The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry says state companies are getting hammered right now as a result of COVID-19 shutdowns.
LABI President Stephen Waguespack says the crisis is an existential threat to the state’s 450,000 small businesses that employ 900,000 people whose jobs are now threatened.
“They want to do their part and they want to help their communities be safe and respond to this, but as they close they don’t have the working capital or profit margins to survive this,” says Waguespack.
LABI is also encouraging residents to buy gift cards from local impacted businesses, and order online to support them. Waguespack says if you want to see those businesses reopen, you have to support them.
“We are asking folks to take a gift card challenge and buy a gift card online to your local favorite eatery or restaurant and post a post on social media that you’ve done so with the hashtag gift card challenge,” says Waguespack.
While local support will help, Waguespack says businesses will need the feds to step in and recalibrate Small Business Administration assistance to be more small business-friendly, and faster.
“We need them to evolve these plans to make sure that they are also using SBA to encourage local banks to encourage loans in the near term,” says Waguespack.
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