For small-business owners forced to shut down due to the pandemic, the loss can be deeply personal. | Marcia Straub/Getty Images

“I feel like a part of my identity is gone.”

D’mai Urban Spa was no stranger to Park Slope’s thriving Fifth Avenue brick-and-mortar scene in Brooklyn, New York. Customers used to fill the shop’s schedule with appointments for luxury massages and facials. Having survived the economic recession in 2008, Daniella Stromberg — a longtime Park Slope resident and owner of the small luxury spa — never lost faith in her business. But all that changed when the Covid-19 pandemic forced her to shut it down. Now she does advocacy work to protect independent business owners.

Since March, when much of the country imposed lockdown measures to keep the novel coronavirus at bay, small businesses have taken a hit. In September, Yelp released