The pandemic is revealing to small businesses just how versatile they are. So: A home-decor company, a skirt designer, and a business that makes boots for horses all realize they can craft face masks. A manufacturer of pet supplements and a hot sauce company join myriad craft distilleries in production of hand sanitizers.

The task of disinfecting workplaces tainted by or vulnerable to coronavirus also has attracted a variety of unexpected entrants. At AK Wet Works, the partners set out at once to reengineer their dustless blasters to produce a cold vapor fog that can sterilize 20,000 square feet an hour. In 100 hours, they produced a working model and began converting all 10 of their machines.

Seeking validation for their plan, the founders reached out to FQE, a local chemical company with an EPA-approved coronavirus disinfectant, to create a blend for them. Thinking their idea might have legs outside the Houston-area market, they next approached MMLJ, the original blaster manufacturer, which agreed to mass-produce the modified parts and market them to its large client base. MMLJ is paying a royalty to AK Wet Works, Bland says.

Seventeen-year-old Avi Schiffmann is an entrepreneur. But he is a different kind of entrepreneur. He’s not in it for the profits, fame and continued growth opportunities. At least, not right now.

Schiffmann, a high school teenager who lives in Washington State, has attracted worldwide attention through his amazing Survival Rate Calculator website, which tracks critical information related to the coronavirus outbreak. Since launching the site during the early stages of the pandemic, Schiffmann's web crawlers have been configured to pull in, parse and process real time data from the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and other governmental websites and convert that data to show infections, deaths, recoveries and rates of change for all countries around the world. The site breaks down infections on user-friendly maps, provides health information and also attempts to calculate a survival rate of someone who contracts COVID-19, based on user-submitted health data of age, gender and other health factors.

Is the site popular? You bet. According to a profile of Schiffmann on Business Insider, the site attracts about 30 million visitors a day and 700 million total so far.

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, consumer confidence has declined in all 50 states, according to ongoing research from Morning Consult. And we all know that consumer confidence is a critical component of economic growth. As businesses begin to reopen across America, they need to work hard to restore this critical sentiment. To that end, consumer confidence may well be the only marketing message that matters for some time to come.

As consumers weigh the pros and cons of carefully reemerging from quarantine, many marketers will need to make a point of reassuring them in their messaging. Here are four smart marketing approaches to consider as you seek to restore consumer confidence.

1. Reframe social distancing.
2. Acknowledge the struggle.
3. Build consumer trust.
4. Emphasize safety.

Social distancing. Telemedicine. Self-quarantine. These are all words that at the start of 2020 weren't part of our vocabulary, but several months into the new decade we are all hearing and using them daily. There is no denying that the coronavirus outbreak has dramatically changed just about every facet of just about every person’s life around the world.

From a business perspective, the stock market saw its largest one day loss and largest one day gain in history. The U.S. saw the largest job-loss report ever. We are in uncharted waters, and how long we will remain in them remains uncertain. However, there is one thing that we all know, and that is that this outbreak will change the lives of everyone for years or decades to come. Nearly 20 years after 9-11, enhanced airport security, no-fly lists and counterterrorism efforts are still the norm. The same will be true of the COVID-19 aftermath. Is your business ready for the five largest macro trends we are about to see?

1. The rise of enhanced websites and digital tools
2. Cybersecurity concerns take center stage
3. An increase in virtual meetings
4. Increased control in expenses
5. Even more remote employees

Small businesses could soon see a rollback of several universally loathed measures attached to the original Paycheck Protection Program, the $669 billion loan and grant initiative aimed at helping small businesses keep employees on the payroll.

When the House convenes next Wednesday, it is expected to vote on the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act, a standalone bill that would, among other things, lengthen the time businesses may spend the funds from their PPP loans. The bill would also eliminate the requirement that 75 percent of a loan's proceeds must be spent on employee pay and benefits. The measure was originally proposed on May 15 in the House by representatives Dean Phillips (D., Minn.) and Chip Roy (R., Texas).  

The survey shows that consumers have already been going out of their way to support small businesses. 86% of those surveyed say they have continued to support locally owned businesses during quarantine.

The research uncovers how consumers have been supporting local businesses during lockdown. For example, 77% said they have been participating in a virtual experience offered by a local business. 60% of consumers said they have been ordering more takeaways and deliveries from local restaurants.

In the current environment, cybersecurity is essential for businesses of all sizes. Many small or medium-sized businesses find themselves without adequate cybersecurity, either as a result of believing that they don’t need it or simply overlooking it among the many demands that come with running a business.

1. Use protection against ransomware
2. Invest in employee security training
3. Adopt multifactor authentication
4. Use a Security Information and Event Management system
5. Implement effective systems for protecting and monitoring data
6. Have a plan for mobile device security

A price strategy is every bit as important as what you have got to sell. After all, they dictate what you will charge for the goods and services you have on the market. In the end, getting these pricing strategies right is a bit of a balancing act. You will need to find that sweet spot between market demand and maximum profits.

1. Competition Based Pricing Strategy
If you are selling things that are similar, this is the pricing strategy your small business should be looking at. Here’s how competitive pricing works. First off, this works best for products rather than services. It works when the price for those products has reached a balancing point between your business and others.

This pricing strategy starts out using the going market rate to set a price.

2. Value-Based Pricing
Basically this is pricing based on what customers are willing to pay.

There are several steps to this pricing model. You need to do a bit of detective work here to find a competitive product. Next, you will need to list all the ways your product is different. Stress the financial value on these differences. This is a reasonable way to defend your pricing strategy.

You might have missed it amid all the goings-on since then, but in August 2019, a new law was passed that gives small businesses (and individuals/married couples) a new and simplified way to go through bankruptcy without needing to sell off their assets.

In other words, you can keep operating your business while going through and emerging from bankruptcy. And you can do it faster and cheaper than before.

The Small Business Reorganization Act added a new section to Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Subchapter V lets entities with debts below a threshold amount go through a streamlined court process, establishing and approving new repayment plans that creditors are required to accept (creditors get input, too, but this is limited and more streamlined as well). You don't have to sell off your assets as in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and you can keep operating without needing to meet the strict Chapter 13 requirements or suffering the prohibitive expense of a standard Chapter 11 process.

Your business might be in dire straits, but weathering this rough patch might mean a return to profitability.

The CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook faced the House Judiciary Committee virtually today, where they fielded questions about whether their respective tech companies take advantage of their dominant positions in the market to enhance their bottom lines.

Spoiler: They all said they do not.

Rep. Cicilline said House Judiciary will publish a report on the Antitrust Subcommittees finding, which will propose solutions. but his hearing has made one fact clear to me: These companies as they exist today have monopoly power. Some need to be broken up. All need to be properly regulated and held accountable, he concluded.

The coronavirus pandemic has placed tremendous stress on the American economy. More than 55 million Americans have filed for unemployment, and more than 100,000 small businesses have been permanently shuttered, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Though the news seems dire, these changing times could present an opportunity if you are a hopeful entrepreneur.

Whether you have been planning to start a business for years, you have been laid off and are looking for new opportunities or you are moving your existing business in a new direction, now might be the time to figure out how to start a business.

Coming up with a business idea and starting a business can seem overwhelming and complicated. There are so many things you have to consider from coming up with an excellent idea to registering a company, all the way to business planning, fundraising and much more.

That is why we have put together this in-depth guide to take you by step by step through how you can start a business.

More info - https://entrepreneurhandbook.co.uk/starting-a-business/

How people usually do elevator pitches
Among those who put thought into their elevator pitches, there tends to be two basic formulas:

Formula A: Introduce oneself and the name of the company, then describe the product or service in the context of the customer or industry’s pain point. Then, at the end, make the ask.

Formula B: Identify the pain point before introducing oneself and the name of the company. Then describe the product or service, followed by the ask.

While I am adamant that the only hard and fast rule of communication is that there are no hard and fast rules, I favor Formula B. People are most likely to embrace a solution when it is provided within the context of a problem they care about solving. By starting with a pain point, the entrepreneur is speaking to what an uninformed audience cares about right away thus making sure that the first thing their audience hears has intrinsic value to them. This helps the audience become immediately invested in solving the problem, which helps the entrepreneur to build some momentum.

March 11, 2020 is a day destined for the history books: WHO Declares Coronavirus Outbreak a Pandemic. It was that day that, all around the world, leaders began scrambling, ripping through the pages of their crisis playbooks (or quickly creating them), searching for their pandemic play-by-play. Shortly after came the day the markets crashed on March 16, turning the crisis to both a health and economic calamity.

Though etched in our minds with great infamy, it’s days like these that I believe make true leaders. Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. wouldn’t be the leaders we remember if it were not for the fiery trials that forged their legacies. This is true not only for politicians and activists, but also for business leaders. As president of The UPS Store, a business deemed essential throughout the pandemic, I’ve seen what works (and what does not) when leading through a crisis, and how leaders can turn even a global pandemic into an opportunity.

Take a step back
The lightning pace and innovation of technology in todays world has trained us to think that speedy decisions are good decisions.

The food and beverage industry is a tough game. Sixty percent of restaurants don’t make it past their first year, and 80 percent go out of business within five years. Those are hard odds.

Franchising takes some of the risks out of the equation by giving you a proven model to work with. But being a franchisor with a proven model under your arm does not mean you’re suddenly bulletproof or immune to the laws of economics. If you start making unforced errors, you are going to fail.

Here are the five reasons most people fail as the owner of a franchise. Avoid these deadly sins at all costs:

Sin 1: Financial complacency
Sin 2: Operational obtuseness
Sin 3: Poor hiring choices
Sin 4: Myopic risk management
Sin 5: Mediocre offerings

Ankur Jains investment firm, Kairos, is funding training sessions and job placement for 10,000 workers.

There are three types of CRMs that work with Gmail. Some - like Zoho , Sugar, Insightly and GoldMine - have their own, built-in email clients that can connect to Gmails server to send and receive messages. Others - such as Salesforce - will just quickly integrate with Gmail right out of the box via a plug-in and then synchronize messages back and forth. And then there are a few – like Copper and Streak - that work right inside of Gmail.

The face-covering business went from zero to crazy money in five months, with manufacturers pivoting production lines and brands seizing the moment to advertise.

Ninety-six percent of new entrepreneurs say the pandemic is motivating or giving them the motivation they needed to start their own business. This positive statistic comes from Azlo, a banking platform for small business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.

In mid-March 2020, Azlo witnessed an uptick in new accounts opening. Wanting to understand the reasons behind the boost in business, Azlo conducted a survey. ‘The COVID Economy’ report interviewed 1,000 of Azlos newest customers across the United States.

Businesses now can negotiate for perks and concessions that were unheard of in the commercial real estate market just a few months ago.

Asking rent prices have yet to fall, which is typical in a down cycle as landlords try to hold out as long as possible, says CBRE chief economist Richard Barkham. At the same time, Barkham says, landlords are eager to fill space, so they're willing to offer a bevy of concessions to the right tenants, including rent-free periods, build-out expenses, and flexible lease terms.

Working from home has accelerated innovative team-building trends. How to make traits like agility, collaboration, and candor a permanent part of our management process.

The future of work arrived out of nowhere, on the back of a once-in-a-century pandemic. Team dynamics got challenged as members dealt with illness, trauma, and crisis. We've all been forced to rapidly and radically adapt to new working norms. The Ferrazzi Greenlight Research Institute has spent more than 15 years studying high-performing teams, but I've never seen entrepreneurs rise to the occasion as they have this year. When the crisis subsides, the temptation will be to turn back that progress and retreat into old behaviors.

Entrepreneurs have seized the opportunity to start new companies in a wide variety of industries during the Covid-19 pandemic. While not all of these ventures will be successful, businesses that help alleviate some of the new challenges created by the pandemic are poised for long-term growth. Here are three industries that hold promising opportunities for entrepreneurs looking to start new businesses.

1. Contactless Tech
2. Telehealth
3. Education Tech

Recovery is slow: In fact, more than half (56%) have experienced a slower recovery than expected after shelter-in-place orders began to expire, with nearly half of small business owners fearing they may need to shutter their business within six months if pandemic restrictions are not lifted or if shelter-in-place orders resume in the near-term.
    
Survival requires adaptability: Yet despite fear of survival, owners are demonstrating resiliency and adaptability, with about a third (30%) creating products/services to meet new needs and half (50%) of those with an online presence increasing their digital footprint to meet the moment. And, they’re looking for help in making those changes – nearly 70 percent of female and 60 percent of male small business owners say they need one-to-one small business advice.

They depend on their community: While small businesses continue to be important facets of communities, many small business owners have noted changes in their customers and worry that people will not be able to afford doing business with them. However, half of small business owners believe that there seems to be a renewed interest in shopping locally in their area.

1. Focus on the positive
2. Hit the reset button
3. Never give up
4. Network

The end of the year is a critical time for businesses especially for small businesses that are looking to make the most out of holiday shopping. 23ABC spoke with two business consultants on how small businesses can adapt to make the most out of this final stretch of 2020.

Starting with investing in your community.
Their second piece of advice is to build an honest and transparent relationship with your customers and business neighbors.
As times have slowed down, they are encouraging business owners to take a good look at who their ideal client is and reshape their marketing for them.
Lastly, being collaborative and creative.

1. A question that delves into past experiences within working cultures and extrapolates where future environments may/may not align. For example: Creating the right culture is important for our company. Can you share details on a time you were in a toxic work environment, and how did management handle the situation? Describe when you were in a wonderful work environment and what management did correctly.

2. Deciphering how the candidates prefer to be managed as a key to ensuring management-style alignment. For example: Taking guidance from leaders is a critical part of any working arrangement. Describe how you like to be managed and how would you describe the ideal leader for your personality style?

3. Understanding motivations and expectations for long-term engagement. For example: We believe in long-term retention, and so we are cautious on the type of candidate we onboard. If you were going to commit to helping build this company long-term, what would it take for you to be happy and motivated?

4. Perspectives on their self-awareness of personal growth objectives and needs. For example: We all have challenges we are working to overcome. If you had to assess your challenges, where would be areas that you would focus to develop and look for support to improve?


5. Communication competence and tolerance for different interaction styles. For example: We all have different communication and coordination styles. What is the method you most effectively consolidate new information to inform your work, and what is your preferred communication style to align with your leadership and stakeholders?

Whether your cell phone has a broken screen, is no longer the latest technology, or you are simply itching for the latest cell phone model, it is important that you take appropriate care in disposing of your old cell phone.

Retain and Protect Your Data
Cell phones are a treasure trove of information; think of the panic that strikes each time you mistakenly misplace your cell phone. The information contained in our cell phones is meaningful and it is important that you backup any data on the phone that you wish to retain. The data you backup would include: any music, photos, messages etc...  If you are moving to a new cell phone you can often transfer the data you wish to retain to the new cell device.

How to Dispose of Old Cell Phones

While major corporations furloughing workers and declaring bankruptcy tends to get the biggest headlines, our culture's dramatic shift to working from home is the true breakout business story from this pandemic. The transition has certainly had its share of ups and downs, but rapidly growing acceptance indicates this is a trend that is almost certainly going to shape the future of work.

The transition began before 2020
While Covid-19 restrictions caused an abrupt shift, working from home was already accelerating. Research from FlexJobs found that the number of people in the United States who worked from home grew by an astounding 159 percent between 2005 and 2017.

Much of this growth can be attributed to freelancing. Upworks Freelancing in America 2019 survey found that the number of Americans who did freelance work grew from 53 million to 57 million between 2014 and 2019. Younger generations were especially likely to participate, with 40 percent of millennials and 53 percent of Generation Z contributing to the gig economy.

During a crisis or emergency situation it is important that a cell phone has battery life. Many people only think of plugging a charger into the wall. But what happens when the power is out for an extended period of time during a crisis?

Replacement Cell Phone Battery
Some cell phones have the option of replacing the battery. There are both options for original manufacturer replacement batteries as well as batteries manufactured by third parties. If your phone is critical consider carrying a charged backup/replacement battery for your cell phone.

Tube Battery Cell Phone Charger
A number of manufacturers have created all-in-one portable charger, that is essentially a "tube" battery chargers. The chargers will charge cell phones or other wireless devices provided that you have the appropriate cables and connections. Tube battery chargers are compact and light weight, making them quite portable, and a great backup power option.

Alternate Power Sources for Cell Phones

The former vice president won the top job, but undoing Trumps discordant legacy will not be easy.

Many of the elements of Trumps biggest legislative achievement--the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017--are set to expire in the next few years. To name two: the research and development tax credit, which in 2022 requires businesses to amortize expenses over five years rather than doing so immediately, as is the current case. And full expensing for short-term business investments will begin phasing out in 2023.

Your brain is just like any other muscle in your body; just as you lift weights and train your body to make it stronger, your brain needs just as much attention as those biceps.

And with the state of things these days, we should spend even more time training our brains to be more focused, relaxed and creative in order to maintain our emotional control and build our resilience to stress. Only then can we truly thrive in uncertain times and become unstoppable.

So how do you train your brain? You can read and practice-problem solving of course, but there are a plethora of new and exciting devices available to help you level up your training and target specific areas of your brain that need it.

Kudos matter now more than ever. On average, social media endorsements of small businesses generate 23% of revenues, according to data from Amex.

Few things put more smiles on the faces of small-business owners than social media recommendations about their products or services, but now, new research proves that those online shoutouts also put cash in their bank accounts.

On average, social media endorsements of small businesses generate 23% of revenues—or approximately $197 billion—new data from American Express finds.

Whether your cell phone has a broken screen, is no longer the latest technology, or you are simply itching for the latest cell phone model, it is important that you take appropriate care in disposing of your old cell phone.

Retain and Protect Your Data
Cell phones are a treasure trove of information; think of the panic that strikes each time you mistakenly misplace your cell phone. The information contained in our cell phones is meaningful and it is important that you backup any data on the phone that you wish to retain. The data you backup would include: any music, photos, messages etc...  If you are moving to a new cell phone you can often transfer the data you wish to retain to the new cell device.

Protect Your Personal Information
Cell phones often contain sensitive personal data, including passwords, bank information, payment methods, messages, contacts, videos, account numbers and much more. After transferring the data to a new device, information is still retained on your original cell phone.  Providing this type of sensitive information to strangers could put you at risk for identity theft, other other types of fraud, or simply leave you very uncomfortable.

How to Dispose of Old Cell Phones; Protect Your Data and Privacy

1. Be clear in your direction.
2. Know who your customer is.
3. Focus on the channels that matter.
4. Only talk about what matters.
5. Remember what makes you special.
6. Find your niche.
7. Learn something new.
8. Plan well to save time.
9. Engage with your customers more.

Have you heard that 90 percent of new businesses fail? Or that 50 percent of new businesses fail? Stick around in the entrepreneurial community long enough and you’ll likely hear a wide spectrum of claims, mostly falling between these two extremes.

But what is the true failure rate of small businesses? And should it influence your decisions as an entrepreneur?

What we know about the failure rate of small businesses

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as reported by Fundera, approximately 20 percent of small businesses fail within the first year. By the end of the second year, 30 percent of businesses will have failed. By the end of the fifth year, about half will have failed. And by the end of the decade, only 30 percent of businesses will remain — a 70 percent failure rate.

1. Have an adaptable business model
2. Diversify supply chain operations
3. Create an omnichannel customer experience

1. Organize your business documents
2. Have a scalable technology plan ready
3. Plan to spend money to earn money
4. Prepare to outsource tasks
5. Create a blueprint for business continuity
6. Develop a strategy for balancing work and life
7. Build your team

Finding and keeping the best talent has never been easy. It became the top concern for HR professionals this past year, with more than two-thirds reporting struggles with their recruitment and retention efforts. While the reasons for those struggles run the gamut, they often relate to attracting qualified candidates (49%), retaining star employees (49%) and issues with the talent-culture fit (42%).

For small and midsize businesses (SMBs), any difficulties with finding talented hires end up wasting precious resources. Worse yet, the cost of a bad hire is equal to 30% of the hires first-year salary – without factoring in the potential losses in revenue and time associated with onboarding the wrong person for a job.

A business owner who spent nearly $46 million over the years on Facebook ads said he got booted from the platform without warning.

Jordan Nabigon, the CEO of the Ottawa, Ontario, content-curation site Shared, said Facebook deleted his companys main Facebook page without warning in October, and without providing an explanation. He shared a Medium post detailing his experience, which has received more than 400 claps from readers.

Nabigon spent $45,870,181 on Facebook advertising between 2006 and 2020 for Shared and his other company Freebies, according to expense reports reviewed by Business Insider. Shared employees three people full-time and 12 contract writers, Nabigon said.

Facebook increased its use of artificial intelligence to oversee advertising and other content during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Nabigon is among hundreds of business owners who said they suffered from Facebook's crackdown on ad policies.

The United States has seen an increase in new businesses formed this year. According to the United State Census Bureau, in week 50, there were over 86,000 new business applications nationwide — representing a 38% increase over filings during the same week in 2019. The challenges small businesses have experienced in 2020 have led to some core lessons that those in the business community need to apply — whether they own an established small business or a newly formed one.

Minimum wage is a complex issue for small businesses, says the Small Business Development Center in Binghamton.

The SBDC adds that, typically, small businesses have a close relationship with their employees and if they could pay them more originally, they would.

They add that they believe some business owners may have to pick up the slack in order to keep costs low.

The pandemic is accelerating existing trends.

Covid-19 has initiated some trends and altered the direction of others, but its most enduring impact will be as an accelerant. Take any trend--social, business, or personal--and fast-forward 10 years. Even if your company isn't living in the year 2030 yet, the pandemic has spurred changes in consumer behavior and markets. This is clear in the rapid increase in online shopping, in the shift toward remote delivery of health care, and in the spectacular increase in valuation among the biggest tech firms.

The more disruptive the crisis, the greater the opportunities--and the risks.

In a world in which e-commerce has become a necessity for nearly every retailer, it can seem they have only two options: list their goods on marketplaces run by giant companies, or sell to consumers directly, hoping they will make more on each transaction despite fewer sales. In other words, either join a dominant marketplace like eBay , Walmart or Amazon —which by itself represents 38% of U.S. online sales, according to Digital Commerce 360—or hope they can find customers through advertising and word of mouth.

For many small- and medium-size sellers, a third option has emerged, embodied by the rising star of e-commerce, Shopify . This approach gives merchants access to cloud-based third-party services such as payments and fulfillment, but lets them maintain more control of their branding and customer relationships than the biggest marketplaces offer. Shoppers might not even know they’re buying something from a Shopify-powered retailer, and that’s the point.

In addition to making goods available on sellers’ own sites, these software companies—which also include BigCommerce and Magento—can perform the laborious task of listing merchandise on the giants marketplaces. By becoming hubs for managing sales through multiple channels, including social-media platforms, they represent real competition for Amazon and its ilk, potentially giving merchants more leverage when dealing with those entrenched giants.

Specific PPP provisions of the new law include:

Appropriates an additional $7.25 billion to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for the PPP program

Expands PPP eligibility to include:

~ Additional tax-exempt nonprofits, such as 501(c)(5) labor and agricultural organizations and community locations of larger nonprofits, whose lobbying activities do not comprise more than 15 percent of its activities
~ Internet publishing organizations assigned a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code of 519130 and engaged in the collection and distribution of local or regional and national news and information
~ Adds COBRA premium assistance as an allowable payroll cost under the PPP program.

Invoice financing is a type of business funding wherein the business sells its outstanding invoices or account receivables (A/R) to financing companies to get an immediate cash flow boost. The financing company takes over the invoices, and sometimes be in charge of collecting customer payments (as in invoice factoring).

Invoice financing is a popular financing option for businesses that have to wait 30,60, or 90 days to get their clients payments.

A survey of small businesses conducted by Appalachian State University in coordination with Selective found that cybersecurity and technology issues were growing concerns for 44% of survey respondents due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, only 20% of survey respondents have cyber insurance coverage.

The findings highlight an awareness gap among small businesses about the risks they face from cybercrime. Twenty-eight percent of data breaches impact small businesses, and phishing attacks account for over 30% of breaches, making them the biggest cyber threat for small organizations.1 Cyber coverage from Selective can help small businesses manage and mitigate risks with comprehensive coverage options and cyber threat education.

Staying tuned in to the pulse of your industry is key to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Public groups, online forums and the like are among the most valuable resources for gathering and contributing industry information. But if someone is looking for in-depth insight into their business niche, locating the right groups where this discussion occurs is the first step. T

This month almost 135,000 businesses are showing strain, as the impact of a year of Covid-19 restrictions reverberates.Businesses in the services and retail sectors accounted for almost three-fifths of those showing distress, said Mazars. Sectors allowed to reopen were faring better, with construction and manufacturing businesses making up 7.9 per cent and 6.7 per cent of those in distress respectively.

For some of the smallest businesses that applied for forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, waiting just a few days or weeks would’ve gotten them thousands of dollars more.

But they had no way of knowing what was coming.

The Biden administration in late February announced a slew of changes to the loan program, which offered forgivable loans in return for keeping employees on a company’s payroll, after it reopened in January with $284 billion in funding. Those amendments included an adjusted loan formula that would mean larger amounts for sole proprietors as well as expanded eligibility for small business owners with certain criminal records, were delinquent on student loan debt or were non-citizens.

The Small Business Administration has extended deferment periods for all of l its disaster loans made either in 2020 or 2021, the agency announced on Monday.

The extended deferment includes the SBAs Economic Injury Disaster Loan – or EIDL – program, which many businesses that did not qualify for Paycheck Protection Program loans or other funding used to bridge the losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

All SBA disaster loans made in 2020 will have the first payment due date extended from 12-months to 24-months from the date of the note, the agency said. Disaster loans made in 2021 will have a first payment due date extended from 12-months to 18-months from the date of the note.