Webinar recap: A 360-Degree Look at Growing Small Business in a COVID-19 World

July 27, 2020
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In a recent webinar, we brought together a team of expert panelists to discuss the future growth of small business in a COVID-19 world. This team of entrepreneurs, investors and community development professionals spent time unpacking current trends in small business development and how to move beyond relief strategies to full recovery.

Read on for some highlights, or you can watch the webinar in full here:

By order of appearance: Mark Scheffel, who as a former legislator and business owner has a unique insight into helping small businesses grow and expand, kicked off Advantage Capital’s first webinar. Advantage Capital Chief Impact Officer, Sandra M. Moore, began the conversation with a look at how the pandemic is impacting small businesses and individual works. She was followed by Lee Langerock, Partner at Prep the Page, who spoke on disruptions in the supply chain. Ed Johnson, founder and CEO of Bambootility discussed opportunities for small businesses to stand out. Kerwin Tesdell, CEO of the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance continued the conversation with a discussion about rebuilding and reimagining our economy before Salin Geevarghese, President & CEO at SGG Insight and Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Social policy rounded out the discussion with how businesses should engage the public sector for support.

Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses and individual workers

Advantage Capital Chief Impact Officer, Sandra M. Moore, kicked off the webinar with a look at how the pandemic is impacting small businesses and individual workers:

- More than one-third of business owners say they are delaying payment or paying reduced rent, as federal relief funds have not been designed to help small businesses with large overhead.

- Job and wage loss have hit households hard, with Hispanic Americans and Black Americans feeling the greatest pinch.

- State revenues are plummeting, and expenses related to social services and other support are rising quickly.

With this background, Sandra called on her fellow panelists to lay out some ideas for a laser-focused approach to economic recovery -- helping begin to rebuild business, households and communities.  

Disruptions in the rural supply chain

Lee Langerock, partner at Prep the Page, discussed the issues for rural businesses, as locational isolation has the potential to cause major disruption. Some key ideas:

- Locational obsolescence, or the factors surrounding a particular area that impact its function, is a major challenge for rural businesses—especially right now.  Rural businesses often experience connectivity issues and transportation challenges. The delay in supply to rural areas, especially for manufacturing businesses, has caused a rift in localized economies.

- As we look at how to overcome these challenges, small businesses will need to boost support in the supply chain. They need to be planning accordingly and looking at how they can make use of, and attract, capital from a number of sources to offset these disruptions.

Opportunities for small businesses to stand out

Founder and CEO of Bambootility Media, Ed Johnson, discussed ways small businesses can lean into their strengths:

- Small businesses should embrace their uniqueness and ability to provide personal touchpoints and services that larger corporations are often unable to provide.

- Major corporations also tend to have boards and other barriers to approve large changes. Smaller businesses have a more agile infrastructure that can respond to and implement change with less red tape.

Rebuilding and reimagining our economy

Kerwin Tesdell, CEO of the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA), helped us see into the future as we look five to ten years down the line into the COVID-19 economy:

- Risk capital plays a critical role in economic recovery. Legislators who are looking for viable economic solutions can look to programs that can build public/private partnerships that incentivize investors to take more risks.

- Businesses should be considering innovative ways to pivot and market themselves to seem more attractive to investors.  

How businesses should engage the public sector for support

Salin Geervarghese, President & CEO at SGG Insight, Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Founding Director of the Mixed Income Strategic Alliance discussed the importance of businesses working together with the public sector:

- Though it can be challenging, businesses looking for support should operate as silo busters, and engage with local municipalities all the way up to the federal level.

- Small business leaders must place themselves at the negotiation table and work to inform the policies that they will benefit from in partnership with the public sector.

- When looking to create the change needed to lead to economic recovery, it’s important to keep in mind five key items: remember role, acknowledge responsibility, understand resources, stay results oriented and talk about risk.  

There are no silver bullets to get us through these tough economic times. It will take hard work, dedication and a strong relationship between the public and private spheres. Through these kinds of partnerships and an all-encompassing look into what the COVID-19 economy currently and will look like, we can come up with laser focused solutions to combating economic distress and achieve full recovery.

The investments, portfolio companies and recommendations listed on this website represent only a sample of companies that have received investment capital from Advantage Capital-related entities.  It should not be assumed that recommendations made in the future will be profitable or will equal the performance of the securities highlighted herein or contained in any other information provided by Advantage Capital.  Past performance is no guarantee of future results.  For a full list of companies, please click here.

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