KSL INVESTIGATES
How small businesses, entrepreneurs thrive amidst the pandemic
Jan 21, 2022, 6:09 PM | Updated: Jun 8, 2022, 4:25 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — It is not enough to have a good product or service and a little seed money anymore for a small business to take root. Entrepreneurs face supply chain issues, worker shortages, inflation, not to mention perpetual curve balls tossed at them by the ongoing pandemic.
Who would even want to run a business these days? Turns out, lots of people.
“Generally, we’re seeing a lot of confidence and enthusiasm,” Kathryn Petralia, co-founder of Kabbage — a company which helps other companies, small companies, navigate their business operations — said.
Petralia said small-business bosses are telling her that they finally feel like they have got a handle on things.
“A number of businesses are now actually feeling like they’re running a better business than they were pre-pandemic,” she said.
To keep clearing all the hurdles, she explained that companies have changed the way their businesses operate: innovating and leaning into technologies that have also come a long way in the last two years.
“A lot of them have become sort of influencers and experts in social media to be able to drive new customers to their business,” Petralia said. “And others are using digital banking and other ways to create more efficiency in their back office, in their financial side of the house. And then still, others figured out how to deliver their products to customers in a way that they weren’t doing it before.”
Small businesses account for about two of every three new jobs in this country.
Based on her business dealings, it is a number Petralia said is growing.
“People are leaving their corporate jobs in many cases and going off on their own, to sort of find their own way and do their own thing and are all really small businesses.”
I asked Petralia if there was one thing she could point to that makes the difference between a company succeeding or failing. Her answer? Being organized. The companies that stay on top of their books are the ones she said she sees coming out ahead.
