Notwithstanding the record number of job openings across the country, the lure of an additional $300 in unemployment benefits continues to outweigh the value of an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work for too many small businesses. In its monthly jobs report, the National Federation of Small Business (NFIB) reported that in the…
Read More »Notwithstanding ongoing challenges with the labor shortage and lingering COVID fears, small businesses are generally more optimistic about the future now than they were a year ago, although access to capital is keeping many awake nights. According to a national survey a few weeks ago of 2,140 small business owners by Goldman Sachs, 84% said…
Read More »The U.S. economy grew by a record 7.4 percent in the quarter ending in September, although it has recovered only two-thirds of the ground lost in the first half of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Data released this morning by the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that at an annual rate, gross domestic…
Read More »At long last, the Federal Reserve has officially opened its Main Street Lending Program this week, inviting lender to register for the program so they can begin loaning immediately. The program, which has been in the works and on the drawing board since early April, not long after the coronavirus pandemic caused the economic shutdown…
Read More »The Coalition of Franchisee Associations (CFA) is working alongside the National Restaurant Association (NRA) to broaden a proposed restaurant-only stabilization fund to help the restaurant industry recover from the coronavirus pandemic and the economic devastation it has caused the industry. As we advised a few weeks ago, the newly-created Independent Restaurant Coalition is pushing Congress…
Read More »A number of states as well as local communities have begun offering their own loan programs to help businesses recover from the coronavirus shutdowns. For example, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the creation of a new $100 million loan program this past week entitled the New York Forward Loan Fund. Monies from the fund…
Read More »In that same vein, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) last week released reopening guidelines broken down for specific industries – including restaurants. The 60-page guidance “Opening America Up Again”, which is available here as a pdf for download, includes instruction on how to scale-up operations, sanitation practices, social distancing procedures, health monitoring guidelines and…
Read More »Opinions of whether, how and when individual states should re-open for business in light of the coronavirus crisis are as diverse as one can imagine. That said, there are no fewer than a dozen states across the nation committed to opening their economies as soon as today. Four states (Alaska, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee)…
Read More »The White House announced the creation of 17 industry specific task forces that the President will look to for advice and guidance relative to reopening the American economy. One of the task forces, focused on the food and beverage industry, consists of twenty-three (23) individual members including restaurant brand CEOs, chefs and restaurateurs as well…
Read More »Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last night filed a third economic stimulus bill in an ongoing effort to mitigate the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the American economy. The legislation, which has the support of the White House, provides for the direct payment of $1200 to all Americans earning less than…
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