Survey: Majority of small businesses in Illinois earning less than last year

(The Center Square) – More small business owners in Illinois are finding it harder this year to generate the same income they earned in 2023.

A survey by the small business network Alignable found that 58% of small businesses in Illinois earn less now than last year, an increase of 7% from the month before.

Researcher Chuck Casto said even though the Fed is talking about cutting interest rates in September, the damage has been done.

“Even though the inflation rate is going down, the effects of cumulative inflation and higher than usual prices that we've had for several years now are continuing to drive more and more worries among small businesses,” said Casto.

Beyond that, high interest rates and increasing rent payments continue to shrink margins and hinder growth. Forty-one percent of small businesses couldn’t pay rent in full and on time in July and 52% experienced rent spikes.

According to the report, 73% of small business owners nationwide said they are falling short of what revenue they generated last year. A majority of small business owners in 17 states reported that their revenues were down this year compared to 2023, with the highest percentages in Virginia, California and Arizona.

Over 80% of small businesses in manufacturing, beauty salons and real estate are reporting significant revenue declines.

The findings are based on 6,155 survey responses from randomly selected small business owners from 7/1/24 to 7/31/24.