The Covid-19 pandemic has wrought not only personal and social damage but it also seriously hit the world economy. Small businesses, which are usually the most vulnerable to crisis impact, suffered the most. Catering and tourism, together with trade and services fields that require business-customer face-to-face interactions, were the first to feel the consequences of a changing world. The pandemic also brought significant losses to entertainment and transportation markets due to worldwide lockdowns and social distancing measures. Many small businesses (SBs) were closed or even dissolved by their owners due to the severe challenges they faced. The majority of leaders were not ready to respond quickly and revise their business strategy to continue operations in an adverse environment. Amid such economic obstacles as lack of capital and supply chain issues, the pandemic made permanent changes to customer buying behavior that requires a proper SBs’ transformation led by their owners. Although the pre-Covid-19 leadership style was working well, the shift to servant leadership is needed to ensure survival and further thriving of SBs in the post-pandemic world. This leadership approach focuses on the psychological health of employees and well being of local communities that are essential contemporary social challenges. The main issue small businesses face in the wake of Covid-19 is a new consumer buying behavior. E-commerce has increased its popularity during the last decades, while Covid-19 became the primary catalyst for its further development. The main challenges SBs faced during coronavirus outbreak will be presented next in order to determine the best methods to address them in the post-pandemic world. Small Business and Covid-19 The leaders of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) faced a plethora of serious challenges caused by Covid-19. This time of hardship has a different impact on businesses in various fields. For instance, representatives of the food industry lost significantly less than small tourist agencies did during the pandemic, mainly due to a higher adaptation and stable demand. According to the survey conducted by Facebook and Small Business Roundtable (2020), the most significant challenges are uncertain future, lack of flexibility, customer behavior, lack of capital, online communication, supply chain issues, and digital payments. Many of these challenges would be partially mitigated following the end of coronavirus crisis, while others should be addressed by the leadership to enhance positions on the market. The pandemic accelerated already started transformation processes in business that change the way how people think, what they want, and how they would purchase it. Although supply chains would be fully restored shortly, the same could not be said about consumer preferences and their newly-acquired buying habits. Today organizations’ leaders play the most crucial role as they have to organize fitting internal transformation to adapt to new ways of doing business, provide local social assistance, and support their employees. It is difficult to balance operational and financial challenges with an obligation to support households, employees, and suppliers. Many enterprises, especially personal businesses