Small Businesses Affected by Coronavirus Might Get Loans and Grants in the United States and Australia

Coronavirus has had an immense impact on almost every single area of our lives. Small businesses came under a major attack that left many of them without any resources and possibilities to further grow. As of March 23, some of them claim to be temporarily closed while others decided to shut down completely. In the United States alone, about 30 million small businesses are high on the list of COVID-19 victims.

The following are the top business industries most harshly affected by the coronavirus:

• Shipping: there have recently been many challenges to the shipping industry since several businesses’ supply lines faced many disruptions due to coronavirus pandemic;
• Film production: because the coronavirus can be very easily spread, any gathering of large groups of people – as in any film production – is dangerous;
• Retail: the retail industry has indeed been devastated by the coronavirus, and a large number of stores worldwide have already shut down;
• Tech: many tech factories have closed their operations in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, and production of game consoles and smart devices is expected to drop by more than 10%;
• Conventions: gatherings of large groups of people have proved to be incredibly dangerous, thus many conferences and summits have been canceled;
• Foodservice: foodservice industry had to face the most adverse consequences, since in many countries all restaurants, cafes, buffets have been ordered to close;
• Construction: many countries, including the U.S., have long planned on expansion, but those plans were pulled back due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. In addition to that, several airline companies in the U.S. (Delta and United Airlines) decided to reduce their capital investment.

Many small businesses have also opened up shortly before coronavirus hit, so they had to undergo the biggest challenges. Among those were beer brewing companies, car clubs, craft spirits businesses, as well as bakeries.

In order to support those businesses and prevent them from fully shutting down, many governments worldwide are offering millions of dollars in loans and grants for small businesses affected by the coronavirus. For example, the U.S. Small Business Administration decided to start giving out $2 million in loans in March 2020. A similar approach was also adopted by the Australian government who issued $189 billion for the unemployed, wage subsidies for small businesses and support to retain workers for the rest of 2020.

Due to such circumstances imposed by the coronavirus, the topic of relevant small businesses in 2020 became even widely discussed. Recently, several areas have emerged as popular options for starting a small business:

• Virtual Assistance
• Proofreading
• Freelance Writing
• Social Media Management
• Facebook Ads Management
• Blog Writing
• Resume Writing and Editing
• SEO Consulting
• Email Marketing
• Online Fitness Classes
• Meal Planning
• Online Tutoring.

The areas above are mostly online-based. On one hand, such an online approach might seem like something very novel and not efficient. On the other hand, this approach saves time and resources which thus lets businesses develop much faster and much more productively in 2020.