A12B| Wednesday, April 8, 2020 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
nomic analyst for education
platform FitSmallBusi-
ness.com who spent days with
his team poring over the $
trillion, 800-page federal
stimulus bill that passed
March 27, says the package of-
fers a lot for small businesses.M
ost can borrow up to
$10 million to cover
payroll, rent, mort-
gage interest and utilities, he
says. And any portion used
to cover up to eight weeks of
expenses incurred between
March 1 and June 30 will be
forgiven, effectively making
it a grant.
The problem? Many small
businesses owners have no
idea these funds are avail-
able.
Mr. Shirshikov, who lives inFlushing, Queens, is contact-
ing local business groups to
make sure shopkeepers and
others are aware of the grants.
Customers can do the
same for their local mer-
chants. “Even just sending
them an email and saying,
‘Have you seen this?’ That’s
really great,” says Mr. Shir-
shikov, who is supporting his
favorite yoga studio by pur-
chasing streaming classes
and buying his groceries at
the local deli rather than
cheaper national-supermar-
ket chains.
But such efforts can’t save
every storefront, says Jona-
than Bowles, executive direc-
tor of the Center for an Urban
Future. “I’m afraid hundreds
or even thousands of small
businesses are going to diepected high unemployment
rates, likely will produce a
spate of new businesses on
our retail strips.
The businesses best posi-
tioned to survive, mean-
while, are the most creative
and flexible outfits, says Mr.
Bachenheimer, the Pace pro-
fessor, citing the example of
a pottery studio that re-
cently started assembling
and delivering DIY pottery
kits to people stuck at home.
“Darwin didn’t say it’s the
strongest species that sur-
vive,” he says. “It’s those
that are able to adapt.”
Still, the Chappaqua, N.Y.,
resident wants to see local
stores stay afloat. To that
end, he suggests customers
buy gift cards from neigh-
borhood shops and restau-METRO MONEY|By Anne Kadet
Mom-and-Pop Shops Get a Helping Hand
When
stores in her
neighborhood
started clos-
ing in mid-
March, Sadie
Struss created a spreadsheet
listing mom-and-pop shops
that were still doing busi-
ness online. She posted it on
neighborhood-based social
media site Nextdoor and lo-
cal Facebook groups.
Neighbors started adding
to the list. The online doc
now features more than 100
brownstone Brooklyn busi-
nesses—from shoe stores to
a yarn supply shop—where
residents can shop local
without leaving home.
“It was something I could
do really fast, on my own,”
says Ms. Struss, who lives in
Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill and
is self-quarantined with her
husband and 1-year-old son.
Like many New Yorkers,
Ms. Struss fears that many
mom-and-pop shops won’t
survive the shutdown, and
she’s determined to help
them stay afloat.
Such concerns aren’t un-
founded. Even a well-run
small business typically has
less than two months of op-
erating capital in reserve,
says Bruce Bachenheimer, a
management professor at
Pace University’s Lubin
School of Business.
And things look dire even
forstorefrontsallowedto
stay open. Zenreach, a digi-
tal-marketing platform that
measures in-store results, re-
ports that as of March 31,
foot traffic among its New
York City retail and restau-
rant clients dropped 80%
from its peak in February of
this year.
Will our shopping strips
look deserted long after the
lockdown has lifted? And
what can New Yorkers do to
ensure the best possible out-
come? I asked several small-
business experts around
town for their thoughts.
Dennis Shirshikov, an eco-
rants to use when they re-
open, and ask for a credit
rather than a refund on ser-
vices not delivered, such as a
canceled catering event.
It can be for a selfish rea-
son. “If all these stores go out
of business, what happens to
your neighborhood life and
property values?” he asks.
Residents also can patron-
ize the city’s local product
brands, says Shane Hegde,
co-founder and chief execu-
tive officer of Air Labs Inc.,
a Brooklyn-based digital
platform that helps busi-
nesses manage their images
and videos.
Last month, he and his
team launched an interactive
map, SupportNYCDTC.com,
displaying more than 100 di-
rect-to-consumer brands
based in New York City.
A lot of the city’s online
brands opened storefronts in
recent years that have been
temporarily closed, Mr.
Hegde says, but shoppers
can still patronize their web-
sites. “If I’m thinking about
buying a suitcase, I can buy
one from a company founded
in New York City,” he adds.T
he Dumbo, Brooklyn,
resident is having
some fun, meanwhile,
by supporting local busi-
nesses—having cocktails de-
livered from a favorite bar in
Manhattan’s West Village,
for example.
Yes, the heroes in the pan-
demic are the health-care
workers and first respond-
ers, Mr. Hegde notes. But
that doesn’t mean the rest of
us are powerless to help.
“I can order pizza from
the local pizza place,” he
says. “It sounds dumb, but I
can support these businesses
that are struggling.”
In a city of millions, he
says, our small efforts can
add up to something big. “If
all of us do a little thing,” he
adds, “we’ll be fine.”[email protected]ELLEN WEINSTEIN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNALbefore this is over,” he says.
On the bright side, he
says, the shutdown may spur
a newfound appreciation for
the mom-and-pop retail that
remains. When the lockdownends, “There’s going to be
the idea of Small Business
Saturday every weekend,”
Mr. Bowles says.
We’ll also likely see retail
rents plunge, he notes. That,
in combination with the ex-New Yorkers are
throwing small
businesses lifelines
during virus crisis.YOU CAN
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