As millions of small businesses make changes to stay productive and positive amidst the evolving Coronavirus situation, businesses and organizations around the world are stepping to the plate to make the transition easier with free services, waived fees, and more.
Changing the way you do business isn’t always easy (even when it’s temporary). Whether you’re looking for new ways to connect with customers, unlock emergency funds, work remotely, or use downtime constructively – we’ve compiled the below resources to make the process easier. Here, you’ll find free resources for:
Improving cash flow
Managing communication and projects
Working remotely
Improving yourself and your staff during a slowdown
Entertaining your children
Use your member benefits to cut costs and improve cash flow
As your small business makes adjustments, some changes might take you time to test and implement. We assure you, it’s worth the effort. In the meantime, we encourage you to lean on your member benefits – which many members are already using to save time and money.
With pre-negotiated discounts from some of the country’s leading vendors, your member benefits can help you immediately cut costs. In doing so, you’re not alone: the Savings4Members team is standing by to do the legwork for you. Here’s how they are helping members right now:
Recommending available benefits businesses like yours are using, including discounts on disinfectant and sanitation supplies, uniforms, and much more
Assisting with discount activation and use
Auditing your payment processing & waste accounts to connect you with lower fees and better rates
Applying your member discounts to existing accounts
Get the member’s edge
Members of Fitness Shop Edge have exclusive access to tools and discounts proven to boost bottom lines
If you require emergency funding
Many small businesses from across the country are encountering new challenges when it comes to cash flow. Below, we’ve collected some of the most reliable resources to help you manage those concerns.
U.S. Small Business Administration loans are available to small businesses who require immediate cash flow to offset lost revenue. In all 50 states, Governors have made formal disaster declarations to make these funds available. For a full list of regularly updated resources available to you – visit the Small Business Administration (SBA) website for the most up-to-date information . You can find the proper SBA loan forms here and a presentation summarizing SBA Disaster Recovery Loans here.
Facebook will be offering $100 million in cash grants and advertising credits for up to 30,000 small businesses in 30 countries. They’ve also created a Resource Hub that provides small business owners with free information to cope with COVID-19, including a Resilience Toolkit and a Quick Action guide. https://www.facebook.com/business/boost/resource
Citibank has waived fees and penalties for qualified small businesses affected by the outbreak.
Kiva is a useful non-profit resource for small-business loans up to $15,000 at 0% interest. Learn more on how to get started at their website.
For communicating and staying productive
Sprint has signed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s Keep Americans Connected Pledge, with this – for the next 60 days, Sprint will not terminate service for businesses unable to pay and will be waiving late fees incurred due to economic circumstances.
Exclusive for our members: Existing Sprint customers can place unneeded phones/tablets on seasonal standby and Sprint will credit 2 months of standby fees at zero cost. This effort is to assist members that may need to suspend some of their lines. Members with international long-distance plans will also receive complimentary international calling rates from the U.S. to countries defined by the CDC as level 3. Customers with Unlimited plans will also receive an additional 20 GB of high-speed mobile-hotspot data for 60 days, making your data plan effectively unlimited during this period. Talk to a Savings Expert to get started.
Zoom is one of the leading providers of free video conferencing already, and they are now hosting webinars to help small businesses use their platform. Their website makes it easy to get started.
LogMeIn and GoToMeeting are providing businesses with “Emergency Remote Work Kits”, including solutions for meetings and video conferencing, webinars and virtual events, IT support and management of remote employee devices and apps, as well as remote access to devices in multiple locations.
Google Cloud is rolling out free access to advanced video conferencing capabilities to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers globally including:
Larger meetings, for up to 250 participants per call
Live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain
The ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive
These services are available at no additional cost to all customers until July 1, 2020. Get started with your (free) advanced Hangouts capabilities.
Salesforce has made its collaboration offering Quip Starter available for free to any Salesforce customer or non-profit through September 30. Quip combines documents, spreadsheets, and chat, so distributed teams can work together effectively. Even if you aren’t in the same place, you can stay on the same page.
Adobe is offering free web-based PDF services on Adobe.com through May 31, 2020 to create and share documents with customers.
PandaDoc has a solution for you if you rely on in-person signatures from customers Their free e-signature plan was created to help you move forward with deals without sharing a pen, collecting a piece of paper, or meeting face to face.
Is technology your biggest hurdle right now?
Support.com is offering its remote tech support service, TechSolutions, free to anyone that needs it. Whether your small business is having a hard time making the switch or a conference call is conflicting with your at-home student’s request for troubleshooting, their team is offering free assistance for device setup, troubleshooting, connectivity, email configuration, security, and more.
For managing your remote (and onsite) workforce
ADP, one of North America’s leading human resources and payroll management services has created an expertly researched and written Coronavirus Preparedness Toolkit which includes answers to questions about employee management, continuity plans, payroll, and more.
Atlassian, a leading provider of project-tracking solutions, recognizes that there’s no ‘magic trick’ to working together as a team. It takes the right tools. With that in mind, they’re offering free access to productivity tools that help you track all kinds of projects including Trello, a popular project management and teamwork tool . See how they can help your remote team.
For making the most of downtime
When working remotely, making the most of slowdown (or temporary shutdown) of business, it’s important to keep learning. A wide variety of organizations are doing what they can to make it fun and effective. Find some of the best resources for this below:
Linkedin and Lynda.com have worked together to create an engaging, 16-part course on effectively working at home. From adjusting to changing work-environments to exploring the different ways you can stay connected, get started here.
In addition to courses on working from home, Lynda.com is also offering a free month for all users – making this a perfect opportunity to empower your employees with free courses on topics ranging from web development to marketing, business, and more.
Classcentral.com is offering a wide range of Ivy league coursework on topics ranging from ‘Improving your business through a culture of health’ (Harvard) to ‘Entrepreneurship: Developing the Opportunity’ (UPenn). Their website is a treasure trove of educational resources.
For the kids
Are you juggling emails and conference calls with juice boxes, homework, and an endless stream of questions? An almost overwhelming variety of free educational content is being made available to help you out. But don’t get too bogged down by everything out there, pick a few and go with it. We’ve included some recommendations below.
Scholastic Learn at Home is providing day-by-day projects that can help your kids stay ‘reading, thinking, and growing’. Get started on their website by choosing a grade-level.
Drawing Classes by the Kennedy Center’s artist-in-residence at Home are a fun and innovative way to keep young minds (and hands) occupied while the family spends more time at home. In each short episode, Mo Willems, the creator of ‘Don’t let the Pigeon Drive the Bus’ and illustrator for Sesame Street and The Muppets teaches your kids how to draw, talks about his own artistic process, and keeps it fun. Watch Lunch Doodles with Mo on Youtube
Amazon Prime is helping parents out with free kids programming on Amazon Prime (if you’re willing to relax some ‘device’ rules around the house). An Amazon login is required, but a prime subscription is not.
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This article originally appeared on TheBikeCooperative.com