Our Two Cents

Believe it or not, 2020 is more than halfway over. It feels like we’ve lived through a decade since 2019.

Can you remember what you were doing around this time last year? What were your major priorities and projects back then?

Around this time last year, I was helping one of our clients prepare for conversations with investors. We were working diligently to get the company’s financial statements in order, ensure the books were accurate and up to date, develop the fundraising pitch, and create projections for the next 18 months. Everyone was feeling optimistic. The business had momentum, a strong value proposition, and the attention of several potential sources of capital.

Like so much of life these days, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is unprecedented. Never before has so much money been loaned out to so many businesses so quickly. Equally astonishing is the fact that the government has agreed to forgive the loans for qualifying borrowers.

However, unprecedented also means untested, uncertain—and perhaps unfeasible. It’s no surprise that a program this big and this hastily rolled out has had numerous issues, limitations, and controversies.

 

Do not miss out on ways to improve your business’s liquidity

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, U.S. businesses have received historic government relief in exchange for its participation in the life-saving emergency shelter-in-place and social distancing orders of state governors.

As those same governors are lifting emergency stay-at-home orders, enabling non-essential workers to return to the shop floor or office, the need for government relief of business activity has remained a necessity.

 

Most accountants wouldn’t consider themselves responsible for managing workforce performance. But let’s pause and think about that for a second. When someone is feeling overwhelmed and under-supported at work, there’s almost always a financial factor involved.

 

It's a challenging time for teams and organizations that have suddenly jolted to working remotely. For startups and larger organizations, helping their teams with a generous dose of empathy, to enable productivity, is key.

Whether you're already a remote org or moving that way due to the current social climate, here are a few things we've done at Tara to shift quickly into a high functioning remote team.

 

It’s a hard time to be having a hard time. For those of us who are able to work from home and have remained gainfully employed or self-employed over the past few months, it feels selfish—even callous—to acknowledge how stressed we might feel.

Oh, quit whining, says the inner voice (mine sounds like my grandma). You have a job! You don’t even have to leave the house to do it! Do you know how lucky you are?

But that doesn’t change the facts. Despite how fortunate we are relative to others, many of us work-from-homers are nevertheless living through the most challenging period of our lives. We’re doing more with less, managing multiple roles, trying to bridge gaps with often flawed and unreliable technology, ping-ponging between times of crunch and times of existential uncertainty.

 

Giving back—it’s good for the world and it’s good for business. And there’s never been a more important time to do it.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us. Right now, millions of people are grieving loved ones while living in fear and struggling to stay afloat—physically, mentally, emotionally, financially. They’ve lost jobs, homes, businesses, and savings. Between food shortages, long periods of isolation, and a burgeoning global economic catastrophe, the present is dismal and the future looks bleak. It’s safe to say that this is the worst crisis of our lifetimes—and it could be months or even years before things get better.

 

Ensuring your business thrives financially doesn’t merely involve taking steps to boost revenue. It’s also important that you reduce costs whenever possible. This is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses are under significant financial strain right now. Yours will be more likely to weather the storm if you optimize your budget accordingly.

You probably know this. However, you might not know how to cut costs more than you already have.

The following simple ways to cut costs will help. Consider them if you’re trying to think of new ways to reduce spending.

 

If you’re reading this article in 2020, there’s a good chance you’re reading it at home.

We’re witnessing a radical shift in what “the office” means. Practically every non-essential business that has survived into April has gone virtual. Rather than working in shared physical locations, millions of people are doing their jobs remotely. They’re still communicating, collaborating, planning, strategizing, inventing, researching, developing, designing, selling, servicing customers, and more—but they’re doing it from their personal desks, dining tables, basements, garages, and bedrooms.

 

In spite of the pandemic-sized challenges facing the world’s economy—skyrocketing unemployment, disrupted supply chains, banks and credit market systems risk, government’s crisis response—and people’s daily lives, CEOs of SMEs can manage cash flows and liquidity with a mind to grow when the economy reopens easily and effectively by remembering three guideposts for keeping your company moving forward.