To our valuable business, education, and residential community members:
Our world and most importantly the local economy is changing and WILL change. Therefore, I have as President & CEO of The Chamber Partnership activated The Chamber Partnership's C-19 Economic Task Force on Sunday, March 15th. This is compromised of our local Chamber business council executive leadership teams and the Chamber's administration team.
Our first duty of care will be to navigate our businesses, followed by a recovery mode, and finally a road back to prosperity. This will take time and we shall get through this.
With this said, I have had calls daily with our liaisons' at The White House with the United States Chamber and the Ohio Chamber.
SBA Disaster Assistance in Response to the Coronavirus
Click here for SBA SUPPORT
Bar/Restaurant Owner Support
The Lt. Governor announced a temporary buy-back of high proof liquor products purchased within the last 30 days. The goal of this is to ease cash flow for bar/restaurant owners. Here is a
release by the Department of Commerce that shares more. It should be returned to the Agency where it was purchased. If you have questions you may call 1-877-812-0013 or email
ohioliquorinfo@com.ohio.gov
Federal Response
Additionally, Congress acted late last week to pass legislation to support businesses and families affected by the disruption. Here is
a great overview by the US Chamber which breaks down what is included.
Here in Ohio, the Development Services Agency is helping to take the lead and they have asked that any small business owners who have been affected please send your contact information to the following email address:
BusinessHelp@Development.Ohio.Gov and they will follow up with you.
Impacted Employee Support
Your employees may be affected by the temporary restrictions put in place. The Governor’s office also announced several initiatives to help:
· They are broadening current state policy to clarify that individuals that are quarantined by a health professional or by their employer are considered to be unemployed and will not be subject to requirements to actively seek work during the period of emergency.
· This also applies to companies that determine it is necessary to temporarily shut down operations due to the current emergency.
· Ohio currently has a 1-week waiting period before an individual can receive unemployment. In order to expedite the payments to impacted Ohioans, they are waiving the waiting week so that workers eligible for unemployment benefits will receive them for the first week of unemployment.
Unemployment & Businesses
The Governor also announced some relief for businesses regarding unemployment:
· Because they do not want to penalize individual employers for the impact of this outbreak by increasing future taxes, the costs of these additional benefits will be mutualized.
· ODJFS will also waive employer penalties for late reporting and payments for the next quarter to assist employers impacted by lack of staff availability.
The Chamber is well connected with our federal, state, and local county and municipal agencies. My freelance team of Lynn Hammerstrom, Laura Hart, Wendy Gehring, and Jayson Hines will lead our efforts to communicate effective, impactful, and realistic information to our business community. This will be supported with additional documented resources for preparation, planning, and execution. Our events for members have been moved to virtual starting this Tuesday with TCPNetworks.
OUR BIGGEST ROLE AT THE CHAMBER WILL BE TO “NAVIGATE!:” By this, I mean, assisting our business community in the navigation of the State of Ohio assistance programs which includes Unemployment, sick leave, paid-time-off, etc, and federally with the United States Economic Development Agency with the zero-interest loans for small business, and other programs that The White House is developing and announcing daily that are coming out.
We will remain vigilant and calm in our efforts to communicate this to our chamber members via website, email, social media, and personal phone calls. Our freelance executives will be calling all of our bars and restaurants starting today to gather their carryout, online, and delivery options so we can formulate a social media campaign to aid in their efforts to recoup business. We must unite and deliver confidence and explain to our businesses the access to the resources, and understand how to “navigate” through their situations.
A majority of our members are small and independently owned and operated and do not have a corporate or franchise support to guide them through any type of crisis, or disaster planning scenarios, hence their panic and uncertainty. Other industry segments we represent within our membership will also see focused efforts to drive marketing and promotion soon.
In addition, beginning this Wednesday, March 18th at 10 am, and each week, I will host a Chamber MasterMinds virtual meeting to discuss updates to resources, strategies, while highlighting local experts on various topics essential to our current needs.
I am a small business owner and already have had a moderate impact in my four restaurants both in Ohio and Michigan, and realize what you may be dealing with as well.
Currently and until further notice, our offices have gone virtual and you can still connect with us via 419-877-2747, email and Facebook.
I appreciate your attention to this matter as “we all” navigate together and will learn from this as well.
Onward;
Josh Torres, CCEO-AP2
President & CEO
Anthony Wayne Regional Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber Partnership
