SBDR: Impact of Coronavirus on Small Businesses, Super Bowl Hangover
Welcome to the Small Business Rundown. Each day, we bring you stories that impact small business owners and their workforce.
Today, we’re going to look at the impact the Coronavirus outbreak is having on both U.S. and Chinese SMBs. If you had an exceptionally high number of people call out today, chances are that their “illness” is more closely linked to Big Game exposure rather than recent travel to the city of Wuhan, China, however. Finally, New York is the newest place to ban cashless establishments, proving that it’s still all about the (physical) Benjamins.
Coronavirus impacts U.S. and Chinese small businesses alike
While large U.S. companies, like Starbucks, have garnered attention for suspending operations in mainland China amidst the Coronavirus outbreak, smaller U.S. companies are also grappling with how to respond to the public health crisis. Furthermore, on the heels of the trade war, Chinese small businesses find themselves in a precarious spot as foreign customers contemplate moving taking their business elsewhere.
The Number: 11 million. Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, headquartered in Akron, Ohio, has shut down their small office in the city of Wuhan. The city of Wuhan and the state of Ohio both have roughly 11 million people.
The Quote: “Foreign customers will definitely wait and see how the epidemic situation develops and may place new orders in other regions, instead of China.”
Record number of people skipped work after yesterday’s BIG GAME
A record number of people took the day off today after tuning into the Big Game last night. According to new data, approximately 17.5 million people didn’t show up for work after Super Bowl LIV, with only 11.1 million using pre-approved time off for their absence. This represents the highest rate of employee absenteeism since 2005 when the Workforce Institute at Kronos began tracking the data. The population of Kansas City is just over 2 million.
The Number: 4.7 million. An estimated 4.7 million people called out today, despite not being infected with the Coronavirus or any other illness.
The Quote: “Not only productivity takes a measurable hit – so does the morale of managers and coworkers who scramble to fill the gap. And those managers don’t sit idly by when workers bend the rules.”
NYC latest city to ban cashless establishments
New York City joined the growing list of cities that have passed laws forcing businesses to accept cash. If Mayor de Blasio signs the new law into effect, the Big Apple will join the likes of Philadelphia, San Francisco, New Jersey and Massachusetts and ban stores, restaurants, and other establishments from using cashless POS only. A first-time violation would cost a business $1,000, while subsequent offenses could cost SMBs as much as $1,500.
The Number: 1/9. According to some estimates, 1 in 9 households in New York City does not have a bank account, which means that they must deal exclusively in cash.
The Quote: “Consumers should have the right to choose if they want to pay in cash or not. We are reining in the excesses of the digital economy.”
