Neil A. Carousso produces NewsNation original “Kurt’s Country” – a celebration of country music and a slice of Americana with host Kurt Bardella.
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Small Business Survival: SBA Loans Available for Companies Impacted by Coronavirus
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — $349 billion in loans are available through the Small Business Administration as part of the newly enacted stimulus package to support businesses and their employees during the coronavirus pandemic.
On this week’s WCBS Small Business Spotlight Podcast focusing on small business survival, sponsored by BNB Bank, Joe Connolly speaks with Steve Bulger, SBA Atlantic Region II administrator, including New York and New Jersey, about the two small business loans available this week.
The Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program application is currently available on the SBA website. Eligible businesses can apply for up to $2 million to pay overhead costs, including salaries and rent with 30 years to pay back. EIDL payments are waived for the first year.
“I’m telling small businesses 2-3 weeks before you really end up with the money in your bank account,” Bulger told Connolly of the EIDL.
Any small business owners with 500 employees or less, including sole-proprietors, can apply for the Paycheck Protection Program on the SBA website starting this Friday, April 3.
“That program is going to start this Friday and is going to be able to provide loans, forgivable loans in most cases, to small businesses to try and get them through the next three months, keeping their people on payroll, paying some of your rent, utilities, mortgage bills and basically allowing you to get through this period,” Bulger said, adding, “We believe that money will go out quick.”
He said owners will receive Paycheck Protection Program loans in a “week or less or a little more” in some cases after applying.
Businesses are also eligible for tax credits if they retain employees on their payroll. Up to $10,000 of payroll and health benefits per employee can be redeemed for a 50 percent tax credit to businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, including from the shutdown of non-essential businesses.
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NY Events Business Forced to Cancel Gatherings Sees Virtual Promise
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — An events company that was created in 2004 out of the desire to meet new people and connect New Yorkers has made a necessary pivot online when businesses were shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We probably would have been in close to bankruptcy or in some serious situation where we may not have been able to bounce back from it,” said Dave Cervini, founder of The New York Social Network that hosts 9-18 creative activities a week from nights at the bar to hiking to scavenger hunts.
He created an events company because he wanted to meet a woman. Cervini was a single man living on the Upper West Side while working in promotions and dabbled in on-air broadcasting at Clear Channel Communications.
“I was an events planner for the radio station as well as being on the air at some of them, and I said, you know, there are things that I want to do: I want to go camping, I want to go hiking, I want to go to a Yankees game, I want to check out a museum, I want to do a tour, but I don’t want to do it alone,” said Cervini.
He sought out to create experiences for like-minded people, and if he met “someone special,” it would be a bonus. For six years, Cervini created events for non-profit organizations while working at Clear Channel, before leaving the radio company and moving full-time into entrepreneurship.
“The New York Social Network is a business that came out of a passion and a hobby,” Cervini said. “Everything that was on the schedule when I planned an event was something that I loved to do, and so, I always joke when I’m bringing people on a hike, I say, ‘Welcome to my office,’” which he repeats at all events he hosts.
Since Gov. Andrew Cuomo shutdown all non-essential businesses last week, Cervini was forced to make an adjustment to keep his thriving experiential business alive. The New York Social Network had about 80 events scheduled through July. After canceling in-person events for the foreseeable future, he took his business online.
“The virtual part of it keeps us alive, it keeps us in contact with people who belong to the group and it will be something that we continue to offer beyond when we are able to get back together again,” said Cervini who has seen promising results and has heard positive feedback from customers this week.
“We have nights where we do group dinners,” he said of his virtual events. “Everybody sits down in front of their computers and we get on Zoom and we have a dozen people that participate in a dinner and they all bring their own food and we have nice chats.”
Cervini tells WCBS 880 it will host virtual game nights, murder mysteries and more to offer people th outlet that people have been deprived of while social distancing to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
“It’s been a challenge to convert over and I think that the best part is that people are screaming to have some kind of social interaction because a lot of people are stuck at home right now,” he said.
Event prices are cheap, he says, to encourage repeat customers. Some events cost $8, others $10, and varies depending on the type of experience. One can purchase a lifetime membership for $200, according to The New York Social Network website. A lifetime membership includes discounts on gatherings.
His company has been a catalyst for 90 marriages, including Cervini whose wedding was the 87th to come out of The New York Social Network.
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NJ Woman Starts Effort To Help Medical Professionals At Frontlines Of COVID-19 Crisis
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW JERSEY (WCBS 880) – A community is coming together in Chatham and Madison, NJ to support the doctors and nurses on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.
Chatham resident Liz Bernich saw a Facebook post from her friend last week about a group in Huntington, Long Island that delivered food to their local hospital for the staff who are testing and treating patients for COVID-19. She shared the post with the Chatham Community Forum on Facebook to see if there was interest do the same at Morristown Medical Center. She became inundated with messages from people who were interested in supporting the initiative.
“My phone was just lighting up,” Bernich, who is a principal at The Caldwell Partners, told WCBS producer Neil A. Carousso via Skype from her home where she is working while non-essential businesses are shutdown.
Soon after gathering interest from her community, residents in Madison, where her husband works as a high school teacher, contacted her asking if they can volunteer. She launched the Front Line Appreciation Group or FLAG on Facebook to mobilize volunteers and encourage them and first responders to share their experiences with the organically growing group of community members.
Bernich contacted a local restaurant on Friday morning to order take-out for that night. The restaurant was thrilled to have business since Gov. Phil Murphy ordered all restaurants statewide be closed on Monday, except take-out and delivery services, to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Friends connected her with nurses in the emergency room at Morristown Medical Center.
“We found out very quickly that a lot of the folks in the ICU units were being basically locked down in their units during their shifts, so they’re unable to access the cafeteria,” Bernich said.
Nurses and doctors working 12-hour shifts during a global pandemic were ordered not to leave their stations to prevent contamination of other hospital areas, patients and employees.
“You can tell they need the energy, they need the support, they’re stressed, they have different protocols, more to worry about,” said Bernich. “I met with a nurse…she was crying and it’s hard there.”
Medical professionals are also lacking basic supplies, including N95 respirator masks, gloves and gowns to protect themselves from the deadly and highly contagious novel virus. Bernich said she has even collected medical supplies to donate to Morristown Medical Center, but she now encourages people looking to donate supplies to hospitals to do so through government channels.
She personally delivered food to hospital workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak through the weekend. Now, local eateries suffering economically are delivering healthy dinners that FLAG members order.
“You don’t always know how many people you’re connected to that are connected to people on the frontlines until something like this happens and we’ve gotten notes left and right from mothers and nieces and aunts, grandparents, of how much good we’re doing and it just really feels good, feels great,” she said.
Bernich received more than $35,000 dollars in just three days of the Facebook group’s existence.
“Many of those donations are $10 and $20 increments,” she emphasized.
All of the funds are used for food delivery for staff at Morristown Medical Center.
Just like Bernich was inspired by a friend’s post, she hopes people will see what FLAG is doing in Chatham and Madison and spread joy to hospital workers in their communities.
“We’ve already been able to get this up-and-running in Summit, New Jersey to support Overlook hospital, and now, we’re getting this up-and-running in Wycoff, New Jersey,” Bernich said, adding, “When I say ‘we’re getting this up-and-running,’ we’re just inspiring people, we’re not doing any of the leg work, but they’re welcome to use our process.”
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NJ Business Owner Down 100% Remains Optimistic As Companies Suffer Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW JERSEY (WCBS 880) – A new survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reveals small businesses are being crushed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Seventy-six percent of United States small businesses are negatively impacted, according to a NFIB Research Center survey of 300,000 owners who employ 1-360 workers. It was conducted on March 20. Ten days earlier, the NFIB survey revealed just under one-quarter of small businesses reported the same.
Boxcar founder Joe Colangelo tells WCBS 880 his business is down between 98-100 percent from last month. The decline began on March 9 when he saw a 20 percent drop from the previous month. By the end of that week ending on March 13, Boxcar was down 75 percent.
“First thing you have to do before you come up with any cool new ideas is attack that expense line,” Colangelo said. “We were able to find from advertising, marketing and all these other subscriptions basically $20,000 a month in savings.”
Boxcar provides a commuter parking solution by teaming-up with churches and other organizations that have empty lots to offer strategic parking in the suburbs near mass transportation.
Colangelo told his team Monday morning, “We’re in the relationship business, figuring out how we can help people, and that’s a business that’s never going out of style.” Despite tough times for his commuter parking app based in New Jersey, he remains optimistic that he can create new uses for his software.
“In the long-term, we got to keep our eyes open and our head on a swivel, because if there’s other ways we can serve our customer’s needs, we got to really think about how we could do that so we aren’t completely exposed to a single point of failure,” Colangelo said.
Five percent of small businesses are positively impacted with likely “stronger sales due to a sharp rise in demand for certain products, goods, and services,” according to the NFIB survey.
Small businesses employ nearly half of the workforce in the U.S. They contributed roughly two-thirds of net employment gains in the nation since 2011, according to the Small Business Administration.
The federal government made its application for interest-free loans available Monday for small businesses. New York City Small Business Services also has a loan application online for payroll expenses.
Colangelo said his attorneys have advised him to sit on the fastball before applying for loans.
“We saw first 3.25 percent loans, now we’re seeing 0 percent interest loans, and, you know, there’s stuff working its way through the Senate – potential grants, right, things that don’t have to get paid back,” Colangelo said, adding, “You don’t want to take advantage of one of those [loans] if you could avoid it, and then find out that taking advantage of a 3.25 percent loan precludes you from getting a grant.
Colangelo tells WCBS 880 he has seen the best in people through this national crisis from customers asking if they can buy gift certificates to redeem in the future, so he could pay his workers, to a local elected official in New Jersey offering his home equity line of credit to Boxcar to assist the business in staying afloat.
“We don’t need it, we’re really well positioned,” Colangelo said. “I’ll never forget that.”
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How Do You Educate Your Kids about Coronavirus?
Dr. Carol Vidal, M.D., M.P.H., an adolescent psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University, speaks with WCBS’ Neil A. Carousso about how you can talk with your children about COVID-19 and protecting those who are most vulnerable in your family.
