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Study: Floods, Fires, and Sales Slowdowns Rank as Top Threats to Small Businesses

Womply, the leader in front office software for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), today released the results of a national study ranking the most dangerous threats to American small businesses, and their preparations to cope with various business risks.

The study, which polled 2,261 small business owners in all 50 states, revealed that threats to company revenue and the physical store are seen as most damaging. Specifically, respondents said the five most impactful threats to their businesses would be:

1. Major damage from a flood, fire, etc.

2. A major slowdown in sales

3. Theft or robbery at the place of business

4. A natural disaster, such as an earthquake or hurricane

5. Legal action against the business

“American small business owners fear large-scale events that would result in massive property damage or serious interruption of cash flow,” says Womply spokesperson Brad Plothow. “Local, independent businesses can’t absorb huge costs as effectively as larger corporations, and revenue is always top of mind. These concerns shape how Main Street entrepreneurs perceive business threats.”

In addition to ranking top threats, the study also looked at how much financial runway small businesses have, how they mitigate against threats, how resilient they are when bad things do happen, and which political or policy issues are most concerning. Read the full report here.

Key findings:

  • Operating hand to mouth: 1 in 5 respondents would shut down within 30 days if sales stopped, and 3 in 4 would survive less than six months.
  • Fear factor: Owners with smaller financial safety nets are typically 2-6 times more likely to consider a wide range of business threats to be “extremely damaging.”
  • Saving for a rainy day: 77 percent of respondents plan to save more money in the next 12 months to reduce their risk from business threats.
  • Underinsured: In general, small business owners aren’t insuring themselves sufficiently against the threats they consider most damaging. For example, 67 percent of owners with less than a month of reserves consider floods, fires, and other disasters “extremely damaging,” but only 21 percent have disaster insurance and only 14 percent have business interruption insurance to maintain cash flow during a stoppage.
  • The Trump effect: 40 percent of respondents consider the Donald Trump presidency to be a benefit to their business, whereas 27 percent view it as a business threat.
  • Political fallout: The most damaging policy changes for small businesses would be increase in healthcare costs and increased taxes.

“Local commerce is a huge driver of economic value, so we need to understand how fragile the small business ecosystem really is,” Plothow says. “For small business owners, their companies are their livelihoods. There’s much more we can do to protect the nation’s vital small business community against threats that could undermine them or, in some cases, force them to close forever.”

About Womply

Womply is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider to small and medium businesses (SMBs) and one of the fastest growing software companies in America. Our mission is to use technology and data to grow, protect, and simplify small business. Every day we serve over 100,000 merchants across 400+ business verticals, in every corner of America. To learn more, visit http://www.womply.com or email info@womply.com.

Contacts:

Womply
Brad Plothow, 801-400-4640
Head of Communications
bplothow@womply.com

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