CHICO — Nearly 600 north state businesses and nonprofits grabbed the opportunity in May to tell their pain under coronavirus, lamenting the absence of protective equipment, an online presence, money, and the need for customers.
Released this week, the survey over 11 counties came from Northern Rural Training and Employment Consortium, and was delivered in this region by the Alliance for Workforce Development.
Among the most devastating findings were that many industries — retail to food to hospitality — expected to lose 50 percent or more of their annual revenue, and that some firms didn’t expect to survive.
Of the 594 respondents, 83 expected to lose 90 to 100 percent of their revenue.
Personal comments made at the end of the survey reflected the pain:
“There is no solution for personal care businesses, we will go under if they don’t allow us to open up.”
“I cannot buy enough masks or wipes or hand sanitizers to keep my employees protected all the time. We need a personal protection equipment network or marketplace for essential businesses that are NOT nurses or doctors.”
“As much as I appreciate this survey and its focus to help businesses in our community, I would also love to see resources and services available to our employees. There will be no recovery without supporting our employees.”
And then this:
“I need 0 percent loans from government and insurance companies (because) we were forced to close down.”
At the time of the survey, six businesses had closed permanently, representing between 10 and 20 jobs in Butte and Tehama counties, according to the survey.
Those businesses that indicated reaching emergency status on the survey were immediately linked to assistance centers.
The identities of the respondents were not released, but the Alliance’s Director of Business Services Amy Velazquez said comments from Butte and surrounding counties were equally distraught.
Velazquez has said that identifying and quantifying how the coronavirus and shelter-in-place have impacted small businesses is key in moving forward.
Results
Among the most frequently made comments was the difficulty in understanding COVID regulations, accessing resources and finances.
Most of the respondents came from Tehama, Shasta and Butte counties, and were in services, real estate, health, nonprofit, education or retail sectors, with five or fewer employees.
In dealing with the shut-down, most businesses — 228 — closed temporarily, or let go of staff through furloughs or layoffs.
The majority of respondents did not seek help through COVID resources such as the Payroll Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster or SBA loans, saying they didn’t qualify, had problems with the applications or didn’t want to take on debt.
For Butte County
If there were a silver lining in this, Velazquez noted that many of the larger employers here have been able to hold on, either by shifting their workforce or by sending their workers home to continue their jobs.
For example, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. was able to shift their restaurant workers into warehouse operations, keeping them employed.
“Many emloyers were ablt to shift the way they did business,” she said.
But then there are other sectors — mostly smaller operations — that needed the face-to-face setting to conduct business.
“Most of the professional services that rely on the client interaction piece like child care, hair salons, the self-care field — they had the largest impacts but are the last to get the green light to open,” she noted.
Those sectors have traditionally held a large number of employees, she said.
What they need
Employers through the survey eagerly listed their needs including:
- Ways to keep employees and customers safe;
- Financial assistance through debt reduction or cash flow assistance;
- Getting businesses online; creative marketing; business coaching;
- Renegotiating debt and payment terms, among many others.
Velazquez noted that in rural areas a percentage of businesses have not expanded to online services. That’s where the consortium feels it can help, by identifying expertise to address the needs at little or no cost.
From the results, the hope is the activation of more resources to help — from money to expertise, the Velazquez said.
There will be a request to the state for additional funding, Velazquez said, and last Thursday, an array of north-state-focused response teams was first convened. The response teams included Safety of customers and employees; Financial assistance programs available; Adapting business model and practices to new business realities; and Virtual jobs fairs model and best practices.
A PDF of the survey results are posted on the alliance website at www.afwd.org
