How much money does the average Maine Business need, beyond what they anticipate they will make in sales, in order to guarantee they will be open 12 months from today?
A. $15,000 B. $35,000 C. $65,000 D. 85,000

What percentage of Maine businesses say they will continue with remote workspaces for some employees?
A. 10% B. 25% C. 33% D. 40%

What percentage of Maine businesses say they will continue with flexible scheduling for some employees?
A. 10% B. 25% C. 33% D. 40%

What is the overwhelming business need for businesses over the next 3-6 months?
A. Lower Utility Rates B. More Employees C. Injection of Cash D. Rent/Mortgage Relief

These are just four examples of the information we received through the 2021 Moving Forward Business Survey whose results were released last week. It was a survey created by the Maine Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (MACCE), the Maine Tourism Association and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. MACCE is comprised of lead staff people at all of the local and regional chambers in the State, along with staff from several trade associations. I’m the past president of MACCE, the architect of the survey and the lead analyst.

The goal of the survey was to get the perspective of business leaders in December of 2020 as we head into the new year. The results were given to legislators and other policy leaders, to help inform them of what businesses need as we emerge from the pandemic. The release of the survey results is much later than I had anticipated, but to be honest, I didn’t fully appreciate just how much information would be gathered.

There were 514 business leaders who responded to the survey from over 35 industries and all counties are represented. The survey covers multiple topics including hiring obstacles, business needs, COVID-19’s effect on key business issues, business priorities, grading pandemic communication and the outlook for 2021. The 36 questions were divided into 8 categorization questions and 28 content questions. The categorization questions allow us to sort the other 28 answers by industry type, number of employees, geographical region and more.

The 36-page survey report, 8-page Executive Summary and One-page Top Takeaways sheet are all available on the MACCE website (MACCE.biz) and our own Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber website (midcoastmaine.com). My hope is that this report can be used as a marker of what perceptions were at the end of 2020, and use that as the benchmark as we create policy to improve business outcomes in 2021.

For instance in hiring, one of three respondents said that less than half of their job applicants have the qualifications they would expect from a typical new hire. If we implement some programs to help job seekers improve their qualifications and then ask that question again at the end of 2021 we can compare the answer to what we heard in this survey to see if the new programs helped.

To be clear, the questions at the beginning of this column are not examples of questions asked, but rather these are questions I created from the survey results for you. Rather than just telling you the answer, I want you to consider what businesses must be going through to admit they need additional income above their expected sales to guarantee they will stay open.

Of course, the word “guarantee” is doing a lot of work in that question, but also remember all business models are designed so that the business will be profitable on whatever their typical sales are, so to admit they need additional income beyond that to guarantee they will be open in a year is quite a statement. It’s even more impactful when you consider the answer is C: $65,000.

Let’s run this out- what does that mean from a policy-making standpoint? It means that perhaps a funding program could be created with direct money going to businesses to close that gap from the American Rescue Plan funding. It also means that businesses might be hard-pressed to afford additional new expenses in this year where they are trying to recover. To give a hypothetical example, if a bill came up for a new $1,000 business license that all businesses were required to have, this would be more damaging in 2021 than in other years when they weren’t seeking additional income for survival.

The other answers above, were B, B and C. Just over 25% of businesses are considering continuing with remote work spaces and flexible scheduling, while the most pressing business need in the next 3-6 months is an Injection of Cash (as foretold in the first question). The remote workspaces and flexible scheduling is huge to me, even though 25% may seem like a low number to many.

Prior to COVID, working remotely or offering a flexible schedule was essentially theoretical. I would venture maybe one in 10 businesses were even considering it two years ago, now having utilized it during COVID, one in four are going to continue with it. That’s a giant shift. What’s a policy outcome for that? We need more reliable broadband if 25% of our businesses will be having people work remotely.

Here are a few other key takeaways from the survey:

– The average reimbursement businesses could use for building modifications they were required to make because of COVID protocols is $6,000. The average reimbursement businesses could use for PPE expenses is $4,000.

– The top two reasons for not hiring someone were: the applicant doesn’t have the skills and the applicant doesn’t want to work the hours available.

– Less than 7% of respondents said is was somewhat unlikely or extremely unlikely that they would be open one year from now, and respondents were nearly twice as likely to say they were optimistic than pessimistic about the business outlook for 2021, and that’s a very good takeaway to head into spring with.

Cory King is the executive director of the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber.

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