Resources To Navigate Your Business During These Times

There is so much information about COVID-19, so we've decided to distill this for you, offering you the most important and relevant information about navigating this from a business perspective. You'll find resources here on planning financially, working remotely, helping your employees cope, and leading with excellence during a crisis.

We will continue to update the resources found here as there are new developments and programs available.

As always, I'm here to offer any guidance you need or concerns about your business and business continuity.

Scott M. Phillips
CEO

Resources from Synergy Computing:

Good News About the COVID-19 Virus from Peter Diamandis

https://www.diamandis.com/blog/good-news-covid-19?utm_campaign=Tech%20Blog&utm_content=122107645&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-508209262538427

SBA Disaster Loans:

https://www.sba.gov/disaster-assistance/coronavirus-covid-19

Apply for a loan as soon as its available. After they determine if you qualify, you will receive funds in 2-3 weeks. Apply even if you think you won't need it. You can always say NO.

MultiFunding has also put together a community site to help business owners navigate through the SBA loan process during these confusing times:  https://multifunding.tribe.so/

Ready Santa Barbara County (Ready SBC) Economic Recovery:

https://readysbc.org/economicrecovery/

The Chambers of Commerce in Santa Barbara County Webinar on CARES Act w/speaker Jennings Imel from the US Chamber of Commerce:

Webinar Recording: https://register.gotowebinar.com/recording/7323686829876646669

90 Day Financial Planning:

Meet with your CPA and/or Controller/Accountant and create a financial plan for the next 90 days. Re-evaluate this plan every 1-2 weeks to see if you need to adjust.

Stress test your cash! Alan Miltz’ SaaS tool for managing cash – no charge for 3 months – stress test your cash with just 6 numbers from your financials.

www.cashflowstory.com/stresstest

Consider adding an expense line item called COVID-19 and dump off all expenses in there including your staff and personal time spent dealing with a crisis – this 30 second video by Ron Lovett, author of Outrageous Empowerment, will explain why it will make it easier to apply for government assistance if and when it comes available.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ron-lovett_outrageousempowerment-activity-6646137020743761920-N9Uo

Stabilizing Your Business: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.

With constant changes brought on by the pandemic of COVID-19, your business may be presented with cash flow challenges and opportunities you may have never faced before. To respond to these changes, look no further than a motto with which you are familiar: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. The slogan used by the United States Marine Corps outlines steps you can take to combat the challenges you are facing as you make decisions that will be key to the survival of your business. Read details on this strategy here: https://www.cricpa.com/stabilizing-your-business/

Financial Crisis Management Templates from CPA and Author, Greg Crabtree. Will you have the capital needed to get back to pre-Covid19 profitability levels (or better)? Resource here: https://simplenumbers.me/crisismgmt/

Top 6 Best Practices For Businesses Amid COVID-19 from business coach, Ryan Markel

https://petracoach.com/top-6-best-practices-for-businesses-amid-covid-19/

Scan the article for details, but in a nutshell:

  1. Prioritize Issues of Greatest Urgency
  2. Triple Your Communication
  3. Work from Home
  4. Use Video Conferencing
  5. Manage Your Cash
  6. Look for Opportunities to Do Something Extraordinary

Remote Collaboration Tools

Zoom Video Conferencing — www.zoom.us

We use this at Synergy Computing. We hold a "daily huddle" each morning at 8:30am for 10 minutes to align for the day and we get to see each other.

Slack Instant Messaging — www.slack.com

We also use Slack in house to communicate in real time about internal and client facing items. We keep our team communication OUT OF OUR INBOXES. There is already enough going on in there!

Microsoft Teams for Instant Messaging and Video Conferencing

This tool is included in your Microsoft Office 365 Licensing in the Business Essentials, Business Premium, E1 and E3 levels.

Free Microsoft TEAMS Training

Bigger Brains has moved their Teams training over to YouTube as a resource for companies who need to learn collaboration in a hurry.

https://getbiggerbrains.com/coronavirus-help-free-microsoft-teams-training/

SANS Security Awareness Work-from-Home Deployment Kit - FREE

The SANS Institute put out a free deployment toolkit/security awareness for working from home.

https://www.sans.org/security-awareness-training/sans-security-awareness-work-home-deployment-kit?utm_content=121882391&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-35509483

Links to More Helpful Information:

COVID-19 live tracker – ‘This is a comprehensive, as close to real time as I have found, tracker of the global to local impact’

McKinsey – ‘This is the single most comprehensive set of information I have found on this topic including actionable insights’

Littler – ‘What we should be doing with teams during this time’

CDC – ‘What to do if you think you may have COVID-19’

World Health.net – ‘High dose Vitamin C and a prevention and/or a treatment’

OSHA – ‘Guidance on preparing the workplace for COVID-19’

Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH – ‘Why social distancing is needed and how to best go about it’

NBC News – ‘Video covering several areas of the virus – overall very good information’

Fast Company & A LOT MORE – ‘How to manage virtual meetings – best practices’

As we move to more remote working have ‘good’ and ‘frequent’ meetings will become highly valuable.

US Chamber of Commerce – ‘Top 20 Tips for building business resilience’

Medium – ‘What is flattening the curve and why it is important’

Sequoia Capital – ‘A look at the financial implications of COVID-19 from a business perspective’

McKinsey – ‘General implications for Business’