By Nancy McGuire
Connecticut businesses have been shuttered for nearly a week, with another three to eight weeks to go.
If your job has been furloughed, you might be stifled with fear, or relieved for a temporary break. However, if you”™re a Connecticut business owner with contracts, line of credits or mortgages to pay, it”™s an especially unnerving time. No doubt, you”™ll tell stories about the pandemic to your grandkids, the same way great grandparents shared their stories about the Great Depression.
The important thing to remember is that you”™re not alone. You”™re in good company with many of America”™s small business owners who will experience economic setbacks. Some will walk away. Others will struggle with debt or bailouts from relatives, but as Gov. Cuomo said, “If you live through this, you will figure it out.”
I”™ve been a professional through four recessions. I”™ve experienced these recessions as a laid-off loan analyst, grad student, salaried New York bank employee, business owner and as a real estate investor with a burden of construction debt.
You”™re smart, creative, resourceful and full of energy. That”™s why you chose an entrepreneurial career in the first place!
In the past few days I”™ve checked in with local restaurants and businesses to see what commerce can be created during the shutdown. It”™s bleak and owners are worried, but this downtime can be used for reflection and remembering why we started our businesses in the first place. We”™re good at what we do, but we”™re not necessarily MBAs, accountants or bankers. Rarely do we find time to create a really sustainable business model, yet this is exactly the time to focus your energies on your business, not in your business. Here are some ideas:
1. Make a plan for the rest of the year.
2. Write down options on how you”™ll work with your debtors. Learn about their plans for workouts.
3. Learn new methods of marketing your business online.
4. Learn how to make a functional website.
5. Create a business Facebook or Instagram account.
6. Create a code for your usernames and passwords so that no one can find them anywhere.
7. Paint a wall, polish the floor, take care of deferred maintenance.
8. Search for new products to offer.
9. If you require client marketing, add new prospects to your sales list.
10. Learn how to use a creditable accounting program.
11. The Connecticut Department of Economic, Commerce and Development is working on a loan or grant program for our state businesses that have been affected. Keep your eyes open for these programs. Follow their directions and make an application. You have paid your taxes. Your governor and legislatures should remember you during this time.
12. The SBA has low-interest loans if you need one to pay certain expenses.
13. Norwalk has a grant program available to help you with street-side improvements.
14. The state and federal governments are encouraging private banks to create workout programs. We learned that one bank will extend the interest at the end of the term of your mortgage.
15. CTMain Street has resources listed on its webpage.
16. Call on S.C.O.R.E., a nonprofit business consulting group with chapters in Connecticut.
17. Sign up for the WSNA newsletter and stay in touch with your neighbors.
It”™s easy to get caught up criticizing our federal, state or local governments over the handling of this crisis. But it”™s not a good use of our time. We can criticize personalities all we want, but the truth is, at every level of government, it”™s a collection of public employees that run our system and they don”™t change every two or four years. Likewise, our federal banking system is comprised of a stable group of individuals who lend money to commercial banks, who then lend to Main Street, beginning the process of wealth distribution.
The Federal Reserve is private. Sometimes it works with the government. Sometimes not. To blame one or the other is futile. Together or apart, they control the destiny of small business much more than anyone wants to admit. It”™s a precarious time for sure, but it”™s important for small business owners to focus on the things that we can control.
Nancy McGuire is the chairman of the board of the Wall Street Neighborhood Association and a local business owner.
