Given the number of calls that myself and my team are fielding, there are plenty of cashflow fears for business owners. I want to share some thoughts on this topic, but please realize you will have to check your local listings on these topics. Each state is different and impacted differently, but I want to provide resources that will likely become available over time to you in your locality.
The biggest thing every business owner needs to do is over communicate with their teams. Much like you owners have fears about your futures, your employees do as well. So let them know if they will have a job when this ends. If they won’t, let them know now so they can start planning. I bring this up because one option you can utilize if your business has been asked to close by your local government is unemployment. Many states have made changes in their policies with unemployment. Most have waived the waiting period meaning your team can get payment via unemployment right away vs the traditional 1 week waiting period.
States have also waived the requirement of seeking employment knowing most will return to their jobs. One thing that can be done to help preserve your companies cashflow is to furlough your employees. I do want to be clear about one thing, this won’t be an easy conversation for you to have. I am not suggesting this is what you do but it is one option for you. If you have the cash reserves to survive this lull and you decide that is the best thing for your team, so be it. I sure hope your practice has all of its maintenance done and cleaned amazingly then!
Should you be short on cash, as areas are deem disaster areas, you would qualify for short term SBA loans at discounted costs. The current interest rates on these loans for for profit businesses is 3.75%. To see if your area qualifies, go to this site. https://www.sba.gov/disaster-assistance/coronavirus-covid-19
I would also suggest contacting your banks and anyone you have loans with. Having spoken with management within one of the larger banks, they started creating contingency plans for this last week. I would assume each company will handle it differently. Some might let you completely pause payments and others might want interest only payments. But either way it will make cashflow easier for you.
Lastly, from a cashflow perspective, if you have and emergency patient in the chair, you might as well get as much done as the patient is willing to do. They are there, and you have a light schedule and they likely are only returning home, get as much done while there as you can. It only makes sense.
Take a deep breath to calm yourself and wash your hands. This too shall pass!
