Resources and Tips for Small Businesses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 was recently classified as a pandemic from the World Health Organization. In the midst of the chaos and panic, you may be concerned about the impact it’s going to have on your small business and how to handle employees, finances, and remote work. Take a deep breath and look through these tips and resources specifically for entrepreneurs.

General Information and Resources

• HoneyBook created a library of resources for dealing with coronavirus as a small business owner, including webinars and preparation steps.
• Gusto provides information about employer legal requirements and team member health and safety.
• The CDC offers details about cleaning and disinfecting work spaces and offices.
• HomeBase put together a general guide with all the steps you need to take as a business owner.
• Harvard Business Review wrote about ways to prepare your supply chain.
• Tyler McCal is putting together Facebook Live chats with various industry experts covering specific coronavirus-related topics. We’ll update this list as more are available:
  • Marketing your business and staying in touch with customers.
  • Maintaining mental health and staying calm.
• Trello released a complete guide to remote work for any small business.

Tools for Remote Work

Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic, discussed the long-term affect coronavirus will have on remote work. (Hint: it may have a positive impact!) Check out these tools, many of which are offering free functionality during the COVID-19 outbreak, that can help your company and team adjust to remote work.

• G Suite is extending Hangouts premium features to all G Suite customers through July 1st.
• Zoom always offers excellent free plans for video conferencing and screen sharing.
• GoToMeeting is providing free Emergency Remote Work Kits for three months, with meeting, presentation, and remote login tools.
• Cloudflare is making their Cloudflare for Teams products free to small businesses.
• Google Docs is a free suite of collaboration tools for documents, slideshows, and spreadsheets that will help employees work together virtually.
• Microsoft is offering a free trial of Teams chat app for six months.
• Slack is an affordable way to stay in communication with team members, clients, and employees while working remotely.
• Toggl helps you stay up to date on the hours completed by remote employees and keep track of your own time.
• Trello is a visual project management tool that’s perfect for collaboration.
• Xfinity Wifi hotspots will be available for anyone who needs them for free, even if they’re not customers.

Assistance and Loans

• ConvertKit started the Creator Fund to support creators in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Workest provides details about how to apply for a coronavirus small business loan.
• The Small Business Association offers disaster assistance loans up to $2 million.

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What are you and your business doing to prepare for and react to COVID-19? What are your favorite remote working tools? Let us know in the comments!