On Wednesday, March 25, 2020 we hosted the first Square Town Hall — a livestream conversation with food and beverage business owners and industry experts. Three business owners shared how their business models have shifted in the wake of recent restrictions, and how their customers have responded.
Here's a recording of Square Town Hall Recap: A Conversation about Food & Beverage Businesses:
You can watch all past Town Hall conversations on YouTube. You can also register for future conversations here.
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Square Town Hall Recap
If you didn’t catch the livestream or you can’t watch the recording, here’s a summary of the conversation with the time stamp for each section in square brackets.
Town Hall Panelists:
Erin Archuleta - Small Business Advocate, Square
Peter Giuliano, Chief Research Officer, Specialty Coffee Association
Cory McCollow, Co-Owner of Nido+Backyard, Oakland, CA
Julie Clowes, District Director at Small Business Administration
Jamie Cunningham, Founder/Director of Hospitality at Stay Golden, Nashville, TN
Lauren Crabbe, Owner/Founder of Andytown Coffee, San Francisco, CA
[1:28] Jamie Cunningham, Founder/Director of Hospitality at Stay Golden, a restaurant and roastery in Nashville, TN
How Stay Golden has adapted their business: Jamie and team are working to face the challenges presented not only by COVID-19 but also by recent tornadoes in Tennessee. They are working to meet the needs of their community by offering:
- Survival packs: large coffee beverages and food offerings including dinners for families or couples; cocktail kits (everything but the booze)
- Pantry staples: Stay Golden has access to supplies of toilet paper, flour, eggs - offered those to customers to add to their restaurant purchase.
- COVID-19 rescue packs: prepackaged meals that their customers can buy and are provided to vulnerable people in Nashville TN.
How their customers have responded: Customers appreciate curbside pickup. Some aspects may change business permanently.
[7:07] Cory McCollow, Co-Owner of Nido+Backyard a restaurant offering Mexican cuisine and cocktails, Oakland, CA
How Nido + Backyard have adapted their business:
- They consolidated their two restaurant locations and are working from their larger location, the Backyard, where there is more space for both staff and customers.
- Removed tables, downsized staff but still do a full service every day and expanded their hours to 7 days (previously 6 days).
- Combined crowd favorite menu items and they are offering food and drinks for to-go and curbside.
How their customers have responded: Nido+Backyard announced recently that all gift card sales will go to the staff. Customers very much appreciate their efforts and that they are staying open and supporting staff.
[12:47] Peter Giuliano, Chief Research Officer, Specialty Coffee Association, a trade association dedicated to the success of the coffee industry
In a recent flash poll of their community they found companies that are weathering this better than some others are taking the following actions:
- Pivoting to online sales.
- Shifting into take away, to-go models or delivery models.
- Have assertive communication with customers, vendors and even landlords.
[21:00] Lauren Crabbe, Owner/Founder of Andytown Coffee, a coffee roasting company with 4 cafe locations, San Francisco, CA
How Andytown Coffee has adapted their business: Andytown was impacted when wholesale customers stopped orders because of office closures across the Bay Area. They have:
- Offered their customers the opportunity to buy coffee for healthcare professionals working on the frontlines.
- Created a page on their website so customers can buy one cup, or a batch of coffee/pastries and then the Andytown team delivers the coffee.
- This program has allowed them to hire back 5 employees already and they’ve inspired other businesses, from coffeeshops to pizza restaurants, to do the same from Denver to Paris.
How their customers have responded: Customers appreciate they can help support their business and support healthcare workers.
Julie Clowes shared information from the Small Business Administration (SBA). SBA offers services and programming in financial planning, federal government contracting, free business advising and low and no cost training programs. The SBA also offers disaster assistance including an Economic Injury Disaster Loan program to allow businesses to get low-interest loans directly from the SBA. These loans can provide income to help with ordinary business expenses (e.g. rent, payroll, accounts payable) that you would normally be able to pay.
- What is Economic Injury Disaster Loan? The COVID-19 SBA loan program offers loans of up to $2 million at a fixed rate of 3.75%; there are no fees and SBA can defer payments for 12 months (or longer). The term can go up to 30 years.
- Who can apply? All small businesses across the USA can apply.
- How to apply: Apply online at sba.gov. You also download the forms to read them, or to complete them and send in your application by mail. The SBA also accepts applications by fax.
- What you need to apply: For a complete overview go to sba.gov. Typically you’ll need to provide the following:
- A basic application form to learn about information about you and your business.
- An IRS form 4506T to authorize the SBA to look at your tax returns for a few years.
- A statement of liabilities to demonstrate your monthly expenses, e.g. how much you spend and how much you already owe. This helps the SBA to see what your financial need is.
If you’re not sure how much you need, keep in mind you can amend the loan in future to request additional funding in future. For more information and to apply visit sba.gov.
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I hope you are all safe and well and this summary is helpful. You can watch the full recording of the Town Hall Food & Beverage conversation on YouTube. Register for the next Town Hall here.
️ HelenSeller Community Manager
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