As the pandemic continues, Allina Health Aetna believes we need to find ways to safely coexist with Covid.
I'm Tom Lindquist and today I'm talking to Molly Jungbauer about how employers are coexisting with Covid.
How are small businesses being impacted by this pandemic?
Well, it's been obviously very stressful and devastating for many small businesses, as many, including my own, have experienced a significant drop in revenues.
This unfortunately is something where I know I'm not alone.
I've talked to many business leaders across multiple industries in the state of Minnesota.
So it is impacting just about every sector of our economy.
Another common concern I'm hearing from is that we cannot sustain these long-term closures that we've been experiencing.
Many small businesses have limited cash reserves and also limited access to capital, unlike larger businesses.
It's very difficult to secure a line of credit, especially when your revenues are dropping pretty significantly.
As a small business owner yourself, what advice would you have for others during Covid-19?
Try to look for opportunities to grow your revenue and new ways to help your clients during this pandemic.
So try to reimagine your business.
Is there an opportunity to add a new service or a product that meets some of the new challenges that your clients are facing during this pandemic?
Do you see Covid-19 changing what businesses look like in the future?
I've heard from many businesses that they are looking at potentially closing their offices or probably reducing their space
to only half of the space they used to have and maybe going to sharing space when people do want to come and use the office.
So what kind of resources are out there for small business owners?
Obviously new information is coming out every day about Covid.
I really take an active role and try to look for that information.
I'll go to the CDC website, I'll go to the Minnesota Department of Health website and the chambers website.
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is a great resource for Covid-19 tools.
It follows all the state regulations and guidelines to safely open your office.
It has templates available to help you prepare your preparedness plan which is required and which you must share with your employees.
It has safety protocol guidelines, it has posters that you're able to access and print out, which I have done and posted all over my offices.
So lots of great resources there for employers to be able to again bring their employees safely back to the workplace.