The gut reaction to quickly pivot their business was a survival method that saved many small business owners from closing their doors this year. Now, nine months after initial stay at home orders were set in place in response to the spread of COVID-19, many entrepreneurs across the country are looking for their second pivot of the year in order to survive.
Veteran entrepreneur Roxanne Huggins has owned the Comstock Premier Lodge in Sargent, Nebraska since 2009. Working with her husband Mitch and one other employee, they have managed to expand their business from a large farm to a year-round bed & breakfast hunting lodge and ranch.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has raged across the country and resurges in California, small business owners continue grappling with the effects of state and local public health orders and a loss in consumer demand. Nine months into this crisis, California’s small business owners say their businesses have been diminished, leaving them with reduced revenue and operating capacity. They’re making difficult decisions that are impacting the workforce through reduced wages, working hours and employee benefits.
Over the summer, as small business owners began to share how they were pivoting their businesses to meet the needs of their communities and stay open during the pandemic, we were inspired to launch our Stories of Resiliency campaign on Instagram.
Over the past six months, we have shared dozens of stories from small business owners in our network who have expertly adapted their businesses and overcome massive unexpected setbacks. Here are some of their stories.
Small Business Majority has released its comprehensive state policy agenda to ensure entrepreneurship is at the center of a thriving and inclusive economy in Virginia during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s critical that state lawmakers enact both short- and long-term policies to support and empower these entrepreneurs by guaranteeing that they have access to capital to maintain and pivot their business, affordable and quality healthcare and the tools and benefits they need to sustain themselves now and in the future.
As the owner of a catering company, Nicole Jordan has seen an extreme decline in contracts and income since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately for this Illinois-based small business owner, as a former banker she is well connected to the financial resources in her community.
Small Business Majority’s Outreach Team advocates for entrepreneurs on two fronts: It supports policies that would benefit small firms, and it offers workshops and events that help small business owners grow their companies. We have found this work to be even more important during this global health and economic crisis.
This week we are spotlighting Rachel Shanklin, Small Business Majority’s new Georgia Outreach Manager, to let small business owners know how our team members can assist them.
Derreck Johnson is painstakingly aware of how the current global health crisis has impacted not only his small business but the entire small business ecosystem in Oakland, Calif.
Derreck has been an entrepreneur for the past 30 years and has always had a passion for identifying a community need and filling it with a business. His entrepreneurial journey started with a small car washing business, but now he is a restaurateur and the proud founder of the now employee-owned restaurant Home of Chicken and Waffles.
With open enrollment for 2021 now live and U.S. Supreme Court hearings that could determine the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) happening this week, healthcare is top of mind for many small business owners. Rich Gordon, a solo-entrepreneur and healthcare agent in Georgia is amongst them.
Rich actually started his business in response to the passing of the ACA. He had worked his entire career in health insurance and was approaching retirement. He saw the ACA as an opportunity to both help people and sustain an income in his retirement.
Tammy McDaniel started working in travel management after serving in the Iowa National Guard for five years and the U.S. Air Force for more than two years, but she’s always had a curiosity and passion for the travel industry. As a young woman who vacationed with her family every year, she found travel booking to be an interesting way to make a living. She sought opportunities to help her learn more about travel management, and eventually she opened Tammy’s Journeys in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.
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