Small Business Lifeline

For the last episode of Small Business Lifeline we are going to talk to two small business officials about what resources are out there for small business owners. Tips: Know that. Programs like EIDL are still lending money to busineses. Reach out to the SBA and local small business agencies for resources and referrals to legal and accounting services. Boost your chances of bringing in business by getting MWBE certified.

Tips: Make sure to invest in outdoor furniture that can withstand more wear and tear for long term outdoor use. Look to the apres ski businesses for tips on how to embrace heated flooring and heat lamps. Promote your great connectivity if you are trying to attract corporate clients for meetings. Experiment with new outdoor spaces like igloos, cabanas and other elaborate tents with details like chandeliers.

Tips: * Work with an insurance broker to get your workers the best coverage and pricing especially with a potential next wave of Covid. * With the boom in telehealth, make sure your insurer lets workers go to their regular doctors for care. * Ask about lower deductible and copay options. * Ask insurers to kick in for services your small business may no longer be able to afford.  

Tips: As we head into a possible second wave, realize that workers comp does not cover most employees who get Covid. So do everything you can to keep your business environment safe. Mitigate cyber security issues with little tricks like adjusting workers’ screens so that they automatically log out of their computers more quickly than usual. Just because other businesses are doing things through Covid, weigh the liability risks before diving in like expanding delivery service, cutting insurance or bringing your business outside.

Small businesses are all in the throes of redesigning their spaces to make them more post Covid friendly. But in these cash strapped times, they don’t have much cash to spend. This episode offers some affordable suggestions as to how small businesses can make their offices safe and comfortable for workers - as well as their offices at home. Tips: ·        Tap into the current network of unemployed design professionals for help in making your offices more Covid friendly. ·        Try basic moves like removing excess furniture and introducing more arrows to direct people in one direction. ·        If you’re in a really small space, rethink how you do business (a small restaurant could introduce a coffee take out window) ·        Seek out websites that offer affordable office chairs your workers can use at home since remote offices look like they’re here to stay.

For businesses that still can not bring in any money right now, this episode features interviews with experts in the travel industry on what they are doing to survive. Tips: ·        Apply for grants and expect that the applications tend to be shorter right now. ·        Remain engaged with your clients through newsletters, blogs and webcasts. ·        Encourage customers to keep their deposits with you with plans to travel in the future.

As the school year begins with kids participating in all types of remote schooling, this episode explores how small business owners can work best with their employees juggling all of these stresses. Tips: Make sure your working parents feel safe and aren’t fearful they’re going to lose their job. Communicate constantly with workers about what their schedules are like. Bring in extra help if you need it for strategic projects. Be flexible with workers.

This episode offers listeners specific tips on how they can use technology to reinvent their business through Covid or promote their existing products better. We talk to the head of a marketing firm who has helped small businesses use technology to reinvent themselves. We then talk to a business owner who has worked with companies like Google on specific ways small businesses can promote themselves online without spending alot of money.   Tips: * Use your website to switch from a B2B to a consumer focused business. * Think about selling more online through your website * Tap into all of the free training that is being offered right now to enhance your online presence for your business.

This episode offers specific tips on how to reinvent your business to make more money. I talk to a banker advising many small businesses as well as the owner of a running shop about what he has been doing. Tips: If a banker can’t help you with a loan, ask them to introduce you to someone who can. Try getting certified to take more government contracts. Change your product lines to meet your customers’ needs better. Think about reshaping your merchandise to what people really need versus “latest and greatest” purchases.

As small businesses continue to navigate managing and motivating teams at while workers remain at home, this episode offers some specific tips on doing this.   Tips: Cater your demands for workers to the specific challenges they are going through. As workers transition back to the office, be completely transparent about the counseling benefits they can access from the cost of copays to the fact that senior executives are taking advantage of these services. Judge workers on their pre-Covid performance and not purely on how they are performing now. Keep HR functions like performance reviews consistent and don’t introduce surprises.

As many small businesses struggle with every day cash flow problems and the threat of Covid lawsuits, this episode gives listeners specific advice on how to manage both. Tips: * Track better how much workers are filing for expenses and make sure they’re directly related to the work you’re doing. Cash flow is one of the biggest problems that small business owners face. * Create designated debit cards for specific vendors you use regularly so that you don’t lose money with the wrong vendors getting paid. *Think about getting a waiver for your business if you can’t afford the cost of fighting a lawsuit when a customer accuses you of giving them Covid. * If you’re a restaurant or a bar and can not exactly give customers a waiver when they patronize your establishment, post them on your website or at the entrance of your shop.

Now that we are well into reopening, small businesses of all shapes and sizes are trying to figure out whether it still makes sense to reopen or if they should remain closed. We talk to one hotel owner who reopened . Tips: If you do reopen, weigh the realistic cost that you may have to close down again. Recognize that reopening in the summer months may be too costly when alot of people are on vacation and have not yet returned to work. Think about when you can get the most value out of reopening. Think of reopening in terms of two timelines: Things may pick up in September. Then business may pick up again in January.

This episode is devoted to a challenge that many small businesses are facing: what to do when workers test positive for Covid. We get specific advice from two businesses who have been dealing with this over the past few months about what they have learned. Takeaway tips: Keep testing. Don’t just trust if a worker has been cleared by a doctor that he or she does not test positive. Make sure to reward and recognize workers for coming to work. Look into buying your own cleaning equipment since it may cost less than a cleaning company. Be as open and communicative with customers as possible. Don’t count on local health departments for contact tracing to get you up and running quickly. Expect to take this into your own hands

Surviving as a small business right now requires constantly rethinking every aspect of it from how you make money to how you handle reopening. This episode offers specific tips on how small businesses are rethinking their businesses. It also looks at how small businesses that are reopening are already rethinking how they handle Covid policies going forward. 

Nearly four months into the Coronavirus pandemic, small businesses are getting the first moment to reflect on what mistakes they’ve made and what they’ve learned from those mistakes. This Small Business Lifeline episode shares practical tips on what we all can learn about running a business over the past few months and what has led businesses to succeed or fail.

One of the biggest lifelines for small businesses in the past few months has been the Paycheck Protection Program and it ends on June 30th. This episode gives listeners tips who don’t have the loans on how they can still apply in the final days. It also gives advice to small businesses that received the loans what they should know about the changing rules on forgiveness. Takeaway Tips: If you still have not applied for a loan, the bank must submit your completed loan with all of its qualified paperwork on June 30th. Rules are changing to make the loan forgiveness process easier - from the length of the application to how much of the loan you have to spend on payroll. There are pros and cons to the changing rules for loan forgiveness. You have 24 weeks to use the money to pay employees instead of eight weeks. But you can’t simply pay them less.

As small business owners all struggle with how confusing it is to run a business right now, this episode tries to give some tips on how to avoid going broke. We talk to an accountant working with small businesses nationwide on what they’re doing to keep themselves going. And we talk to one small business owner in New York City focused on taking running his business one week at a time. Topline takeaways Proceed cautiously with everything you do: If you’re a restaurant reopening, add items gradually to your menu. Hire only back the staff you can keep. Try not to spend your relief money until you have enough clarity on payback terms. Try not to spend any revenue you have coming in that you think you could lose later on. Reevaluate how you run your business and budgets on a week to week basis.

As small businesses have been hard at work trying to reopen after COVID, many dealt with a new roadblock in recent days: looting. This episode of Small Business Lifeline transports listeners into the story of one small business owner navigating the aftermath of being looted on the heels of three months of financial losses. It then features an interview with an insurance company executive who offers specific tips for small businesses that have been looted and what they should do to build the best case to be reimbursed for their claims.

This week on Small Business Lifeline, we focus on what works and what does not work when you do reopen. We talk to a jewelry store owner in Brooklyn who recently reopened and then head to Chicago to talk to a serial entrepreneur. 

This week on Small Business Lifeline, we are talking about dealing with insurers and helping you get some answers. We talk to one reporter in New York who has watched small businesses fight back. We then head to Austin, Texas where we talk to an analyst of the insurance industry who may offer other suggestions for what the industry may pay for. 

This week on Small Business Lifeline, we focus on money troubles: what many small businesses are facing right now. We first head to Detroit where we talk to an advisor to small businesses on what to do if you can’t pay your bills. We then travel to Chicago and talk to a lawyer advising some clients on how to get out of contracts it can no longer honor. 

This week on Small Business Lifeline, we are talking about heading back to work: How are small businesses across the nation preparing to reopen their doors? 

This week on Small Business Lifeline, we are talking about reinvention: How are small businesses changing what they do to bring in revenue during the pandemic? 

Part 1. Relief from the feds: Interview with an SBA official (Great Lakes Regional Administrator Rob Scott, SBA Regional Administrator Steve Bulger and SBA New York District Director Beth Goldberg) will talk about the top 5 takeaways for small businesses from the federal stimulus package and any surprises businesses may not know about. Part 2. Where to get money in the meantime: Interview with CNYB reporter Ryan Deffenbaugh talking about how businesses are getting more help from crowdfunding when government relief is far from enough.