Pate is the co-founder and CEO of ElliptiGO. He lives in Solana Beach.
There is opportunity in every crisis. I know that so many of my fellow small business owners, after staring down the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, have come away with clear ideas about how we can enable small businesses across the U.S. to thrive in both good times and bad. We have also realized the true meaning of community, coming together to navigate headwinds.
That’s why, last week, I joined more than 2,500 small business owners from across the country — and 160 from California alone — to bring our energy and strength to Washington, D.C. for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit. The event was one of the largest gatherings of small business owners ever in the United States.
It was inspiring to meet with fellow small business owners and hear how they navigated the numerous challenges of the past few years. We also heard from a star-studded lineup of guest speakers including Warren Buffett, George W. Bush, Michael Bloomberg, Chris Paul, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Reynolds. But our true purpose was to unite our voices and deliver an important message to our nation’s lawmakers: Small businesses need more help.
Top on our policy agenda is a call to modernize the U.S. Small Business Administration’s programs and requirements. Somehow, Congress has not reauthorized the Small Business Administration since 2000 (two years before Blackberry launched its smartphone).
Obviously, the needs of small businesses have changed dramatically over the past 22 years, and we strongly believe that the Small Business Administration’s mission and policies should reflect those changes. Specifically, a revitalized Small Business Administration can help us access the capital we need to drive our growth, assist our employees in obtaining safe and affordable child care, and make sure the government is living up to its promises of opening its federal contracting opportunities to more women- and minority-owned small businesses.
Our company, ElliptiGO, is a good example of what many small businesses have faced for nearly two and a half years. During the initial stages of the pandemic, supply chain challenges added complexity and frustration to our elliptical bicycle business and prevented us from meeting the overwhelming demand for our products. Now, products we ordered back in 2020 and 2021 are finally being delivered, but consumer spending has slowed down and shifted to other sectors of the economy, so we have too much inventory on hand, more on the way, and a bleak forecast for the year ahead.
Unfortunately, ElliptiGO is not alone in this predicament we are calling “COVID-19 whiplash.” A new survey of graduates of Goldman Sachs’ business education program, 10,000 Small Businesses, found that while a majority of owners like me (65 percent) remain optimistic, the pandemic-related challenges are continuing to take their toll. For example, 89 percent of small business owners surveyed said that broader economic trends, like inflation and supply chain issues, are negatively impacting their businesses and 65 percent indicated they had raised prices to offset these increased costs. An overwhelming majority (78 percent) said the economy has gotten worse over the past three months and 38 percent reported a decline in consumer demand because of inflationary price increases on goods and services.
Perhaps most concerning is that 93 percent are worried about an economic recession within the next 12 months.
ElliptiGO was fortunate that the 10,000 Small Businesses program helped us prepare for unforeseen challenges and supported us through the pandemic.
However, as these unprecedented times continue to cause unprecedented problems, small business needs a helping hand. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses make up 99 percent of all firms in America. We employ almost half the U.S. workforce and small businesses have accounted for 65 percent of net new job creation since 2000, cementing us as the backbone of our nation’s economy. We are the most resilient, diversified and agile segment of the economy and the pivots and innovations we make in our businesses signal what’s to come for the rest of the country.
I want to thank House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco; Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego; Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, and the other members of California’s congressional delegation who took time to meet with us in Washington and hear our stories.
Join us in calling on our elected representatives to use this crisis as an opportunity to help small businesses in California and across the U.S. chart a successful path to economic recovery in the short term and beyond.