What kind of help do small businesses need?

I own an ice cream shop in Massachusetts, and as you can imagine, the current conditions are not ideal for selling ice cream. In fact, like most small businesses, we're pretty boned! In MA, we currently have the option to be open for delivery and take out, but last weekend, I made the decision to close the shop. I couldn't reasonably scream at people to stay home while making the staff show up and begging strangers to come buy ice cream. Our overhead is far lower than most restaurants, so we might have been able to eke by on delivery and take out. The big concern for me is because of the seasons in Boston, we're only profitable 6 months a year, +/- breakeven 2 months, and then we go ahead and lose tons of cash the other four months. All this to say, it's complicated!

I spent the last week thinking about what small businesses and hospitality industry employees need right now, and really I think these ideas can be implemented across the entire economy. Ultimately it comes down to putting money into small businesses so we can keep paying our bills. How will we pay for it? We don't need to pay for it because money is imaginary. Go ahead and mint the coin already. I don't know if any of these are feasible, but some must be.

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  There are a few different programs available at the moment which issue low or no interest loans. These aren't especially helpful to small businesses because we generally operate on such low margins it would be impossible to ever catch up. Additionally, most of these loans require personal guarantees, which means that small business owners on the brink of losing their entire business, might take one of these loans and if they default a few months down the line, the end up losing everything anyway, but now they lose everything else they've got, too.

• Banks and bank regulators should get together to waive interest payments on mortgages and defer payments at no penalty for at least 3 months. Any landlord who accepts this offer must prove they have completely passed the relief on to their tenants. Landlords who do this should be allowed to extend the lease by 3 months if they choose. If this doesn't work, regulators and municipalities should also look at reducing property tax payments for any landlord who proves they have reduced their tenants' rent. This would work for commercial and residential leases.

• Cell phone companies and internet providers should provide fee-free service for at least 3 months to current subscribers impacted by restaurant and bar closures.  

• Sales tax payments to state and local governments for the past x months should be given back to businesses who prove they've distributed this money to their employees. Some states have deferred sales tax payments for a few months, but they're still eventually owed.

• Credit cart transaction fees, delivery commissions, payroll and scheduling software fees for the past X months should be given back to businesses who prove they've distributed this money to their employees. Why would they do this? If they don't they're going to have far fewer companies in a few months anyway. 

• (A quick note on the difference between waiver and deferral: If a fee is waived, it is not owed. If a fee is deferred, it is owed at a later date, which helps a little, but not a lot. Grubhub got great headlines for saying they were waiving their fees, but what they actually implemented was a deferral. Restaurants accepting this offer will eventually owe commissions on all their orders during this time.)

• Transportation isn't too big of a deal with everyone stuck at home at the moment, but car payments will still be due. Banks should offer no fee deferral of payment for 3 months, and public transportation should be offered for free to impacted hospitality workers once things get going again.

• Rules and restrictions on unemployment benefits must be temporarily relaxed to allow for immediate relief for impacted employees. Lots of states are making progress on this, but it's not enough. For example, Jan and Feb are slower months in the hospitality industry (especially ice cream!), so potential payouts to employees will be lower if calculations are base on last two quarters. Additionally, seasonal staff who just started work this month will have next to no earnings the last two quarters.

There are probably other things City, State, and Federal officials can and must do, but this is a start.

If you are a customer of a small business here are some things you can do to help them:

• If they're still open for delivery and take out and you're comfortable with it, order delivery and take out from them. Be patient if things take longer than before. If you can afford it, tip extravagantly, even an extra couple dollars will make a huge difference to the employees. If possible order delivery or take out direct from the restaurant so they can avoid commissions from the delivery companies which routinely run to over 30% of the sale.

• If the business has accounts on social channels, follow them there. If they have an email list, sign up for it. When they post something interesting, amplify it to your network. Do anything you can to help them get the message out. If you love a place, chances are your friend will too.

• Leave a review on Google or Facebook, or Yelp if you have to. These help!

• Buy some merch from the restaurant. We make very nice merch including the softest Ice Cream Weather sweatshirt you'll ever wear. If you get a gift card, consider waiting until things settle down before using it.