What’s the biggest problem small-business owners face?

Right now, surviving the economic downturn caused by the
coronavirus pandemic is probably the only thing most small-business
owners are focused on, but a survey conducted by the NFIB prior to
COVID-19 pointed to the cost of health insurance as their top concern.
While the pandemic one day will end, as vaccines and successful
treatments are developed, there seems no end to spiraling health
insurance costs.

“Although the government shutdowns and coronavirus pandemic have
fundamentally shaken the small-business economy, we know that even
during historic small-business expansions, owners consistently face
many of the same problems,” NFIB President Brad Close said in a
release accompanying the survey results. “As small business goes, so
goes the economy. While small businesses were setting records for
growth, job creation, and optimism, healthcare costs, and government
regulations were constant pain points.”

NFIB’s Problems and Priorities Survey is conducted every four
years and asks small-business owners to evaluate 75 issues on a
scale of 1 (a critical problem) to 7 (not a problem). After the costs
of health insurance (cited by 51 percent of respondents), locating
qualified employees was cited as the second-biggest concern of survey
respondents. Slightly more than 30 percent of small-business owners
identified it as a major concern.

“One area that we’re going to continue to watch is ‘competition with
large business’ since so many small businesses have had to close or
temporarily close due to the coronavirus,” NFIB Director of Research
and Policy Analysis Holly Wade said. “Small businesses have always
had to compete with large stores, but this pandemic has definitely
heightened that.”

Obviously, Congress and the White House have their hands full
dealing with the public health crisis. But when it subsides, let’s hope
they roll up their sleeves and tackle some of these issues that have
long hampered small-business owners.

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