Small Businesses Still Feeling Recession’s Effects

Posted on 17. Sep, 2010 by Emily Lavin in Uncategorized

New York City’s economic outlook may be brighter, but not everyone is celebrating the news.

For Toni Abinanti, business is still just plain bad.

“I don’t know who they’re asking when they say the economy’s getting better, but it’s not small business owners like me,” said Abinanti, who owns Rudy’s Pastry Shop in Ridgewood, Queens. “Things haven’t improved all year, and they’re not improving now.”

Abinanti isn’t the only one of the city’s small business owners who is still struggling. As New York City continues to add jobs and retail business starts to rebound, many neighborhood shops have yet to feel any relief from the recession.

“Business is still the worst it’s been here,” said Renee Giordano, the executive director of the Sunset Park Business Improvement District in Brooklyn. “I walk around the neighborhood, and I see very few shoppers. No one’s carrying bags from our businesses.”

The city’s small businesses are showing some signs of life, said Pravina Raghavan, the New York district director for the Small Business Administration. According to statistics from the SBA’s lending program, the city’s small businesses have taken out more than 240 million dollars in loans through the SBA since October of 2009—a 63% increase from the year before.

“Loans are usually a good indication for us that small businesses in New York City are starting to recover,” Raghavan said, adding that their lowered loan program fees have helped attract small businesses. “It seems like they’re saying, ‘I have a roadmap, a business plan,’ where as before it was ‘I don’t want to talk to anyone, I’m just going to put my head in the sand.’”

But an increase in the number of loans isn’t necessarily an indication that Mom and Pop shops are bouncing back, said Betty Cooney, the executive director of Brooklyn’s Graham Avenue BID.

“To me, those stats speak more to small business chains or mid-sized small businesses,” said Cooney. “Truly small businesses, ones that have just one or two or three people behind them, still feel like they can’t take risks.”

Eman Kaled, who owns a furniture store in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx, agreed.

“Some businesses may feel like things are picking up, like the money is going to start flowing again,” Kaled said. “But if you’re a family business, it’s not just your work, it’s your livelihood, and that makes you a lot more cautious.”

So business owners like Abinanti are continuing to brace themselves for the worst instead of looking forward to a period of recovery.

“I’m not hiring anybody new this fall,” Abinanti said. “Every September, I hire new girls to work in the bakery, but not this year. Not even the ones looking for part-time work.”