachusetts businesses in 27 cities and towns in the region. Here are the answers which most piqued my interest:

Question: How would you rank the severity of the economic impacts from COVID-19 on your business?

  • Large Negative Effect - 34%

  • Moderate Negative Effect - 42%

  • Little or No Effect - 12%

  • Moderate Positive Effect - 7%

  • Large Positive Effect - 5%

Question: What resources or assistance are you currently using to manage impacts from COVID-10?

  • Participate in programs to mitigate layoffs - 53%

  • Personal Savings - 30%

  • SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan - 23%

  • Other Loans - 11%

  • Federal Grants - 9%

Question: Beyond financial assistance, what other types of assistance do you anticipate you will need to manage impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak?

  • Communications/marketing/social media - 48%

  • Operations and strategic planning support - 33%

  • Collaborating with other organizations and developing partnerships - 31%

  • Human resources support - 23%

So what did I learn? While we are all dealing with the same pandemic, we are not all in the same boat. The majority of businesses have had a moderate to a large negative effect on their business. And, many business owners drew on personal savings to ride this out. We also see businesses looking for creativity from communications to marketing, social media, and planning support.

So those without the resources? Well, I wondered what should they do. Part of the purpose of this webinar was to assess where the need is and to create options. In the meantime, here is a Small Business Resource Guide provided by The Massachusetts Growth Capital Corp.

Is your business looking for creative support? Have you considered a rebrand? I offer a complimentary assessment to small business owners. You are welcome to schedule a review today - click to make an appointment.

With that shared, I'll leave you with a quote, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence—it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” —Peter Drucker

ClientsLauren Buis