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Small business owners grapple with record-high inflation rates
Charter Capital has reported that small business owners are struggling to keep up with record-high inflation rates .
Feeling little choice but to pass higher costs onto consumers , many continue raising prices to cover their costs .
As reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( BLS ) in March 2022 , the Consumer Price Index ( CPI ) rose 7.9 % over 12 months , marking the largest inflation rate since 1982 .
Gasoline , shelter and food saw the largest hikes . Energy , as a whole , climbed 25.6 % over the last year .
“ Small businesses , especially , are feeling the strain ,” said Joel Rosenthal , Co-founder and Executive Manager at Charter Capital .
“ Between the pandemic and supply chain issues , the past couple of years have been tough . Most expected some relief in 2022 , but they ’ re back in the problem-solving mode now with the inflation hikes .”
Blueshift Cybersecurity to bring enterprisegrade security to SMEs
Blueshift Cybersecurity , a burgeoning start-up that delivers full-service XDR ( Extended Detection & Response ) protection to small and medium-sized businesses , has announced a US $ 6 million seed funding round from leading investors .
“ Blueshift XDR employs advanced automation to deliver enterprise-grade protection affordably to small and medium-sized businesses – an underserved yet enormous market segment ,” said Bradley Rowe , Chairman and CEO , Blueshift Cybersecurity . “ Our Managed SOC Service further includes fully-managed Zero Trust data protection through our technology alliance with Cigent Technology . Zero Trust data protection is a natural extension of XDR that security-conscious partners and customers should expect and demand .”
According to the 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report , 43 % of all data breaches involve small and medium-sized businesses ( SMBs ). Currently available security solutions do not meet SMB organisations ’ needs . The technology alliance between Blueshift and Cigent advances the protective cybersecurity umbrella to include managed Zero Trust data security .
More than half of small businesses plan to hire new employees in 2022
The Manifest surveyed 1,003 small business owners and managers and found that 55 % of small businesses are planning to add more employees to their team in 2022 .
Social media platforms , such as LinkedIn , are playing a huge role in helping small businesses ( 60 %) find credible candidates .
However , a clear majority of the owners and managers ( 83 %) admitted that they ’ re having difficulties with their recruitment and sourcing efforts . In this report , The Manifest highlights the HR statistics , trends and challenges for small businesses in 2022 .
“ One of the challenges we are facing due to the Great Resignation is that now we have more competition when it comes to hiring top talent ,” Sherry Morgan , the Founder of Petsolino . “ These competitions make hiring more difficult since there will always be bigger companies who can pay bigger salaries and provide more benefits .”
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