Best practices for safely reopening and more small business news

Welcome back to Big Trends in Small Biz, a weekly newsletter bringing you the news, tips and trends to help you with your business. Click subscribe above to be notified of future editions, and follow the hashtag #LinkedInSmallBusiness to join the conversation.

The past few days have been emotional and difficult for most Americans, and even those watching from afar, as protests and police violence continue to embroil the nation. Major cities have implemented curfews starting as early as 5 p.m. and, in some cases, altered their plans for reopening the economy. Small businesses have also been plagued by looters, many of whom are not affiliated with the protests but rather capitalizing on the chaos. Videos and photos are circulating showing business owners boarding up windows and doors before curfew. 

The civil unrest comes just as businesses were starting to either allow customers back in or head to the office. Michigan and New Jersey were the latest states to announce early this week that restaurants and retail stores can resume operations. With both states experiencing massive protests, it’s unclear how many of those businesses will in fact open their doors.

But even under the best of circumstances, deciding when and how to reopen is not a simple matter. Owners have to think not only about keeping their workers and consumers safe, but also ensuring they don’t inadvertently bring the virus home with them to their own families. I launched a new weekly live show called Together in Business and, for the inaugural episode, hosted public health expert Melissa Perry from George Washington University, who talked through what safety measures to implement and took questions from business owners. While this information is too soon for many small businesses right now, I hope it can act as a resource for you for when you do reopen:

What protocols have you implemented in your own business? What kind of conversations have come up with your employees or your customers? 

Latest Developments

• Businesses reopening and looking to rehire their furloughed staff are finding themselves competing with unemployment benefits.
• Consumer spending on restaurants in April was less than half of levels seen in February, leading to the lowest sales in the industry in 35 years.
• Owners who received the first round of Paycheck Protection Program loans are nearing the end of the eight weeks in which to spend the funding. The House passed a bill that would extend that period to 24 weeks and reduce the amount required to spend on payroll from 75% to 60%. The Senate is expected to take up the bill later this week.
• Revenue for small businesses has plummeted everywhere, but the Brookings Institution reports that those operating in some states like Hawaii and North Dakota have been hit harder than others.
• No group, however, is being impacted more than black business owners. Research found that almost 450,000 African American owners have gone out of business since the pandemic started.
• On the positive side, people can’t wait to get their hair cut. Cell phone data depicts consumers flocking to hair salons, which are instituting new practices like limiting the use of blow dryers.

Conversations For You

• Confidence among workers at micro firms—those with 10 employees are less—has further dropped as the smallest of small businesses continue to grapple with decreased revenue and an uncertain future. Workers and their employers are sharing what they think the future may hold. 
• Andrea Jung, CEO of Grameen America, which focuses on providing loans to women-owned businesses, spoke with my colleague Devin Banerjee about what this pandemic will mean for women entrepreneurs and why small businesses are the key to economic recovery.
• Restaurants are in danger of permanently going under, but consumers say they’re willing to pay more if it ensures their favorite eatery’s survival, according to the results from the latest Harris survey. Almost three-quarters of respondents supported a 1% price hike and 27% said they’d be willing to pay up to 8% more. So will restaurants raise prices? Owners are discussing how they’re handling the increases in costs and how they’re communicating any price hikes to consumers.

Resources

• Entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Citizens Bank of Edmond have launched a website to help borrowers prepare their Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness applications.
• An organizational behavior professor has put together a helpful guide for how to continue presenting yourself as a leader to your workers while conducting a meeting from your laptop.
• Lake City Council in Minneapolis has received more than $1.5 million to go toward small businesses impacted by the protests.
• Boca Raton is giving out $500,000 worth of grants to small businesses.

Something Good

• I’m not sure how exciting this is for everyone, but as someone who grew up dreaming of space and thought astronauts were just about the coolest people (not) on earth, this news made my week. The United States just sent two astronauts into space aboard a private rocket powered by SpaceX. 
• If space isn’t your thing, here’s a coyote caught on a Ring camera playing golf. We all need hobbies.