Survey: Over half of Marin County businesses surviving pandemic economy on savings, family loans, credit cards
Over half of Marin County businesses have dipped into personal savings, rang up credit card debt or turned to family for a loan to make ends meet, survey results have concluded.
That’s the revelation in a survey conducted in three weeks in February by Keep Marin Working (KMW), a collaboration of economic development organizations formed to help the Marin County business community navigate out of the COVID-19 crisis.
It was among results shared Wednesday by San Rafael Chamber of Commerce CEO Joanne Webster at the North Bay Business Journal’s Impact Marin virtual conference.
“These businesses are at a critical juncture, and they need help,” Webster said.
Like many communities, Marin County has been hard hit by the pandemic.
Over three-quarters of the businesses surveyed reported declines in revenue. Over a third reported “drastic” decreases.
And the problem could worsen, she said, like facing higher produce prices, if there’s a drought.
To help small businesses, KMW proposes a $2 million countywide program that would deliver grants to help maintain jobs in the region.
“The lifeblood of Marin’s economy is in sustaining small businesses. They cannot take on any more debt,” said the chief at a chamber whose membership hails in the county seat that once thrived as an emerging, bustling sub metropolis of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The group is also endorsing a “deeper dive” into reasons why many of these small businesses did not receive the additional assistance they needed. Seventy percent of these companies indicated they’ve been in business for over a decade.
Despite the future appearing volatile, a little less than half of the 1,200 companies surveyed have not lost their fighting spirit. They plan to “remain in business.”
Pouring her heart into business
One such example is Equator Coffee, a specialty roaster based in Marin County and run by Co-founder and Executive Chairwoman Helen Russell.
“All the pivoting that went on in the first six months made all are heads spin,” she told conference attendees.
Russell outlined the surging promise of a 26-year-old business on the path to growth, with 160 employees and multiple locations. Then, the coronavirus outbreak hit.
“The early months were very difficult — a lot of sleepless nights,” she said, noting her business was cut in half.
Amid closures, Russell said she focused on the retail, grocer and digital business divisions and switched to an emphasis on smaller bags — a trend among coffee companies during the pandemic.
“We had to close down to reassess where we were with COVID,” she said.
Fast-forward to today, she said she’s thankful to operate in a region where she can find support and resources and find “green chutes,” referring to evidence of growth.
Seeking windows of hope
To 34-year commercial real estate expert Haden Ongaro, signs of growth in the business community may open doors to an upward trend in an otherwise devastating situation over the past year.
“The last year has been the slowest year ever in office sales transactions,” Newmark Executive Managing Director Ongaro told attendees.
For starters, Ongaro shared that the first quarter of 2021 shows an 18.3% vacancy rate. Office sales transactions totaled $28 million in 2020, in contrast to $417 million in 2019. Businesses anchored by offices sat stalled in a perpetual stalemate.
Office market trends may demonstrate a leaning toward conversion of these commercial spaces to residential, especially since most economic watchers agree that adequate housing is in such short supply.
When offices managers do throw open their doors, employees may experience one of three models starting to pop up in the commercial real estate vernacular:
1. “Hub & Spoke” involves a small headquarters footprint with multiple satellite offices where employee clusters live.
2. “Decentralized” also dictates a small headquarters for essential employees, with a majority working from home or in a hybrid situation.
3. “Return to the office” represents the closest model to pre-pandemic life, with everyone returning to the office and perhaps a little time at home.
These return-to-work scenarios are expected to bring forth office environments with more of a “homey” feel, with corporate managers emphasizing healthy work environments designed to enhance productivity, Ongaro added.
Some of these enhancements may range from the use of natural daylight and filtration system upgrades to utilizing outdoor space and encouraging recreation work areas.
