The economic conditions for small businesses can shift quite a bit over time. What will 2019 hold for such companies? Some predict that it could be a challenging year for U.S. small businesses.
Take, for instance, a recent article on Forbes’ website. The article, by an economics professor, argues that there are multiple factors that could put a lot of financial pressure on small businesses this year and that such pressure could put a fair amount of such companies at risk of failure.
The factors the article pointed to include:
Increased costs: Things such as minimum wage hikes, increased competition for quality workers and increased cost of materials could push up the expenses businesses face.
Reduced revenues: Quantitative tightening and interest rate increases could slow down the overall U.S. economy. Such a slowdown could disrupt companies’ revenue streams.
Financing troubles: There are additional challenges quantitative tightening and increased interest rates could pose for businesses. This includes challenges when it comes to financing, such as increased costs of financing.
Do you think this year will be a hard one for small business owners?
When small business owners are expecting that the future could hold new financial challenges for their companies, it can be important for them to give careful thought as to how best to prepare their companies for such challenges. What would you recommend for businesses when it comes to preparing for the possibility of hard times?
Now, sometimes, despite a business owner’s best efforts to prepare his or her company for challenges, financial difficulties can end up putting a small business’ future in question. When this happens, it can be very important for an owner to carefully consider what his or her major goals are moving forward and seek out guidance on how likely the different options that businesses can have for addressing major financial problems (such as bankruptcy) would be to help with these goals.