As with pros, there are also cons.
1. As a small and growing business, you’re bound to lose business to bigger and stronger firms when there’s a strong competition
2. Competition pose a threat to a small business as they could pack up and close up shop
3. A competition could very well turn into a conflict especially if it’s an unfair competition with undue advantage to one side.
Generally, competition is very essential in a free market and without competition, there would be monopoly in the production of goods and rendering of services. And when there’s a monopoly, small business and start ups are destined to fail.
COVID restrictions really widened the gap between large corporations and small businesses unfortunately. Larger corporations had a lot more capital on hand to spend in order to comply with COVID restrictions, and the small businesses were the ones that had to close up shop. Free market economics doesn't necessarily account for large corporations and the power they have by virtue of their mass amounts of capital - the only silver lining is that corporations must compete with other corporations which makes it a fair fight. It isn't merely a corporation competing against small businesses.