SBA Steps Up to the Plate for Smallest Businesses

You know it. It’s tough being a small business nowadays. The pandemic has hit your company and hopes hard.

According to estimates, roughly 3 out of every 10 small businesses that were open in New Jersey at the beginning of 2020 are now closed as the coronavirus pandemic — and vast restrictions to fight it — have taken a big bite out of the economy.

In the Garden State, as of February 10, 2021, total small business revenue decreased by 39% compared to January 2020.

The White House and the Small Business Administration has heard your pain and is stepping up to help small businesses, especially those with fewer than 20 employees – the mom-and-pop establishments that line the Main Streets of every town.

On Monday, February 22, the White House announced a number of steps to increase lending to the smallest of businesses.

The reforms, some of which will begin Wednesday, February 24, include:

• Exclusive period: At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the SBA will begin a 14-day exclusive PPP loan application period for businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 20 employees. All applications already submitted by lenders to the SBA before the start of the exclusivity period will still be processed by the SBA.

• Help for sole proprietors: A revision of the PPP funding formula for sole proprietors, independent contractors and self-employed individuals will allow them to use the gross income line on Schedule C. The SBA is also setting aside $1 billion for those businesses without employees in low-to-moderate income communities. The White House said these businesses make up a significant majority of all businesses and include cleaning services, home repair contractors, personal care businesses and small independent retailers, among other examples. And approximately 70% of non-employer firms are owned by women and people of color, compared to 40% of employer firms. In addition, 95% of Black-owned firms and 91% of Latinx-owned firms are non-employers.

• Fairer access: The White House is promising fairer access for returning citizens by eliminating the PPP eligibility restriction that did not allow those with a felony within the previous year to apply (however, the restriction on those with an arrest or felony conviction related to financial assistance fraud within the previous five years remains).

• Increased access: The SBA will now allow those who have struggled to make and are now delinquent on federal student loan payments to apply for the PPP. It also will ensure access for immigrant small business owners who lawfully reside and pay taxes in the U.S. by clarifying that Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, holders can apply for the PPP.

Here are the latest numbers for New Jersey.

Loans: 50,451;

Total funding: $4,399,596,313;

Average loan: $87,205.

For more information visit https://www.sba.gov/page/coronavirus-covid-19-small-business-guidance-loan-resources.

Small businesses in the Garden State can also visit the New Jersey Small Business Development Center at www.njsbdc.com.

E-commerce Sales Grew 30%-plus in 2020

It’s a no brainer but online sales expanded last year. The reason? The pandemic is keeping people at home, glued to their computers.

The US Census Bureau published the latest data that revealed Americans spent $791.7 billion during 2020 on e-commerce, up 32.4% from 2019. “That behavior translated to e-commerce accounting for 14% of total retail sales, compared to 11% in 2019,” CNBC reported.

In other words, total 2020 retail sales were up just 3% … meaning that e-commerce sales were up more than 10 times as much as total sales.

“While consumers shopped online before the pandemic, they were pushed to rely on digital retailers even more during the Covid-19 pandemic, as many physical stores were closed and people opted to stay indoors as much as possible to slow the spread of the coronavirus,” CNBC observed. 

“Consumers filled up their virtual shopping carts with products that they might not have otherwise ordered online, particularly groceries, according to a chart published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Online purchases of food and beverage items grew more year-over-year than any other category between the second and fourth quarter of 2020.”

Launching or expanding your online capabilities now would be a good idea for your small business.

 

Congress can Support the Foodservice Industry

Everyone is suffering because of coronavirus, however no other industry or sector of the economy has suffered as much as the foodservice industry, and no other industry will take as long to recover, believes the International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA). COVID-19 closures and the economic downturn have crippled restaurants and the farmers and distributors that supply them their food and supplies. A recent study found that 85% of independent restaurants may go out of business by the end of 2020.  Recovery has gone from a temporary challenge to a seemingly permanent industry disruption. 

IFDA is convinced that Congress can help but the lawmakers should be apprised of the dire situation faced by restaurateurs around the country.

Support the Real Economic Support That Acknowledges Unique Restaurant Assistance Needed to Survive (RESTAURANTS) Act of 2021
The RESTAURANTS Act is bipartisan legislation that establishes a $120 billion revitalization fund to support independent restaurants and small franchisees as they deal with the long-term structural challenges facing the industry because of COVID-19.The bill provides real relief for any small restaurant that can demonstrate they lost revenue in 2020.  Federal grants under the bill can be used for everything from retaining workers to operational expenses like inventory and rent. 

What are the details?

$120 Billion Fund: The RESTAURANTS Act establishes a $120 billion “Restaurant Revitalization Fund” managed by the U.S. Department of Treasury to provide direct grants to eligible entities.
Coverage Period: Begins February 15, 2021, and ends 8 months after enactment of the program. If funds are not spent within 8 months of enactment, the entity’s funds convert to a loan with an interest rate of 1% with a maturity date of 10 years.
Who is Eligible: An entity that owns or operates—as of March 13, 2020—20 or fewer establishments (together with any affiliated business), regardless of the type of ownership of the locations and whether those locations do business under the same or multiple names. Entities can be a restaurant, food stand, food truck, food cart, caterer, saloon, inn, tavern, bar, lounge, brewpub, tasting room, taproom, licensed facility or premises of a beverage alcohol producer where the public may taste, sample, or purchase products, or another similar place
of business in which the public or patrons assemble for the primary purpose of being served food or drink.

How can you help?

Share the quotes or articles below to spread awareness. Write your legislator using the IFDA Legislative Action tool. Post messages and images on social media. Visit https://www.ifdaonline.org/

Remember Twitter? It’s a Useful Research Tool for Your Business

Twitter has been around for 14 years. Every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter, which corresponds to over 350,000 tweets sent per minute, 500 million tweets per day and around 200 billion tweets per year.

You’d think that most people – most business people – have a good sense of how to use Twitter to promote your businesses, products, services and knowledge; how to become a thought leader thanks to Twitter.

However, there are still fascinating depths of social media knowledge and experiences to be plumbed.

As I have written in the past, in order to become a thought leader in your industry or marketplace, you need knowledge and a means to convey it to others. A couple of days ago I came across a Reuters story about the Bank of Italy using Twitter to track consumer mood on pricing. And what business wouldn’t want to know what consumers think about prices?

The wire service reported on February 15 that the Bank of Italy stated that a set of experimental indicators that it created based on the content of millions of tweets accurately tracked consumer mood on price, offer scope for a powerful new monetary policy tool.

The Italian bank found its indicators not only tallied with final inflation read-outs and existing measures of price expectations by Italy’s national statistics office, financial markets and other forecasters but were also in real-time and provided more granular detail.

“The results suggest that Twitter can be a new timely source for devising a method to elicit beliefs,” the authors of the 107-page study were quoted as indicating, adding they believed the Italy-focused research could be replicated elsewhere.

The study started by gathering 11.1 million tweets posted in Italian between June 2013 and December 2019 containing at least one of a set of previously selected words related to inflation, prices and price dynamics.

“The rationale for focusing on pure raw tweets count is the intuitive notion that the more people talk about something, the larger is the probability it reflects their opinion and that their view can influence other people’s expectations,” the report said. Then the dataset was “cleaned” to delete advertisements or tweets that use the word inflation in an unrelated context.

In this way, for example, tweets such as “#Draghi: ‘We saved Europe from deflation.’ Do not count your chickens before they are hatched!” were kept, while others, such as “Only at Baby Glamour if you buy three items the least expensive is free. Promotional sales until October 10” were filtered out.

The remaining dataset was used to build two indices on expectations of increasing or decreasing inflation by measuring the daily volume of tweets containing previously selected word combinations such as “bargain price” or “very high price.”

“The fact that economic agents talk about expensive bills should reflect expectations of higher inflation,” the report said. “On the other hand, people discussing declining oil prices should correspond to expectations of lower inflation.”

The final set of indicators was then created based on divergence between the two indices.

The authors said their work underscored the significance and policy implications of information contained on social networks but acknowledged further study was needed to interpret the data.

They also noted that there were a few cases of a Twitter-based indicator been thrown off course by a viral social media event, for example when the sale of an apartment for a record-breaking $236 million in 2014 led to a flurry of tweets containing variants of the phrase “more expensive.”

Granted, this was done by a large national bank over several years. Nonetheless, parameters or hashtags # can be created – or borrowed from common usage – to monitor thoughts in your microcosm to ascertain consumer opinions regarding prices or other issues in your marketplace. An original hashtag may not get many hits in the beginning but in time its appearance in Twittersphere will generate greater numbers. Borrowed ones may be immediately popular. You should also use Twitter reach services, such as Tweetreach.com, to gauge your estimated reach and exposure, and then read the senders’ opinions.

This won’t work without your daily attention. You, as the small business owner, must monitor the results on a daily basis to comprehend what’s going on.

For example, you are a baker and you own a bakery, here are some possible hashtags in your business that you could track: #baking #bakingisfun #bakersgonnabake #instabaking #lovebaking #instabake #lovetobake #bakersofinstagram #bakinglove #bakingfromscratch #bakery #baker #cake #cookies #dough #sweet #pastry #confectionery #bakeshop #patisserie #tortes #pie #applepie and so on. For ideas, you can Google for hashtags in your business. Don’t forget to add your signature baking creation and your town.

As you’re waiting to open your business safely, take some time to compose your own business hashtags.

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Roaring ‘20s Rebound

I read the other day about the French cosmetics group L’Oreal’s expectations about life in the not-too-distant future.

But first let’s go back in time about 100 years.

Let’s go back to the historic, freewheeling, happy-go-lucky Roaring ‘20s.

That decade didn’t only mean The Untouchables and the mob in major American cities but it also was a period of time from 1921-1929, following the First World War, that offered economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge. The period was marked by mass consumerism, as Jazz-Age flappers and speakeasies flouted prohibition laws and the Harlem Renaissance redefined arts and culture.

The 1920s were called “roaring” because of their exuberant, carefree popular culture. It was a time when many people defied Prohibition, indulged in new styles of dancing and dressing, and rejected many traditional moral standards. The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929, and this economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar “consumer society.”

Just to further stoke memories, it was a period when people said: elephant’s adenoids, cat’s meow, ant’s pants, tiger’s spots, bullfrog’s beard, elephant’s instep, caterpillar’s kimono, turtle’s neck, duck’s quack, duck’s nuts, monkey’s eyebrows, gnat’s elbows, oyster’s earrings, snake’s hips, kipper’s knickers, elephant’s manicure, clam’s garter, eel’s ankle, leopard’s stripes, tadpole’s teddies, sardine’s whiskers, canary’s tusks, pig’s wings, cuckoo’s chin, and butterfly’s book.

What did those words mean, who knows but they sounded like fun and the people wanted to have fun.

Now flash forward to 2021. We’ve been enduring the COVID-19 pandemic and on-again, off-again lockdowns for almost 12 months. Everyone is fed up and stir crazy. Men, women and kids of all ages have just about had it. And now word comes along from officialdom that slowly we’ll be opening small businesses, restaurants and bars, and sports venues. Are we beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel?

L’Oreal thinks so.

L’Oreal forecast on February 11 a strong rebound in makeup sales when the COVID-19 pandemic gives way to a “roaring 20s” when people get dressed up and go out again to socialize.

Buoyed by this optimism, shares in L’Oreal, rose after the group reported higher than expected fourth-quarter sales growth, broadly outperforming a cosmetics market hit hard by the pandemic. The cosmetics company that profits on consumers’ emotions and desires said with many hair salons still closed and millions of consumers in lockdown, it was cautious about prospects for the market. However, it forecast that the 4.8 % comparable sales growth seen in the past three months of 2020 would continue into the first quarter.

L’Oreal CEO and Chairman Jean-Paul Agon was quoted as saying sales would accelerate sharply as COVID-19 vaccines are distributed and levels of infection subside.

“People will be happy to go out again, to socialize,” he said at a presentation of the company’s results. “This will be like the Roaring ‘20s, there will be a fiesta in makeup and in fragrances,” he said, referring post-war economic boom, when people wore daring fashions and partied.

This may also send hopeful signals to many distressed small business owners across all markets, hankering to open their doors and greet customers. Indeed. Consumers and businesses deserve a reprieve after a very stressful year filled with death and disease. If the prognostications are accurate, then before you hang the “Open” sign on your door, prepare, plan and promote your intentions. Get your supply chain involved. See guidance, advice and knowledge.

However, let’s keep in mind that if we’re not careful and we go overboard with exuberance then the coronavirus can return with a vengeance.

To be the cat’s meow on Main Street, you gotta use your noodle and don’t take any wooden nickels.

Incentivizing Employees to Get Vaccinated? Be Careful

Sure, you want to reopen your small business in the safest possible manner and then keep it open. You want your employees that are essential to your running a profitable company to be safe so your customers will also be safe and will return.

The worse thing now would be for someone to contract covid-19 in your place of business and then have health officials trace it to your establishment. Just imagine the negative publicity.

Many small businessmen and women are anxious to open because, after all, it’s their livelihood and passion. In order to create a safe environment, many company owners are offering their employees a range of incentives and encouragements to get vaccinated so that the risk of transmission is reduced. The news has been replete with such examples.

Several major employers, such as Dollar General, McDonald’s, Kroger and Olive Garden, have announced incentives for workers to get vaccinated.

With healthy employees, the business will stay open. It will also potentially limit downtime when workers contract the virus. Experts say a high proportion of the US population needs to get vaccinated to build herd immunity, which would limit the coronavirus from spreading.

But for now, according to US Today, some employers are saying that they’re merely strongly encouraging vaccination but essentially forcing workers to do it on their own time. Others are stepping up to the plate, thinking that proactively encouraging their employees to get vaccinated is better.

However, among others, Denise Rousseau, professor of organizational behavior and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College, observed that it doesn’t make sense for businesses to refuse to give workers a few hours of paid time off to get vaccinated. Others opined that it’s the moral thing to do.

Generally, employers can require their workers to get vaccinated as a condition of keeping their jobs, with a few notable exemptions. But legal experts and health advocates say most companies won't make covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for their employees. Instead, helpful employers will look for ways to make it easier for their workers to get shots.

For example, grocery stores, which were among the first businesses to implement covid-19 safety measures such as mask requirements, are also the early leaders when it comes to offering to compensate their hourly workers for the time it takes to get vaccinated.

At McDonald’s, which had about 205,000 employees globally as of early 2020, US workers will be given four hours of pay to get the vaccine. The policy does not cover the 93% of its restaurants that were run by franchisees as of a year ago.

Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, will provide two hours of pay for each of two recommended vaccine doses.

Some grocery chains are providing incentives to workers to get vaccinated. Lidl is giving workers who get vaccinated $200 in extra pay, while Kroger is offering $100. Aldi and Trader Joe's are providing workers two hours of extra pay for each dose. Starbucks is offering two hours of paid time off for each dose. And discount retailer Dollar General is offering four hours of pay after workers receive their final dose of a vaccine.

US Today reported that Dollar General’s archrival, Dollar Tree, will not provide time off or extra pay to workers.

“We strongly encourage our associates to get vaccinated and will support them by providing flexibility in scheduling and ensuring they incur no costs for the administration of the vaccine,” Dollar Tree spokesperson Kayleigh Painter said in an email.

Yogurt maker Chobani said it will provide six hours of time for its employees to get vaccinated, including its manufacturing workers.

Others, including Amazon, Target and Walmart, are not committing to provide any extra pay or time off to workers to get their shots.

In some cases, employers that are offering vaccination incentives are requiring proof – a bureaucratic trail – of inoculation to get their extra pay or certify their paid time off. They feel that’s only appropriate inasmuch as they work in an environment with co-workers who may want to know that their co-workers actually follow a protocol. But are they legally entitled to this information and in what manner?

What’s an employer to do? It’s a dilemma. You could be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

According to a recent report by Perceptyx, six in 10 workers would get the covid-19 vaccine if their employers provided a $100 incentive. Workers who feel their manager cares about them as human beings are more likely to get the vaccine.

Those are some of the findings revealed in by Perceptyx, which polled more than 1,000 workers across the country. 

Workers remain split on requiring the vaccine to return to work: 53% said employers should not require the vaccine, and 43% said they’d consider leaving their company if required to be vaccinated. 

These feelings were even more prevalent among essential workers: 60% said employers shouldn’t require it, and 51% said mandatory vaccination might cause them to leave their company. Still, 64% of those polled by Perceptx said there is no safe return to work until all employees are vaccinated. About 54% said they would feel safe returning to the workplace as long as they had received the vaccine, even if others hadn’t, and 52% would get the vaccine so they wouldn’t have to wear a mask at work, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing a mask even once fully vaccinated.

According to Biz Journal, legal experts have noted that employers are better off encouraging employees to get vaccinated against covid-19, rather than requiring it, since mandates could backfire and workers could pursue legal exemptions. An increasing number of companies are offering enticements to motivate workers to become vaccinated. 

“We do not want our employees to have to choose between receiving a vaccine and coming to work, so we are working to remove barriers (e.g., travel time, mileage, child care needs, etc.) by providing frontline hourly team members with a one-time payment equivalent of four hours of regular pay,” Dollar General said in a statement.

After reading about these options, it becomes clear that employers should be concerned about their workers but if they offer any incentives, hours off or extra dollars, then perhaps it would be better to create a system that does not require a record. Indeed, give your employees time off to get vaccinated with an honor system and not making a list otherwise the unintended consequences of trying to be helpful could result in lawsuits.

Here are a few other points to take into account:

• If you make a list, what will you do with the information you collect from employees about the administration of the vaccine, or the refusal to get the vaccine? Will you be coaxed by officials, hospitals, or manufacturers into revealing this data?

• With whom will you share this information internally: co-workers, supervisors, no one, or everyone? Do they have the right to know this without permission?

• Will employees who get vaccinated be favored by employers, considered for promotion over those who don’t? How will it impact the company’s merit system? Will it become an unintentional factor? How will it work in the hiring process? Will it be a human resources nightmare?

Covid-19 has turned society and businesses upside down. Reopening is vital to the welfare of the country but be careful how you choose the lady or the tiger.

Restaurants Suffering during COVID-19

To say that the restaurant industry is suffering due to COVID-19 is a blinding flash of the obvious. Just look around.

From 2019 to 2020, COVID-19 impacted the restaurant industry catastrophically, with sales plummeting 19.2%. According to the National Restaurant Association’s State of the Industry Report, 2021 sales are projected to climb only 10.2% – not nearly enough to recover from the steep hole caused by the pandemic.

This will be the “year of transition and rebuilding,” in the words of Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the research and knowledge group with the National Restaurant Association, and it will take time before the industry gets back to pre-pandemic levels.

• The restaurant industry ended 2020 with total sales that were $240 billion below the Association’s pre-pandemic forecast for the year

• As of Dec. 1, 2020, more than 110,000 eating and drinking places were closed for business temporarily, or for good

• The eating and drinking place sector finished 2020 nearly 2.5 million jobs below its pre-coronavirus level. At the peak of initial closures, the association estimates up to 8 million employees were laid off or furloughed

The National Restaurant Association found that 35% of off-premises customers ages 21+ are more likely to choose a restaurant if it offers the option of including alcoholic beverages with the to-go order.

For more about the restaurant industry, visit: https://www.restaurant.org/research/reports/state-of-restaurant-industry.

Foodservice operators in New Jersey can also find help by contacting the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers (NJSBDC) https://njsbdc.com/

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Businesses should Keep Tabs on Bottom Lines & SDGs

As I have often written in this blog, sustainability and business and profitability go hand in hand. If you’ve been following my articles, you’ve read my often repeated reference to an outstanding windfall that’s in store for businesses and industries when they become sustainable.

Businesses that incorporate some or all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) developed by the UN into their business and marketing plans and become active in building sustainable industries will reap the benefit of greater revenue. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development anticipates that the sustainability windfall could be as high as $12 trillion a year and create as much as 380 million jobs in the course of the next decade. A slice of that would surely satisfy any business owner.

Sustainability, environmental protection and climate change are expected to remain on business agendas forever and affect established companies, startups, investors, funders and Wall Street. Not only should business owners mind their bottom lines but also the SDGs.

United Nations Call

In response to rapid global social-ecological changes — climate change, resource scarcity, social exclusion, change of customers’ demands, coronavirus — and the United Nations’ call for actions to attain the SDGs, many large and small businesses from a wide range of industries have risen to the challenges and taken actions to contribute to sustainable development.

To be sure, covid-19 has clearly taught us that we – humankind – are more connected than we have realized. We can transmit deadly viruses from one person to the next, from one town and state to the next, and from one country to the next. We can also convey around the world the positive effects of sustainability and detrimental influences of environmental pollution.

However, global sustainability challenges cannot be resolved with the effort of a single individual, business or sector. Just like covid-19 cannot be eradicated by one scientist or government. In addition to governments, social institutions and local communities, business leaders are stepping up and making contribution towards this important agenda.

According to Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever and a passionate global spokesman for sustainability, “Business can, in fact, be a tremendous force for good and make a huge contribution to solving the biggest problems facing our people and planet. Actually, this is the only way for business to be accepted in society and it should always strive to have a net positive impact.”

Indeed, with consumers’ comprehensive buying power skyrocketing in all segments, businesses that accept their beneficial roles in sustainability, environmental protection and climate change will reap the benefits of their buyers’ purchases. Those that don’t, could soon find their destinies on the ash heap of history.

Ethical Conduct is Precondition

In an interview with Mongabay.com, Polman continued: “You simply cannot expect to build a business with longevity and resilience if you don’t embed ethical conduct in all you do. This is now a precondition for any successful company and if you do not move to a more responsible, sustainable and equitable way of doing business, then you don’t deserve to have any business at all.”

For sustainability in all of its 17 formulations to be achievable, its advocates must strive to fulfill two simple but necessary steps. Polman said he has observed that corporate leadership in this field can change the mindset of other companies. “Especially, in demonstrating the power of partnerships to drive system-level change, whether that’s taking bold climate action; transitioning to the circular economy; supporting ‘nature-based solutions’; or accelerating food systems’ transformation,” he said.

Furthermore, it is important for a company whose ownership and management are committed to the SDGs to demonstrate their dedication to all of the employees. In other words, buy-in is key to success. “I’m equally proud of the culture we helped to incubate, which was ultimately about helping people succeed. Something that would not have been possible without the enormous commitment and passion of many. A CEO’s responsibility is really about inspiring and uniting people behind a common purpose and then helping them to find their own clear sense of direction. Releasing energy in others.”

As an obvious, contemporary example of the potential of success of a concerted partnership, Polman cited the attempts to tackle coronavirus. “I think on balance the business community deserves huge credit for its response to the pandemic, as there are many examples of constructive collaboration across the private sector aimed at protecting lives and livelihoods. Whether that’s consumer goods manufacturers producing hand sanitizers, the fashion industry making masks, or the engineering sector building ventilators,” he said.

Employees of small and medium businesses (SMBs) feel strongly about their employers’ sustainability practices, revealed Salesforce Research. Three-quarters of the respondents from companies with 250 or less employees say corporate sustainability is a moral imperative. However, Salesforce Research found, SMBs are far less likely than larger companies to have an actual sustainability program or strategy. While 69% of respondents at companies with over 1,000 employees said their company had a sustainability program or plan, only 37% at companies with 250 or less employees said the same.

Sustainability Steps aren’t Complicated

Designing a sustainability or climate change plan for a business is not that difficult. You’ve undertaken a similar exercise when you created your business plan. Knowledge is the first requirement. Conviction and passion the next two. Business owners, management and employees can contribute to the success of the program. Designate a sustainability leader, the employee or two who will constitute the cheering team. Find an executive sponsor and measure everything that you do. Create a vision, set your goals, strategize and then take action. Stay committed. Soon you’ll see that what you do in sustainability contributes to your bottom line and the success of your bottom line will reinforce your environmental efforts.

Share your vision, plan and successes with your trading partners and get them involved. Inform your customers who will be eager to know what you’re doing. Tell your elected officials and news media. Organize events.

While the numerous benefits of jumping on the sustainability bandwagon should be sufficient to convince businesses to do so, the downside of not doing so also has its persuasive powers. The World Economic Forum estimates that “even if we meet all the climate commitments of the Paris Agreement, temperatures can be expected to rise this century to 3.2C above pre-industrial levels, far above the 1.5C threshold to avoid the most severe climate impacts. While this may not seem like much, it can contribute to the manifestation of immense catastrophes, such as the ongoing wildfire crisis in Australia spurred by heatwaves and flash floods in Indonesia. We would be wise to prepare for this – and business is no exception.”

Climate change presents complex and interconnected risks to businesses, their suppliers, and to the employees and communities along their supply chains. Mitigation efforts—those focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions—are vital to any company’s climate strategy and critical to global efforts to avoid unmanageable climate impacts. As the impacts of climate change are increasingly felt around the world, however, it has become clear that simultaneous efforts are necessary to increase adaptive capacity and build resilience.

Temperature Changes Cause Global Calamities

Calamities created by even slight climate changes and temperature fluctuations can considerably damage global and local commerce. The first step to better managing the growing climate risks that businesses face is understanding them. The potential economic costs of inaction are staggering. Damage done by climate-related disasters and extreme weather in 2018 alone cost the US around $160 billion, and the numbers are only expected to increase as hazards become more complex and unpredictable.

Businesses are also bracing themselves for direct impact to their bottom lines. In 2018, 215 of the world’s 500 biggest corporations, including giants like Apple, JPMorgan, Chase, Nestle and The 3M Company, reported climate-related financial risks of just under $1 trillion.

Then with around 80% of global trade embedded in supply chains, business leaders are increasingly aware of risks that could affect their ability to move through the world, including issues of cost, speed and responsiveness. In fact, CDP data reveals that 76% of suppliers have identified ways in which climate change could increase the risk of disruptions to their business.

In an article by Anthony Britterri, editor-in-chief of New Jersey Business Magazine, Catherine McCabe, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), reinforced the belief that good environmental policy and good business go hand in hand. “We all share a common goal in building a strong resilient New Jersey for the future, both economically and environmentally. The best way to ensure that is to maintain strong, open dialogues,” McCabe said at a virtual town hall meeting sponsored by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

McCabe admitted that the DEP’s greatest priority right now is climate change, which she called the “No.1 threat to New Jersey’s long-term future. We need to build our resiliency to ensure the state remains not only safe for its citizens, but also a hub for businesses,” she said.

McCabe discussed the state’s first Scientific Report on Climate Change, which she said serves as the foundation for policy decisions going forward. “Raising awareness (of climate change) is perhaps the most important thing we can do. Issuing the report is good for all academicians, policy people and business people,” McCabe pointed out. The most important message from the report is that climate change is already here as seen by higher temperatures, more severe storms and an increase in coastal and inland flooding,” McCabe said.

New Jersey businesses and residents should sit up and listen when they hear flooding. After all, the Garden State enjoys a 130-plus mile coast.

Every journey begins with the first step and that also includes a sustainable journey. After you’ve committed to following this course, even a few of the points, you should contact the New Jersey Sustainable Business Registry and inquire about meeting its criteria for joining the list of sustainable small businesses. Contact NJSBinfo@NJSBDC.com. An experienced sustainability consultant will be happy to speak with you in person, on-line, or by phone. You can also find out more about these programs by visiting the Sustainability Consulting page on NJSBDC’s website (http://www.njsbdc.com/sustainability-consulting/).

Helping Restaurants and Foodservice

Restaurants and foodservice make up a significant portion of any community’s economy. They’re not only places where families can enjoy solid meals any time of day but they’re also places for personal and social networking, entertainment and relaxation. And last but not least, they’re places of employment and personal development. Just imagine how many CEOs of any industry began as burger flippers, wait staffers, busboys or dishwashers.

Restaurants – the epitome of small businesses – are a vital American economic mainstay.

There are more than 19,000 restaurants in the Garden State, with 348,000-plus jobs and $18.1 billion in sales. It’s not as glamorous as the media pretends. It’s a tough job with long hours that requires dedication to excellence, safety and consumer satisfaction. It’s been said that if you want to make a little money in the restaurant business, invest a lot of money in it. No kidding.

Restaurants in the state and around the country are suffering right now because of covid-19 and many of them are closing their doors temporarily – as the famous Grand Central Oyster Bar – or forever – as the Friendly’s chain announced on Monday. Indeed, 39 popular New Jersey restaurants have closed forever while IHOP announced it will soon close 100 locations due to coronavirus. While foodservice depends on the man, woman and family on the street for business, the industry also has stepped up to the plate to help itself with a variety of in-store promotions meant to attract patrons.

The industry has also taken its case to Capitol Hill.

The International Foodservice Distributors Association, the trade organization of wholesale companies coast-to-coast that deliver food and non-food products and offer consultative services to foodservice operators, has appealed to Congress to help the industry as it deals with covid-19 while struggling to keep its doors open.

The association thanked Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Ranking Member Steve Chabot (R-OH) and the House Committee on Small Business for holding a hearing on the impact of covid-19 on small businesses in the food industry.

According to IFDA, the foodservice industry has been particularly hard hit due to government closures and occupancy restrictions and urgently needs congressional action to provide economic relief. “The foodservice distribution industry was pleased with many of the provisions included in the recent House proposal. In particular, the provision for a second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans and the inclusion of payments for inventory, raw materials or supplies as allowable and forgivable expenses. In addition, the bill would establish a $120 billion grant program for restaurants, bars and food trucks. While this is a great first step, IFDA urges that eligibility be expanded to cover independently owned franchise restaurants as well as small regional chains,” its statement read.

Mark S. Allen, president and CEO of IFDA, offered the following observation ahead of the congressional committee hearing:
“As these witnesses attest, this crisis has been devastating to the foodservice industry. Congress must help small businesses that are the backbone of our country and food supply chain. We support these companies and ask Congress and the Administration to continue in their negotiations on another covid-19 relief bill. In particular, we are happy to see the recent House bill includes PPP and direct aid to restaurants who have been among the hardest hit industries. Unfortunately, the House proposal denies federal support for small regional chain restaurants, as well as individual owners of small franchise restaurants. Even more restaurants and jobs will be saved if the House adopts the Senate version of the RESTAURANTS Act. Led by Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), it takes a balanced approach to providing federal support to all restaurants that are suffering. IFDA implores Congress to support our nation’s restaurants and their partners, like foodservice distributors, who deliver the food and supplies to keep professional kitchens cooking.”

It would be beneficial if foodservice operators and restaurateurs – and patrons – contact their elected officials regarding this great need.
IFDA warned its members’ customers that due to the pandemic the outlook is bleak:

• Leading indicators suggest US Industrial Production business cycle decline will extend into early 2021. • However, COVID-19 case spikes and renewed shutdowns could extend that outlook further.

• Business owners should ask themselves: what can I do now to be ready for recovery next year?

• Foodservice sales annual growth rate is down -9.2% in June, and expected to be down -19.3% for 2020, placing the industry in a recession phase.

• Grocery store sales are seeing accelerating growth, expecting to grow 12.7% this year

The National Restaurant Association also took their members’ case to officialdom by joining with members from the U.S. Conference of Mayors to talk about finding ways to help restaurants stay in business as covid-19 continues to ravage the small business landscape.

As the pandemic does an about face with another surge this fall, restaurant owners and operators have to be well versed in the latest safety requirements and advice in order to assure their clients that the environment in which they offer food and the food itself is safe as well as to nutritious. Restaurateurs have to be clever and nimble to remain in business.

“It’s been an incredibly hard time, no one’s seen this challenge before,” the association’s Mike Whatley observed in news media. “You are seeing a lot of creativity amongst operators.”

For example, a restaurant in Queens, NY, solved two problems for the busy professional – where to work and where to eat. The operator offered business people the opportunity to use its Queensboro restaurant on Northern Boulevard in Jackson Heights to satisfy both needs. For an extra fee in addition to food, the patrons were given a venue with WiFi where they could work and a meal. Reservations required and social distancing enforced.

Another idea along these lines, though slightly more daring, would be to promote your restaurant as a meeting venue or classroom for adults. By assigning specific hours and designating a safe, functional environment, the operator can be assured of at least some regular even repeat business now that the restaurants that have survived have been allowed to open.

In Miami, one restaurant found salvation in alternating its menu selections quicker than feasible. Picture Laotian, then Italian, then French, then whoever rents the kitchen. French-Persian restaurant Fooq’s rents its kitchen to chefs and operators to keep the premises open and apparently it’s worked.

In the City of Brotherly Love, restaurateurs pooled their creativity and perhaps desperation by joining forces to launch “Save Philly Restaurants,” a collaboration that called on local officials to implement industry-friendly initiatives such as street closures to accommodate outdoor dining. One result of that effort was the loosening of restrictions on alcohol sales, which allowed one operator to sell cocktails-to-go – a hit with local customers. Restaurants also rapidly built up their online infrastructure to take delivery orders, which were nonexistent before the pandemic.

With homeschooling and homeworking on the rise, you’d think that coffee consumption has changed. It did but not down. Americans are drinking just as much coffee during the pandemic, as often as before, but at home instead of in coffee shops and restaurants. Online purchases have jumped by 57% as coffee buyers cut back on trips to the supermarket, according to the survey commissioned by the National Coffee Association (NCA). Consumer habits for the period in August 26 to September 3 were similar to those in a January poll, with six in 10 people drinking coffee every day, at an average of 2.9 cups per day. “App-based ordering, including delivery, rocketed up 63% amongst those who drank coffee in the last week. Drive through ordering increased 13% amongst those who drank coffee each day,” the NCA reported.

Consequently, restaurants should note that app-based ordering with delivery may also reap the benefits of this dynamic technology. Actually, technology is a major contributor to a foodservice operations’ survival.

As an added attention grabber, operators should continue promoting popular consumer-driven buzzwords such as organic, healthy and sustainable and add visible notices and requirements about masks, social distancing and safety. Savvy owners should publicize their cleaning and disinfecting strategy thereby reassuring customers that their safety in the restaurant is paramount.

The National Restaurant Association recently published a covid-19 brochure titled Safe Operating Guidance that can be downloaded for free: https://restaurant.org/articles/news/download-latest-covid-19-safe-operating-guidance.

On the down side, as operators are well aware, even though they’re allowed to open their doors, their biggest challenge is that their businesses are designed to run at their fullest capacity. Permission to open with 50% capacity limits, 25% limits doesn’t work. It won’t matter how much takeout or outdoor seating they do; they’re still losing money. The question is how much business can you do to get by?

With federal, state and local funds available, some mayors recommend that every effort should be made to streamline the application process for any grants that are offered to already stressed-out restaurateurs. The sooner they get funding, the sooner they’ll return to business and pump money into the economy.

In New Jersey, useful information and consultation can be acquired for free from the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers (https://njsbdc.com/). Additionally, operators can visit this site for information: https://faq.business.nj.gov/en/articles/4299457-what-is-the-njeda-e-commerce-technical-assistance-program-and-is-my-business-eligible. There operators can find information about the federal Paycheck Protection Program that has helped many of them bring back many workers.

On a similar note that restaurateurs should be aware of, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is planning to develop a new food safety strategy in reply to coronavirus, sustainability and other concerns. In a rationale for the strategy, it was noted how changes in food systems require a need to rethink the place of food safety in sustainable development: “The relevance of food safety to society, economic development, and sustainable food systems need to be better understood and promoted. A new food safety strategy should further address One Health issues, such as antimicrobial resistance, emerging zoonotic diseases, climate change, agricultural intensification, new technologies, innovation, food fraud, digitalization of food systems, and circular economies. The covid-19 pandemic also demonstrates the increased relevance of food safety in emergency food assistance and humanitarian food aid.”

Experts, scientists and doctors are foreseeing the pandemic chaining America and the world for many more months. Consequently, be prepared for some communities and states to mandate longer or shorter painful lockdowns.

In today’s business climate, book and school knowledge is helpful as at all times. However, contemporary successful business owners and entrepreneurs must also develop a high degree of creativity, flexibility, courage and speed. Foodservice operators must transform themselves into chameleons by adopting and adapting quickly to new situations and trends in order to survive and thrive.

Operators should consider their capacity needs for 2021 based not only on what the consultants are forecasting but also on what they’re seeing on their streets. Take advantage of low interest rates to invest in the equipment and technology necessary to accommodate future growth.

Restaurateurs should utilize any downtime afforded by lower economic activity to train and prepare themselves and their kitchen and front-of-the-house staffs for upcoming trends as well as implement technological improvements to ensure they are competitive on quality and price.

The restaurant business is about people not only food. Patrons are neighbors who return for good food, ambiance, talk and networking. Like the lyrics to “Cheers”: Sometimes you wanna go; Where everybody knows your name; And they’re always glad you came; You wanna be where you can see; Our troubles are all the same; You wanna be where everybody knows your name.

For example, Rudy’s on Anderson Avenue in Cliffside Park, NJ, is regularly packed with locals in the middle of the day. Owner Tommy Sudano knows how to keep his patrons well fed and happy. There are countless Rudy’s across the state and country. Loyalty and patronage are as a valuable as cash and must be rewarded.

Engaging with loyal customers amid the pandemic is great way owners can drive business and remain viable. Build an archive of emails and phone numbers from takeout and delivery orders to reconnect with patrons and keep them updated on restaurant specials and promotions to help drive more business. Most importantly, communicate regularly with them on the safety precautions the restaurant is taking to keep diners safe. This will ultimately increase patron confidence in dining-in or ordering takeout, helping to boost repeat customers and sales.

Promote your restaurant, safety requisites and concern for patrons and they’ll be back.