34% Of Small Businesses Can't Cover May Rent

BOSTON, April 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest Alignable Pulse Poll of 9,500 small business owners from April 24-27, 2020, shows 34% of small businesses nationwide won't pay May rent in full, of which 84% will only be able to pay half of the rent or less next month. 

While the majority of small businesses have made arrangements with landlords for reduced or delayed payments, 36% can't get their landlords to budge.

And nearly half of business owners who negotiated with landlords were only able to delay rent by one month. Only 22% were successful in deferring rent for three months and a lucky 3% pushed off rent for six months. 

"Given the massive impact that COVID-19 has waged against small businesses, the issue of paying rent every month just intensifies the problems confronting these very dedicated business owners," said Eric Groves, Alignable Co-Founder and CEO. "It's gratifying to see that nearly two-thirds of landlords have offered some help, knowing they too have loans and expenses to pay. With that in mind, we need to put more pressure on Washington and the banks to get the CARES Act relief in the hands of small business owners."

The industries most affected by rent struggles include retail, personal services, travel, and restaurants, but this problem cuts across all categories at this point.

That's largely because more than 44% of all small businesses have closed as of today, according to another Alignable poll, running April 17-26 with 40,000 respondents. It showed that COVID-19 quarantines have been especially difficult on women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses. 

According to that poll, more than half of all women-owned businesses (52%) report being closed, while similar figures surfaced for minority-owned businesses (48%) and veteran-owned companies (44%). That's compared to all other businesses, where only 38% have shut their doors. On a hopeful note, 98% of all of these businesses plan to reopen once the quarantines have ceased. 

"The effects of this Coronavirus crisis on women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses are especially devastating to see," added Venkat Krishnamurthy, Alignable's Co-Founder and President. "It's hard to fathom how so many of these once-vibrant businesses that bring so much to their communities have been forced into hibernation. We plan to investigate more of these issues in future polls." 

Survey Methodology

These surveys were conducted via email with a random sample of Alignable's membership database of 4.5 million+ small business owners.

The May Rent Pulse Poll includes results from April 24-27, 2020, and was based on the responses of 9,500 small business owners. The Demographics Pulse Poll ran from April 17-27, 2020, and includes responses from more than 40,000 small business owners. All participants run companies ranging from 1 to 50 employees.

Alignable's Pulse Polls are the most immediate and comprehensive polls available reflecting the sentiments of small business owners nationwide.

Stay tuned for new poll findings. For more information, please contact [email protected].

SOURCE Alignable