Small Businesses Expect Positive Impact from Vaccine Availability
Thryv Holdings and America’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) conducted a study revealing that nearly two-thirds of small businesses anticipate moderate to large impacts from vaccine distribution. The study indicated significant effects on personal services industries while showing minimal expected impact on home services. Additionally, 66% of small business owners expect to recover mostly or fully within a year, although 4% foresee closure. The report highlights the resilience of small businesses and their hope for recovery as vaccinations increase.
- 66% of small businesses expect to recover mostly or fully within 12 months.
- A majority of respondents show optimism regarding recovery due to vaccine distribution.
- 4% of small businesses expect to be out of business before the pandemic ends.
Study by Thryv and America’s SBDC analyzes impact on industries across all 50 states over past year
Dallas, April 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nearly two-thirds of America’s small businesses expect to see a moderate to large impact on their businesses as a result of widespread vaccine distribution, according to a nationwide study released by Thryv Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: THRY) and America's Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) The study also provides insight into how the vaccine roll-out will affect different business industries.
The study showed that industries expecting a large impact from the vaccine included personal services, such as hair salons and restaurants, doctors, and businesses catering to pets. Industries expecting the least impact from the vaccine included home services, home repair and auto-related services. Industries expecting a large impact from the vaccine were also the ones who most strongly supported increased government stimulus.
Concerning expectations for their business to rebound following the pandemic, 66 percent of respondents expect to be mostly or totally recovered in 12 months, while 31 percent said they will be only half or less than half recovered. Four percent expect to be out of business before the pandemic ends.
"We can’t yet predict exactly how long it will take small businesses to fully recover to where they were before the pandemic," said Gordon Henry, Chief Strategy Officer at Thryv. "But the vaccine roll-out is giving a lot of business owners hope that recovery is in sight. I hope that soon, more and more people will feel safe going out to local businesses and supporting services that require physical contact."
Thryv — a SaaS and marketing solutions company with over 400,000 small business clients worldwide — and America's SBDC initially conducted the nationwide small business study from March 20 to July 2, 2020, where 4,244 small businesses participated. The organizations continued to track the business climate as the pandemic progressed. The study's participants are owners or senior managers of small businesses across over 100 industries. The majority of these businesses are well established. More than half (51 percent) of these businesses have been in business for more than 30 years. Six in ten have annual revenue below
"We are hopeful that small business activity will resume as the country begins to open back up," Henry said. "We have been advocates and supporters of small businesses at Thryv for decades, and while COVID-19 hit a large swath of small businesses hard, we have been deeply impressed with the resiliency and creativeness of America’s entrepreneurs. We believe in small business and we are optimistic that a sense of normalcy could be returning."
Thryv Holdings, Inc., and America's SBDC will continue to track progress as new surveys go out each week to collect more data as more vaccinations become available. The full results of the study can be found on Thryv's website, here.
About Thryv Holdings, Inc.
Thryv Holdings, Inc. owns the easy-to-use Thryv® end-to-end customer experience software built for growing small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) that helps over 40,000 SaaS clients with the daily demands of running a business. With Thryv®, SMBs can get the job, manage the job and get credit. Thryv’s award-winning platform provides modernized business functions, allowing SMBs to reach more customers, stay organized, get paid faster and generate reviews. These functions include building a digital customer database, automated marketing through email and text, updating business listings across the internet, scheduling online appointments, sending notifications and reminders, managing ratings and reviews, generating estimates and invoices, and processing payments.
Thryv supports franchise operators and multi-location business owners with Hub by Thryv™, a software console that enables businesses managers to oversee their operations using the Thryv® software.
Thryv also connects local businesses to consumer services through our search, display and social media management products, our print directories featuring The Real Yellow Pages® tagline, and our local search portals, which operate under the DexKnows.com®, Superpages.com® and Yellowpages.com URLs and reach some 35 million monthly visitors. For more information about the company, visit thryv.com.
Thryv delivers business services to more than 400,000 SMBs worldwide that enable these SMBs to compete and win in today’s economy.
On March 1, 2021, Thryv announced it closed the acquisition of Sensis, Australia’s leading digital, marketing and directory services provider, which helps Australians connect and engage through its leading platforms, digital consumer businesses (Yellow, White Pages, True Local and Whereis), search engine marketing and optimization services, website products, social, data and mapping solutions, and through its digital agency Found. Sensis is also Australia’s largest print directory publisher including the Yellow and White Pages.
Headquartered in Melbourne, Sensis has a sales presence in all states and territories across Australia.
About America's Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
America's Small Business Development Center (SBDC) network is a partnership uniting private enterprise, government, higher education and local nonprofit economic development organizations. It is the Small Business Administration's largest partnership program, providing management and technical assistance to help Americans start, run and grow their own businesses. Learn more at www.americassbdc.org.
Media Contact:
Paige Blankenship
972.453.3012
April Youngblut
703.764.9850
Investor Contacts:
Cameron Lessard
214.773.7022
cameron.lessard@thryv.com
KJ Christopher
972.453.7068
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