The Global State of Small Business Report reveals the ongoing crisis facing small businesses, and new challenges ahead. This report surveyed 35,000 small businesses around the world and builds on six surveys over the last year to find comprehensive trends over time. For US data, Facebook partnered with the Small Business Roundtable.

As COVID vaccines are being distributed to more and more American and people across California, 68% of California small business owners say they are confident in their ability to stay open for at least six months.

The news continues to be dire for California business owners - 59% of operating small businesses are reporting lower sales, the third highest state in the nation. Fueling that is the 31% that are expecting a lack of demand and/or no customer challenges from Golden State customers, eight points above the national average.

As of February 2021, 79% of California small businesses were operational or engaging in revenue-generating activities; 33% had reduced employment as a result of the pandemic, 6 points higher than the national average; 22% expect cash flow challenges, 2 points lower than the national average.

Comparatively, other large states saw a mixed bag of results to California, New York only had 69% of SMBs operational or engaging in revenue-generating activities 10 points lower than California. And the results were even more stark when comparing minority-owned SMBs operational in NY was 58%, which is 16 point difference than California (74%). Texas has 83% of women-owned businesses operational, 5 points below California and only 48% reporting lower sales, 9 points below California.

To help small businesses during what are still challenging times, Facebook launched numerous initiatives aimed at supporting small businesses and helping them navigate the uncertainty of reopening including providing grants to business owners, developing innovative new tools and products, and hosting digital tool training events, such as “Boost with Facebook” events.

Here is the link to the report: https://about.fb.com/news/2021/02/2020-was-challenging-for-small-businesses/