In honor of National Small Business Week (May 12 to May 16), Allstate Insurance Company recently surveyed small-business owners across the U.S. Among the key findings are the "Top Five Things Keeping Small Business Owners Up at Night.""Small-business owners struggle with many of the same issues as big business, but with minimal resources to make 'the business of doing business' happen fluidly," said Mike Barton, president of Allstate Business Insurance. "Allstate is sharing their concerns to help ease the process and bring greater understanding of the challenges they're facing."
There are more than 28 million small businesses in America that employ about one-third of the workforce. Trends indicate the number of small businesses has increased about 50 percent since 1982, and are responsible for adding about eight million jobs to the U.S. economy. According to the Allstate survey, nearly half of small businesses intend to grow in the next year with about one-third of small businesses adding staff.
Notably, labor issues are the single largest business expense encompassing about 50 percent of revenue for small businesses. While firms with high-performing employees are projected to grow three times faster than their peers, these employees are consistently being recruited by other firms. Firms with high-performing talent have a 350 percent growth variance between firms with low-performing talent, and the issues impacting a multi-generational workforce have given way to challenging engagement tactics for small businesses.
Gaps in business revenue pose as a large threat for small businesses. Markedly, 25 percent of small-business claims reported to Allstate are due to damage to the building and/or contents, loss of income, and computer or data loss. Safeguarding a business with insurance for varied risks such as property and auto insurance to data compromises; damages to equipment; and business interruptions, including critical illness, alleviates stress associated to these concerns.
As a provider for more than 250,000 small-business policyholders distributed through more than 10,000 small-business insurance agency owners, Allstate shares resources to help American small businesses prosper.