Every business is looking for answers on how to survive the changes in the world right now.
Luckily Lisa Proctor, CEO of Sanford Rose Associates Lake Lanier and founding member of the Peachtree Corners Business Association (PCBA), has some ideas and tips for businesses. In this episode of the Capitalist Sage, Karl Barham and Rico Figliolini video chat with Lisa to talk about all the ins-and-outs of handling business during this ever-changing time. Recorded socially safe in Peachtree Corners, GA

“We’re committed to be open and honest with each other. We’ll have open dialogue, but we’re finding other things for them to work on that will position us to be ready when the market comes back. So whether it’s doing something, you know, re-engaging with good candidates, reassuring other people, even if it means doing some sort of community service or doing something to keep the positivity going, but trying to make sure we’re positioning because we don’t know how long this is going to take.”

Lisa Proctor

Timestamp:

[00:00:30] – Intro
[00:03:54] – About Lisa
[00:04:22] – Essential Businesses
[00:06:11] – Innovation in Remote Business
[00:09:30] – Expenses and Cash Flow
[00:12:59] – Loans and the CARES Act
[00:22:52] – Using this Time
[00:25:43] – Helping Your Employees
[00:35:15] – Networking Amid COVID-19
[00:38:59] – Closing

Podcast Transcript

Karl: [00:00:30] Welcome to the Capitalist Sage Podcast. We’re here to bring you advice and tips from seasoned pros and experts to help you improve your business. I’m Karl Barham with Transworld Business Advisors. My co host is Rico Figliolini with Mighty Rockets, Digital Marketing, and the publisher of the Peachtree Corners Magazine. How are you doing today, Rico?

Rico: [00:00:50] Good. It’s great.

Karl: [00:00:52] Isn’t it fabulous that we have adapted our podcasts from our usual home in a podcast studio to virtual as this episode is being recorded and filmed from our homes as we are abiding by local ordinance for stay at home due to the coronavirus and COVID-19. So today, it’ll be a little bit different, but through this pandemic we’ll offer you tips and local insights on and helping you survive and thrive during the global pandemic. Rico, why don’t we talk a little bit about our sponsor before we get introduced to our guest?

Rico: [00:01:39] Sure. So like, we’re, we’re being socially responsible at distances, right. And one of the great effects of what we’re doing is, is being supplied by fiber and optic cable, right. Unless you’re on a wireless device. But one of our main sponsors is Hargray Fiber. They’re new to Peachtree Corners and into the Metro area. They’re a company that provides fiber services to businesses as well as homes for businesses, is really where they’re at. And they are actually the backbone of the 5G network. An enabled highway of Curiosity Labs at Peachtree Corners. So if you’re looking for a company that can get you working well with site teleworking, with turn three key operations and actually with free software that you can use during this time, reach out to HargrayFiber.com and you’ll find that that can help you. Great friends and good sponsor.

Karl: [00:02:34] Well. Thank you for that. Well, we’re going to jump right in today. On today’s Capitalist Sage Podcast, we are so honored and blessed to have Lisa Proctor, who is a local business owner. She’s the president and CEO of Sanford Rose Associated Lake Linear, a global recruiting firm that helps place people in the right positions all around, all around the world. She also is the president of the Peachtree Corners business association. And we’re here to talk today about how small businesses in our community can find the resources locally to help them, not only just survive through this, this global pandemic that’s impacting everyone, but also ways in which they can thrive and support local businesses. Well, thanks so much for joining us today and being flexible with the arrangements for this.

Lisa: [00:03:31] Hi Karl. Hi, Rico. I’m glad to be here. It should be a fun, fun afternoon.

Rico: [00:03:36] Yes, it’s going to be, yeah, it’s going to be good, hopefully if we don’t have some technical issues.

Karl: [00:03:41] Or bumps.

Rico: [00:03:42] And we’ll be just fine.

Karl: [00:03:44] Yup. I just wanted to start with you telling us a little bit about reintroducing yourself to folks a little bit. You’ve been a member of Peachtree…

Rico: [00:03:52] Member of Peachtree…

Karl: [00:03:53] Corners.

Lisa: [00:03:54] Sure. I am actually one of the founding members of the PCBA and I’m the current president, and I’ve had the privilege of also owning my own executive search firm. So I’m right in the trenches, getting everything that other small businesses are seeing. I’m living it, feeling it, and seeing exactly what’s going on in the job market and then the unemployment. So, the great thing is you see it all in the community.

Karl: [00:04:22] Absolutely. Well, first, just want to maybe start off with, what have you heard as far as what, local businesses should be doing? I know we had only non-essential businesses being shut down. Maybe you can give, just share with us, for folks that may not have heard all the details of that. Just give us a general idea of what types of businesses and how it’s impacting people today.

Lisa: [00:04:50] Well, the biggest challenge I think is, people are trying to figure out the definition of essential businesses or whether they can use like restaurants or how to use restaurants or, and whether they can go to you know, get their car fixed or different kinds of things. So the big thing about the essential businesses are the easy ones are healthcare and you know, things like that. But even what you realize is learning how to work with the city of Peachtree Corners, because they also are doing some of the stay at home and the distancing. So making sure you take advantage of the resources, making sure that you really think about things in a different way. And one of the things that we found that we started doing is kind of trying to figure out how we could support businesses cause we were getting a lot of phone calls and a lot of questions. And one of the things that, the city is doing is they actually sent us a form that we were able to send out to multiple businesses that they can actually tell us what kind of services they are able to offer and what kinds of change in time and everything is, we’re all trying to find one central place to get information. I think that’s the biggest challenge is people are going in a lot of places, but they can’t get the right answers.

Karl: [00:06:11] So I, I know that grocery stores and our community gas stations, restaurants that can do takeout or delivery services are, and medical facilities are still operating in the community. What if you have a business where you’re allowed to operate remotely? You’re so good, at least function. Mostly those continue to work. And is there anything that would be impacting those businesses?

Lisa: [00:06:39] The biggest thing that I found is, a perfect example is a business that’s able to work remotely that might be, I’ll use an example that might even be doing something like they provide cigarettes to the local, ma, co, QT or one of the markets or something like that. They’re not allowed to work, but yet they can still work remotely, take orders if somebody wanted to do. But now they’re going to have to use a delivery company. And or some other way to get their services delivered. And so what I, I think the biggest thing that I’ve been the most impressed with though is restaurants that have also come up with creative ideas. Like, I know Taqueria Del Mar has come up with like, pantry idea or lazy dog. Those are the ones that I think have found a way to take the situation and turn it around and, and I think that helped.

Karl: [00:07:36] That’s one of the great things. Innovating in times of crisis. And one thing we’re telling a lot of business owners is to think about finding new ways to play. You may not be able to reach you, you may not be able to offer the same thing, but if you could find either new customers that can use your services in this time, or you may be able to have access to your supply chains or resources to offer something else that could help families at home, whether it’s delivery submits, you might have a pro, you may have access to products that are in high demand. Figuring out ways to pivot your business quickly and do it. And I’ve been seeing that throughout with a lot of restaurants, coming up with great ideas to do that.

Lisa: [00:08:23] Well, in fact, who would have thought like, one of the best commodities is offering free toilet paper, or you know, something that all of a sudden I’m like, what? There’s toilet paper. Yeah, that’s where I’m going to order from, and I’m laughing going, who would have thought? You know, that’s the big commodity right there. But I think that’s, it also is so simple in the way of saying, yes. Think out of the box right now. People don’t need big ideas, little ideas and little ways to help each other go a long way right now.

Rico: [00:08:50] Yeah. I’ve noticed actually some, some of the restaurants. Different restaurants, right? The higher price restaurants aren’t able to actually compete with the takeout in the curves. Some of the chains are doing better. Some of them have closed for the temporary. So it really varies. Who’s out there and who’s doing, you know.

Lisa: [00:09:10] Well, and it varies even by day. Like all of a sudden you’ll say, Oh, this is a great resource and all, and that was one of the things that we discovered when we put together the resource guide in the community. We finally had to put a date on it and say, look, this was accurate as of X date, because as soon as we put it out, we already had to have three changes.

Karl: [00:09:30] So I’m wondering, so we go through and look at people’s expenses right. Because this is a time where all businesses really have to pay attention to cash flow in their business. Pretty consistently, most retail businesses, one of their largest expenses is going to be rent and the liter that they owed to their landlord. There’s no, there is no universal answer to the rent payment. April 1st just passed. A lot of people have to pay. Have you been seeing what, what have you been hearing of what landlords and longtime, tenants or landlords in the
community, commercial tenants. Are you seeing them helping or being proactive and helping there?

Lisa: [00:10:13] I have not seen, I think a lot depends on how large your landlord is. If your landlord is also a small business and they’ve got a big mortgage on the building, I’ve seen that to be a little bit tricky. But I’ve seen, one thing I really liked that the city even did is they set up a program, that they’re calling it community partners, where they’re trying to encourage landlords to consider even just deferring the rent. I don’t even if they don’t forgive it, if somebody would defer the rent for two months. While I have a chance to get possibly one of those other SBA type loans or one of the other funding options, that helps me with saying, okay, well I try and adapt to this. Can I just not worry about cutting big checks? And I think that that’s what, but I have not seen a lot of forgiveness recently. I’ve heard a lot of calls and I’ve had a lot of people reach out and say, Hey, are you seeing any landlords that have been? But I personally have not seen a lot of that.

Rico: [00:11:17] Yeah. I don’t think we’re going to see more.

Karl: [00:11:19] Of fines or communication. And I love the concept of community partners. The landlord isn’t served well if businesses aren’t, don’t survive this, and they act except a partnership. One of the things that, that, one of the things that folks can do is open up the dialogue with the landlord and not asking for forgiveness, but I think deferral when there is a time to renegotiate the agreement for this period of…

Rico: [00:11:51] For this period of time, I’m sure.

Karl: [00:11:53] Or be able to come up with creative ways. That they both can be successful.

Lisa: [00:11:59] Right. Well, one of the things that I did with my landlord is they also provide me some administrative service, but we’ve even talked about, look, I still need some of that work done. Can we figure out how that administrative work can also be done remotely? You still want to be able to pay those people. You still want me to, you know, don’t cut my services, don’t, you know, let’s figure this out. And so we’re working through that dialogue and we’ll see how that works. But rather than just assuming they’re going to forgive it, they’re not going to forgive it. But the deferment might be an option.

Rico: [00:12:37] Is that an office suite?

Lisa: [00:12:39] I am. I’m in an office suite. And the challenge is the building itself is available 24/7, but part of my office suite includes answering my phones and being there to do. But if those services aren’t being provided, that’s where it’s, it creates the start of those conversations. Karl: [00:12:59] Right. So negotiating and make sure you’re communicating and writing any agreement. And I think it serves everyone to figure out a way to work through this together. The
secondary, I know a lot of folks may have loans and the SBA, we won’t talk much about the federal response and all the differences between that here, but, but one of the things that I know people can do is talk to their local banks. The CARES act and the loans that are being offered through that are going to be administered or processed through banks that are approved by the SBA, those local banks in this community that a lot of the business owners, it’s time to have those conversations with them as they help you with paying for those loans. Some banks are going to do it, some banks may not. But can you talk about some of the partners in the community on banks, that people need to, to get in communication.

Lisa: [00:13:59] Definitely. That they like, I know I’ve talked to, BB&T I’ve talked to Iberia bank. Bank of America, are three of them. Them that I know that have been doing, they’re training their staff too. That’s one of the things that I have learned is the challenges. The news media is giving you a lot of information quicker than the individual banks actually have had a chance to go through the training even themselves. But the good news is they’re gearing up, from what I understand, tomorrow is supposed to be the day that the banks are going to be accepting them. And I really think that the biggest thing the businesses need to be able to do though is make sure that they are, they come with their information ready to go. I think the challenge that we’ve had is some people tried to jump out there immediately. And they don’t have enough information. And so, I know I’ve also been talking to people like, Bill McDermott with, McDermott financial solutions cause he’s been working with a lot of people and doing the SBA loans. And the number one thing I’ve consistently heard from BB&T from Bank of America, Iberia is making sure that you have your, you understand what information to pull and that you’re prepared to provide that information before you start the process.

Rico: [00:15:27] So the loans, after that the, if I understand correctly, that are going to be available or some of it can be forgivable loans.

Lisa: [00:15:35] So some of it is grants. I’ve really seen it broken down in three pieces. There’s a loan that’s a traditional loan that you need to pay back and you need to be prepared to pay it back. There’s a second loan that has a forgivable portion as long as you actually use those funds for what they were intended. So it’s intended for payroll and payroll taxes. And one of the things that I’ve even been telling people is talk to your landlord saying, look, I’m applying for this loan. And part of the hard part of this one will also go towards paying the rent and paying those things. But if you give me this deferment, you give me time to get that money. And so I think that’s been, you know, and then the third, the third option is a grant that you know is a forgivable grant. And, but one question even I found myself unclear about is, Hey, if I applied for, you know, one of the, the grant can I also still apply for the loan? And that’s where I’m still tracking down saying, I’m not sure you can do both.

Rico: [00:16:42] Yeah. I think I saw something in their disclaimer saying, you cannot borrow a second, a second loan during the period of 2020. So the light, but you can’t do it at the same time. There’s thresholds for some of this stuff, right? Also because some of it’s that basing it on income, like for example, the personal checks coming out through, it’s either based on 2018, fall
2019 based on 2019 or if you filed it already. But ultimately it’s going to be based on 2020. So we may have to pay it back anyway. You are in that threshold part. Right?

Lisa: [00:17:25] Right. And I think that’s the, when people are hearing all of those pieces, that’s what gets everybody in that analysis paralysis is they want to jump, they want to do, and then they’re like, Oh gosh, I did the wrong thing. And that’s what I found when I was talking to the banks. Even like talking to Iberia, talking to, you know, the different bankers. They were saying, look, we’re having to be trained too, because when people are asking us questions, we have to give the right answers.

Rico: [00:17:53] There’s also a choice that has to be made, right?

Lisa: [00:17:55] Small truest is the BB&T and the SunTrust. That’s right. I forgot about that.

Rico: [00:18:01] As far as making that decision to take the loan, you also, you know, you want to. Pay your employees, right? That’s part of it. But what if you don’t have the work. You, this is a tough decision part. You don’t work. You want to keep your employees because you don’t want to furlough them necessarily because then you, I mean, they’re going to find another job somewhere else maybe, and then you’ve got to find new employees. But what if there’s no work and they’re taking this loan on to do this?

Lisa: [00:18:34] Well, in fact, the reason I’m slapping is you must have heard the conversations I’ve had with my staff this week because as we saw companies pulling their searches, you know, for us, if companies are pulling the jobs, that means they’re pulling the, the work right out from under us. And we walked into this two months ago thinking we were going to have the best year ever in 2020 and Hi-Fi in and being so excited and all of a sudden I was like, we have two feet on a banana peel and are sliding down the hill and didn’t even know what hit us. And trying to deal with that. And so what we’ve also been doing is I’ve made some commitments to my team saying, look, I’m committed to get some of these loans. I’m committed to keep you. We’re committed to be open and honest with each other. We’ll have open dialogue, but we’re finding other things for them to work on that will position us to be ready when the market comes back. So whether it’s doing something, you know, re-engaging with good candidates, reassuring other people, even if it means doing some sort of community service or doing something to keep the positivity going, but trying to make sure we’re positioning because we don’t know how long this is going to take. And it could, and you know, anybody who went through the 2008 recession, I literally opened my practice, my recruiting firm, like the two weeks before 2008 fell apart. So, you know, learning that and going through it, you realize you’ve got to think out of the box. And we all may have a 16 ounce glass with 8 ounces of water in it, but if you can find the positives and focus on the things you can do. My, it’s really helped my staff, but it’s also, I think it’s good to be honest with people. If you’re afraid you’re going to cut, it’s okay to say, look, we’re in it together and we’re going to try not to, but if we have to, you need to be prepared.

Rico: [00:20:36] And communications is best just because. I mean, you don’t have to, just, companies don’t have to let their employees totally come. They can do part time. They can adjust their pay. I mean, there’s options. It’s not just all or nothing.

Lisa: [00:20:50] Well, one of the things that I found that’s part of the CARES act and it was one I found, I was, probably a week ahead cause I tend to be pretty analytical. I jump out and start researching it. But probably one of the things that is part of the CARES act is the fact also, you don’t necessarily want people to be taking money out of their retirement. But if people have a 401k, some of the changes from the CARES act is where they took the threshold from, if your plan allows it, you can take your loan. You can take out a, from a $50,000 loan up to a hundred thousand dollar loan, but it’s based on 50%. You know, there’s thresholds. You have to have money in your plan, 401k but have employers. One of the things that I was talking to my staff is, look, if this is something, basically you’re borrowing, be prepared. You need to pay us back because you’re borrowing the money from your own retirement, but the interest you pay is your interest. So instead of getting the interest from the market, you’re getting that interest, and it might be some of that, that money that can help you get that. It’s real, and right now, as long as you pay it back, you’re not withdrawing it. You’re not taking it out of your long term future. But it’s a simple way to get some cash flow.

Rico: [00:22:12] I think also there’s an option there, and I’m not sure what the details of it are that you’ve, that they are waiving the 10% penalty.

Lisa: [00:22:20] They are. If you’re withdrawn, they are. If you’re not, if you’re not over the 59 and a half, they are waving that penalty. But you know, one of the things I was encouraging my team too is if you don’t have to, and the loan is allowed, do the loan, if you know you’re going to pay it back because then the money’s still there and you haven’t, you haven’t taken your, your long term future. You haven’t been into your retirement, but if people need to, at least they are waiving that.

Karl: [00:22:52] So there were some other things, and you highlighted something that was really powerful is this is a time for successful business owners to get to work. When, when times were busy and your customers were coming at you left and right, you didn’t have enough time to train in, have time to market prospects enough. You didn’t have time to think about your business plan. And investments and things you’re doing in the future. This pause that a lot of small business owners may give you an opportunity to work on the things that never got to the top of the list cause you were so busy. And we’ve been really promoting that. Let’s all business owners, most people that have been successful have lived through one or two of these cycles. And we’re what, what stands out from the ones that are successful? They actually work harder during the time they’re working on the things that are on the business versus in their business. So we advise folks, you know, if your business is now closed, there is not enough marketing prospecting. There are investments that you could be making in people training. You can conduct a Zoom training meeting. Well on different things, and even when you get back, when things open up again, we’re in a world that might’ve changed a little bit. Your
safety practices might have to change because now it used to be safety glasses and steel toe shoes. In some jobs we may have to be more, address viruses and, and contact with people. So what does that look like? What are the true, how do you retrain your staff to be safer in that now’s the time to execute those plans and train?

Lisa: [00:24:41] Well, and what I’m finding with my staff is rather than them just having to come to me with ideas, what I’m saying is, look, let’s put it together, our Santa Claus list. Let’s put up together some of our big ideas. What are things that maybe you think. That we can do, and I find just having that dialogue, number one, they’re coming up with some good ideas and they’re coming up with markets of, look, if we know that this is going to be, what are markets that maybe we don’t currently work in, or what are markets that we need to do the research we need to do the heavy lifting now, but because they think they’re part of the solution, I’m finding it also keeps them from thinking about what they’re not doing and what’s not there. And we’ve done a lot more of those kinds of things. And I think you make a good point is we want to be positioned to come out of it. And this is, instead of looking at it as a negative thing, we’re actually able to do some things that we haven’t, we haven’t been able to do.

Karl: [00:25:43] How have you, I know one of the things that, that’s a real practical thing is what if one of your employees and what should be business owners be thinking about, and helping both the employees and following… have you heard or ahead of any advice or thoughts on that?

Lisa: [00:26:07] Karl, I didn’t hear part of your question. Would you mind repeating it?

Karl: [00:26:12] Yeah. what if an employee got where to where to get tested for COVID-19 and one of our small businesses in our community. What are some of the things that a business owner can do to help support that? Or what would be some of the right things they should be thinking about doing? If an employee were to test positive.

Lisa: [00:26:31] I, in fact, what a great question. I think that, we’re even experiencing some of that, not directly, with my business, but we’re experiencing some of that with my husband’s and being able to do simple things like, you know what, it’s reaching out to the family, reaching out to the, to the employee, seeing if is their meals. Maybe you could deliver to the family or some just little things. I’m finding it doesn’t have to be big things. But also making sure people feel like they’re doing good things, but also giving the other employees who haven’t tested positive, giving them a platform to kind of talk about, do you have any concerns or, you know, are there some things, because if it was an employee that tested positive. And they had been in close proximity or they had not been working remotely. Working through some of those fears and making sure some of those resources are being addressed in that direction is critical because it creates quite a buzz. When all of a sudden somebody hears, especially with HIPAA, you know, you hear from HR, Oh, you know, there’s a person in our department that has it, but you know, we can’t tell you who it is. And everybody’s looking around going, well, I can tell you who’s not here today. And so you kind of can figure it out, but
everybody’s kind of being careful with privacy, but at the same time want to be there for really supporting each other.

Karl: [00:27:58] Yeah. I think you’re making a good point. I mean, I would definitely consult with both HR professionals and so on. So you’re following that along with many of the acts. There’s the HR 62 Oh one that has included COVID-19, related illnesses and, the family medical leave act and some of those other policies. So some of the protections as well as some of the benefits of that. Also, if you check out a lot of the costs that might be associated with, employees that suffer or going to, there’ll be some tax advantages and, and credits that are due, you can consult with your tax professionals and advisors on some of those, but the main point that the government, the federal government is they’re building the support structure to allow on earth to make good sound decisions, to protect the safety of the individual employees and everyone else there. So one of the things is to create a culture where people disclose. If you create a culture where people are afraid or have fear of telling the truth, they’re not in cause they’re fearful for their job, they might put more people at risk. But this is a time for business leaders to step up and display leadership and communicate with the people what your policy is, how you respect their privacy yet protect them and support them as they navigate through this and those that are successful and new that might have employees for life.

Lisa: [00:29:33] Right. Well, and you brought up such a great point with that. And what I’m also finding is. Reach out, you know, to your healthcare insurance provider as the employer, if you have it, now’s the time to reach out to them to understand too. Are there any other things that we don’t know about with a particular insurance policy that we need to be aware of? Are there benefits that might kick in that they’re aware of that we just haven’t had time to research? Because there’s so much information I’m finding you know, being able to reach out to the CPA, being able to reach out to those people. They are experts in their niche. And then we as small business owners don’t have to try and be an expert at everything. We can leverage their resources.

Karl: [00:30:18] One of the things that, you know, will, may, become a new norm that everyone locally, we haven’t seen, but, I know Rico and I are from New York and I have a lot of family up there and when I hear what’s going on there from friends that are in the medical profession, are there, it’s serious what’s happening there. They’re taking it seriously. They’re under an awful onslaught. But what they advise to places that are going through that is following the recommendation. So when we say social distancing, I think at the beginning there was a perception. There was some ticket that kind of meant more like a spring break approach. Also distancing versus really hard conscious decision to keep the six foot, recommended, distance from people, all of those things. But now we’re hearing things like masks starting to appear. I’m not an expert and I don’t know the medical opinion on whether it’s good or bad, but what I think we can do in the community is if we see people. Wearing masks in the grocery stores or checkout, we could, we could not react to it as if there’s something wrong with that person, I think. I think the mask is, the strategy around masks is actually a base assumption where you have it and don’t know it and you’re protecting from passing it to someone else. And so if people
are doing that, it’s almost a sign of respect to the other person. That you’re trying to protect them cause you don’t know. We don’t have the testing at the volumes that we need yet to, to distinguish that. So I could see that starting to ship most places you go a few gloves, a few masks, but in the next couple of weeks, if we start seeing masks or we still could nod, but that might become a new norm for a while.

Lisa: [00:32:08] Well, and I think that you make a good point because I actually happened to be somebody that has an autoimmune disease. I have asthma. And so I have actually been working from home, for the last three weeks, and I’ve been very aware of. You know, wait a minute, this is, I’m used to being out there, you know, right in front of people jumping out there, you know, being on the front line and so is my husband, and all of a sudden we’re saying it’s okay. Not because we don’t know, because he’s been going to Emory every day and he’s totally around all of that. With all of those things. Emory’s a test center, and they’re doing the trials. So there’s every opportunity. And so even if we just have said, we’re not wearing the mask because we’re afraid of somebody else, we’re wearing it to protect each other or to be that protective. And I think that once people kind of shift to go, wow, it’s, I’m doing it because I care, not because it’s some strange germaphobe or something. I think when people start realizing it’s because we care about each other or why we’re starting to think that way.

Rico: [00:33:16] Isn’t that funny how, you know, we look at the Asian society, China and South Korea in those areas, they are always wearing mass to a degree or another for pollutants in the air or for you. Mainly for that, actually, I know I’ve had a couple of people that I know that went, that lived and all back from South Korea. Half the time they had to wear the mask because of yellow minutes. If you went to China, I mean, it was just as bad in Shanghai and even Beijing, not so, not that much better I bet. But here, it’s almost like you’re Americans are afraid to, where we’re almost like John Wayne, that we know we don’t need to wear it. We’re good. I can already see the guys in New York, Brooklyn say, well, me, forget about it. We don’t need to do that. And that’s bad. You know? It’s a behavior shift as a society and as we all can pick apart in how we respond to it. So you know, if you feel that you should feel you need to wear a mask or, or as policies change or recommendations change, just, you know, realize just for the time being, it’s still being neighborly to, to wear a mask. And until we can get this on the control and get the numbers down and start to turn the corner on it.

Lisa: [00:34:36] No, I think it’s, I think it’s really critical and I even find that because of why I have asthma, I even have to wear a mask just regularly. Sometimes when I work in my suburban office, because even though it’s an executive suite, if somebody is using paint in the office or somebody is doing a trigger for me there are strong smells and so paints and stuff, so I wear it as much for my own protection. So I’m not doing that. But the first time I did it, I had that feeling of, Oh my gosh, why am I doing this? This is so strange. But once you realize it’s really for the right reasons, I think people get much more comfortable with them.

Karl: [00:35:15] There’s one more thing I wanted to ask you about the many businesses here that, networking was a big component of how they built relationships and built their business.
And now that we can’t physically meet in places, what are some of the things the future corner business association and other groups are doing to allow people to still connect with others even though we’re socially distancing?

Lisa: [00:35:42] Well, in fact, we are actually rolling out a whole PCBA resource center. And then the second thing that we did is we created an expanded area for our members where they’re able to now post, if they’re doing their own webinars, their own. You know, everybody’s doing a lot of, you know, whether they’re zoom info meetings or WebExes or whatever, and what we’re doing is making sure that people can put out what’s relevant to them. You know, we have people to do, so we’ve got that up on our site. We’re, we’re definitely going to be doing, some informational type, webinars and things. we’re trying to find creative ways because let’s face it, we’re all so used to being able to get together face to face. And so we’re, we’re definitely working on that. And then the third thing that we really have said is, if somebody is not able to do it face to face, if somebody says, Hmm. We’re trying to encourage people to do some like member blogs or information blogs that we can share out, whether it’s in, in different ways, through, you know, member directories or different things so that people know like, Hey, there’s resources right here. They can help you with setting up maybe your employees working from home. I know you mentioned Hargray Fiber can help people. And so there’s just a lot of great resources and tools. There’s some technology companies. And making sure that people are taking the time to update their, like their membership directory listings, making sure that people really know what people do and, you know, take the time to reach out and have coffee. Just have coffee over Zoom instead of having coffee at you know, one of our local restaurants and get to know each other. Take that. It’s that same idea of, Hey, you’ve got the time set up. You don’t need us necessarily to set up formal things. We’ll make it easy for you guys to jump in and talk, but talk to each other and, and make those face to face connections.

Rico: [00:37:46] You know what’s funny, I was talking to Pastor Jay Hackett the other day we did a podcast together and all the churches and talking about the ultimate, not networking, but the ultimate people gathering, right? A church is no, no better example. And they’re thriving. They’re doing Sunday services, even though that’s prerecorded on Monday, but they’re doing a lot of the, One-on-one or group 20-30 people in a group that’s zooming it. They’re all out there doing all sorts of, you know, fellowship things and outreach and stuff. So it can be done.

Lisa: [00:38:21] It can be done. In fact, our March business after hours, one of the things that we did is we were supposed to do a business after hours networking at Marla’s. And so we’d talk to Marla and we said, look, we all know that we’re going to have to just order our food, and we will just walk past each other as we’re walking to pick up. But Marla gave us discount, and we all, during 5:30 to 7:30 people could go pick up food and we could wave to each other in the parking lot, but we just couldn’t, couldn’t touch and couldn’t shake. And, you know, but I think those are the kind of things people want that interaction. And I think that’s, we got to have some fun with it.

Karl: [00:38:59] Well, I want to thank you so much for coming on. We’re going to continue to do more on keeping, connecting with people, making sure that they’re able to connect. But, we
want to thank Lisa Proctor, President of the PCBA, the CEO of Sanford Rose Associates Lake Lanier for just coming out and giving encouragement to the local business community. And I think you, you said it great. Even though for now we have to do this social distancing, that doesn’t mean we have to stay distant. We could still communicate, just use technology and do it a little different ways, to stay connected. So if you need help, what are some of the places that they can reach you?

Lisa: [00:39:52] Definitely check out on, on our website, we’re going to be, we’re about to launch. It should be live by the end of today, but we’re going to have a business COVID-19 resources center. We’re also going to have a tab out there for webinars and different things. Our members are doing different hot deals, different. We’ve got restaurant guides out there. We’ve gotten just lots of good tips and tricks, but also, guess what? The telephone works great. Our phone numbers are still there. Even if we’re not able to catch the limelight we can call people back. We’re happy to answer questions. We’re still doing emails. And so I think the good thing is just hearing each other’s voices is probably as critical as everything else. And we’re still there and we’re there for each other in different ways.

Karl: [00:40:45] And I just want to say, thank you so much for that. And the one thing that I’ll challenge everyone out there in the community that’s out there, we’ve taken a practice of eating out, an extra day a week. And we try to rotate it as best we can through the restaurants that are served, but continue to support the communities. If you think about it, when you’re hanging out to lunch or going out to dinner with colleagues in the community, you’d be spending. And so for, for us, we’re going to try to continue to support that. And if everyone did a little bit of that, that would really help a lot of those local restaurant businesses. But also some of the other businesses that may be able to get gift certificates for the future, if it’s massage or hair or some of these other locations. So there’s lots of ways that we could all pitch in and support the small business community that really drives our economy. I’m Karl Barham with Transworld Business Advisors of Atlanta Peachtree, and just want to tell everyone, please be safe and hang in there. Rico?

Rico: [00:41:52] I want to, you know, hopefully everyone can stay safe out there over the next few weeks, through until the end of April almost. I guess that’s where we’re going. We’re still publishing Peachtree Corners Magazine. We’ll actually hit the post office next week. So all 18,800 households in the city of Peachtree Corners and beyond will get a copy of the magazine. We are covering how the school system is handling COVID-19 and digital learning days and weeks, cause spring breaks almost offer, and they’re going to be going back to digital learning next week. So that hasn’t stopped. We’re also talking, there’s a story about doing good and homegrown nonprofits. We’ve done some stories that were in the planning stage about youth baseball and middle school soccer. So we’ve gotten some of that in there. And we have an article in there about how the city is working through this crisis and how some of the businesses are going through that. And I want to thank Lisa for helping to provide some background information on that. So that magazine will be out there. We’ll be publishing this stuff online, and we are doing between the Capitalist Sage and Peachtree Corners Life. We’re going
to be doing more podcasts. I just did one, like I said with Jay Hackett, we talked about Peachtree Corners Baptist, and how faith institutions are working in this COVID-19 environment. So a lot of stuff coming up.

Lisa: [00:43:17] Great. So thank you.

Karl: [00:43:22] And thank you Lisa for joining us today. Take care.

Rico: [00:43:26] Bye guys.