Page 21 - BusinessWest January 6, 2021

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2021 >>
Banking
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ers, but businesses well outside its gen- eral service area.
Looking ahead, like others we spoke with, she noted that winter is a slow time for many business sectors, and the next few months could well be tough sledding for many ventures. And beyond those few months, question marks loom about consumer behavior and just how much pent-up demand there will be for some products and services.
But some shifts are already taking
Accounting
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She related the story of a second- generation business, a wholesaler that services the airline industry, among many others. Revenues are down roughly 50% from a year ago, not because there are fewer customers, but because most of the existing customers are ordering far less as their needs have diminished.
“We had a conversation today about how to plan, and I said, ‘you should tighten your belt because I think this is going to be a rough ride this year,’” she recalled, adding that she has given this
place, she said, adding that there are visible signs that attitudes are chang- ing, about everything from where peo- ple want to live to how and where they will work.
“There is an outward movement from cities — we see it in our market,” she told BusinessWest. “When I talk to our local Realtors, we see people mov- ing into Central and Western Mass. They’re coming from New York, they’re coming from New Jersey. Is that going to continue? No one knows, but it’s happening now.
same advice to many of her clients. Getting back to that sentiment of
uneasiness, Quick said there are many things to be uneasy about, from the ongoing pandemic to a presidential election that, while officially over, has been tumultuous in every way, to the deep uncertainty about the year ahead.
“People are waiting — they’re wait- ing for things to be final,” she said, using that phrase to describe every- thing from the stimulus package to the pandemic itself. “And I don’t think the election helped anything; all the events surrounding the election have made
“Palmer, Belchertown, Ware ... we’re seeing people move there from out- side Massachusetts, and I don’t think you would have seen that before,” she went on. “There’s demand for open space because people are going to continue to be able to work remotely. And because people aren’t going to restaurants as much, they don’t need to be in the big city; you’re not going to walk to the local restaurant or the local business.”
The question moving forward is how much permanence can be
people uneasy.”
Still another factor contributing to
this state concerns changes that have come to how business is being done, and questions about when, or even if, things will go back to normal.
“I have some clients who are inter- national and can’t fly and can’t partici- pate internationally in person,” she explained. “So they’ve had to refocus on how they do business now, and they don’t really know what the future will bring.”
As for her own profession, 2020 was certainly a different year, one with a tax
attached to these changes in attitude and behavior.
“Are these going to be long-term changes, or will people, when they feel safer, return to the cities because of the amenities?” she said in conclu- sion. “That’s the struggle for all the big cities.”
And that’s just one of the questions, one of those moving parts, that make predicting the future, even the next few years, so difficult. u
—George O’Brien
season that never seemed to end. But it was a good year for most, because clients needed more assistance, or ‘touches,’ as she called them, with PPP and other matters.
And 2021 is certainly shaping up as more of the same, with another round of PPP looming, more questions con- cerning how to plan for the months and quarters ahead, and more of that uneasiness that will certainly play a large role in determining what kind of year this will be. u
—George O’Brien
BusinessWest
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2021
JANUARY 6, 2021 21