From layoffs to financial help, your business questions answered

March 23, 2020

In the past week, we’ve heard from many businesses grappling with the same questions as they face severe drops in business, sudden remote work and reductions in staff.

There are resources available, and there are precautions to take.

Jessie Schmidt, South Dakota’s state director for the Better Business Bureau Inc., helped track down some answers.

If I’m an existing business that is used to everyone working in an office or workplace and now I am told to go remote, how do I manage that? If I don’t have policies, what do I do to move quickly but still be acting responsibly as an employer? 

First off, don’t feel alone — there are a lot of business owners who feel just like you do. If you feel comfortable and can allow your employees to work from home, encourage them to pack up their office and move home. Ensure you know what they are taking home: laptop, desktop, work phone, office phone, etc.

Also get a list of all employee contact info. Larger HR offices may have this, but smaller organizations may not have this readily available to them. Ensure you have alternate or emergency contact info; if your employee becomes sick and isn’t able to work, you will have someone to contact. Business will want to set up additional procedures for payments outside of their normal process, most importantly a two-step authentication process for larger payments. Spammers are sending thousands of phishing emails, and organizations are ripe to become victims of business email compromise, or BEC, scams.

If I’m a public-facing business that has to close or significantly reduce my open time, what do I do? Do I lay off people? Do I try to keep them employed doing non-public-facing things? 

If you don’t have enough business to keep employees working, you probably need to lay them off.  You possibly could sit down with them and walk them through the process of filing for unemployment. This website gives many scenarios your employees may be facing.

What about me as a business owner and my business? What kind of assistance is there?

As a business owner, you may qualify for some relief from the Small Business Administration, which is working with each state’s GOED office. Click here for more information.

Additionally, the SBA has set up a website for business owners, and we would encourage checking back often for the latest information.

There is some good information from the government for individuals and families; the details are not final, but it does appear as though that will be in the form of direct payments of up to $1,200 for individuals and $500 per child. More to come on that. This is ever-evolving information and know that information could change from the time we give it to you until it is finalized.

Importantly, business owners need to not panic – while difficult I know – and reach out to their landlords and their bankers and begin the communication process.

What kind of scams have surfaced that businesses need to know about?

During this particularly difficult time, we see a variety of the same sorts of scams. Here is a list of what the BBB thinks will be the most common scams:

  • Work-from-home scams will become very prevalent.
  • Gift card scams – companies aren’t offering free gift cards to Starbucks, Walmart, etc.
  • Government grant scams – especially via Facebook messenger.
  • Medicare and Medicaid scams – a change to your policy, etc.
  • Government stimulus scams.
  • Business email compromise scams.

Our main pieces of advice would be to not answer calls from people you don’t know and to remember you never have to pay money to get money.  Here is a link to our BBB Risk Report for 2019. 

Find COVID-19 case numbers, other updates here

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From layoffs to financial help, your business questions answered

We’ve heard from many businesses grappling with the same questions as they face severe drops in business, sudden remote work and reductions in staff. Here are some initial answers.

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