Before I continue with this brain dump, please know that I am extremely grateful that my entire family is healthy and we have yet to be affected by the Corona Virus. I pray for those who are suffering from the virus and their families as well as everyone living with uncontrollable anxiety of what is ahead. Business is secondary in a time like this.
I am looking for more guidance regarding small businesses affected by the corona virus shut downs. All I’ve heard from politicians is that the SBA has a large sum of funds to distribute.
How do business owners go about borrowing this money? It appears as if the interest rate is 3.75% for up to 30 years. The SBA web site simply references a number and an email address. There are no articles regarding how to prepare, how to qualify, who should apply, where to go, etc. SBA loans are traditionally extremely difficult to qualify for and apply for. SBA loans also generally require an upfront deposit and bank to provide 50% of the loan in addition to the government funds. Is a disaster loan different? How is everyone’s credit score while they are getting hammered with no revenue and piling bills?
The employees of small businesses are being laid off by the thousands yesterday, today and tomorrow. An extremely high % of them live paycheck to paycheck. They cannot wait another day, forget another week to provide for their family. Business owners have been mandated to close without any instruction on paying payroll, utilities, rent, loans, etc.
My wife’s party business has had every upcoming party cancel, most requesting their deposit back. Every school class trip has also been canceled for the remainder of the school year. Last week the business provided a paycheck for my wife and her team. This week will cost us thousands to keep the business closed with no future revenue in sight.
Many of my own business’ customers are experiencing a complete loss of revenue from a number of their customers. This will result in inventory going stale, routes requiring redesign, staff lay offs and a cash flow crunch.
New sales in most businesses will drop off as managers focus on their people and their own contingency plans rather than obtaining new items and services. This will impact my business directly as I will certainly lose customers who will either cease operations or sell their business and have customers incapable of paying their bills.
When my wife and I discuss her business, my advice is to leverage this downtime to visualize the business with 1.5x revenue and prepare the business and marketing material to do so now. When the world reopens, the business will be prepared to for substantial gains and monumental growth. Realizing that gain will enable the business to pay back any obtained loans more easily.
In the next couple of weeks, we will see wonderful businesses cease to exist in a matter that is not fair to the owners and their teams, who will feel the impact of the Corona Virus for a lifetime.
I think it is best that we are all transparent with each other with our struggles as that is the only way we can help each other make it through this extremely unprecedented time. That is traditionally difficult due to competition and the desire to put on a happy face to staff and customers. Please comment and share your struggles and solutions so we can all benefit from the sharing of information.