It may never be an easy time to be a small business owner, but the emergence of COVID-19 makes it even tougher.
Not only are many of our local businesses dealing with closed or limited hours of operations and laying off or furloughing employees, they also must navigate a new slew of acronyms such a SBA, PPP, SBDC, EIDL, and emerging programs designed to help them in a very uncertain time.
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced today the creation of the
Office of Small Business Relief
, which will be housed inside the
Ohio Development Services Agency
, and headed by former Findlay mayor Lydia Mihalik. The goal of the office is
focused on identifying and providing direct support to the state's nearly 950,000 small businesses to help during the current public health crisis and to position them for a span rebound.
The office will work, according to Husted, with the state's Small Business Development Centers (such as the OSU SBDC located in Piketon) and the Minority Business Assistance Centers not only on helping small business navigate the waters during the closing of non-essential business, but also as the stay-at-home order is lifted and business gradually returns.
He said the office will "be there to navigate the recovery component of this for small businesses, regulatory reform issues" and more. They will "navigate not only through the services they normally provide, but also all of these things that have been added in the interim to help businesses navigate through this difficult period of time."
When will business return to normal?
Husted also said people want to see what certainty looks like when it comes to resume normal activities, but he warned about a gradual process once the stay-at-home order is lifted. "Uncertainty is a difficult place to live," he said.
"It's not going to happen like flipping a switch. This will be gradual," he said. Businesses need to think about preparing safe workplace environment measures such as social distancing, hygiene protocols, and potentially providing masks to employees. Failure to take those steps could lead to a COVID-19 inside your business, which could more dire impact on the workplace.
"That will decimate your workforce and it will do the opposite of what we're trying to do," he warned, adding "these safe practices are going to be with us for awhile."
