Chase Murdock: Aid is available for business leaders who keep Utahns employed

As the owner of a small business in Salt Lake City, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented the biggest challenge I’ve faced as an entrepreneur. It’s unprecedented, not just in the severity and scope, but in the way that it forces business owners to balance their financial and social responsibilities.

Coronavirus has brought about a two-pronged catastrophe, the first and most important being the threat to our community’s health and lives. All of us are at risk, but it’s particularly pronounced among our most vulnerable. Our duty as community members is to do everything in our power to prevent unnecessary loss of life.

The second prong of this catastrophe is the threat it brings to people’s livelihoods and our economy. Everyone is already disoriented and scared. Add a layoff or loss in pay, and this crisis is shattering. Imagine trying to make sense of the world while also having to worry about missing next month’s mortgage or rent payment.

Among my closest friends who own businesses, many have made deep, painful layoffs because they have had no choice. Some are even considering closing permanently. Fewer than half of small businesses have enough cash reserves to support even just a few weeks without sales. But sheltering in place guidelines require small businesses to do just that.

When a service business is faced with the moral responsibility of closing their doors to customers to help slow the spread of this pandemic, cutting costs and considering layoffs might appear to be the only way to survive.

But our duty as business leaders is to balance our financial responsibility and our social responsibility. And right now, our social responsibility is to do everything possible to keep our teams safe physically, mentally and emotionally, and to do everything in our power to keep them employed during this crisis.

Thankfully, government leaders have sprung to action to allow us to do that.

On Friday, Congress passed The CARES Act, which provides $2 trillion in emergency relief funding. Of that, $349 billion is specifically set aside for small businesses to receive low-interest loans and grants to keep their teams employed and to keep cash flowing in and out of their business.

Acting fast is critical. Cities, states, private lenders and the U.S. Small Business Administration have been launching programs left and right. The plethora or programs made available so quickly is remarkable and demonstrates an area of our economy that brings me hope: the response to this looming crisis is unprecedented and includes more capital than the stimuli used in the Great Depression or Great Recession of 2008.

But with so much information disseminating so quickly, business owners are left with the burden to make sense of which programs are the best fit for their needs. And sometimes the information coming out from different sources conflicts.

Across dozens of Zoom webinars, calls with CPAs and conversations with the SBA directly, I put together an overview of funding programs available to small businesses. Once compiled, this document was shared with hundreds of small businesses, with collaboration and contribution from experts around the state.

Here are a few points business owners should consider so they can act on their social responsibility to keep people employed.

Now is the time for business leaders to act. Now is the time to exercise social responsibility and respond to the unprecedented amounts of capital made available from so many sources in our economy. In a typical recession, layoffs are unavoidable. But not in this crisis. Capital is available. It’s accessible. And it’s on us to get this right.

Chase Murdock is the co-owner of Tailor Cooperative, a custom clothier located in downtown Salt Lake City.