NEW ORLEANS – We asked more than 500 local business leaders how they are dealing with the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some of their insights and observations:
How are you coping with the current coronavirus crisis?
Matthew Person, Person CPA Group Inc: The staff is committed to assisting taxpayers get their personal tax returns completed and filed so those who are due a refund can get money in their pocket to pay expenses. Many individuals are out of a job and could use their tax refunds now. We are also assisting business owners with the filing of SBA loans.
Kimberly Tara, The Tara CPA Firm LLC: It’s definitely been a change! I am blessed to have a home office that I work out of, so the change has been minimal for me personally. The main difference is that my kids are now home and my husband is sharing my office 🙂
Bobbie Hill, Concordia LLC: Most of our staff is working from home. We are allowing no more than four people to be in the office at a time. People who are in the office are proactive about cleaning surfaces multiple times a day. Because we have many clients outside of Louisiana, we have been very adept at using video conferencing tools such as Zoom. It has been helpful to office morale to continue with our staff meetings and do our weekly check-in.
Vance Ott, Four Points Title LLC: Real Estate title companies are considered essential services, so we are continuing to operate. As long as banks, mortgage lenders and clerks of courts are operating, we will continue to serve our customers and clients. We have the capabilities to perform all of our processing tasks remotely. However, closings require in-person appearances for notarization and witnessing of documents. We have put buyers and sellers in separate rooms for closings, and only allowed the parties in the closing. We tell everyone to take the pens they used home with them and we clean and sanitize the closing rooms after each closing. If a customer would prefer we meet them at their car in the parking lot, we accommodate them. Title insurance underwriters are being very helpful to us as title insurance agents, so we can continue to provide title insurance to lenders and owners while facing the uncertainty of how long the clerks of court will be available for title searches and recording of instruments.
John Zollinger, Home Bank: Banking is an essential business and we take our responsibility to our clients and the community very seriously. We have continued operations and will remain open as long as we have the human capital to keep the doors open. We have closed our lobbies to people and are serving them remotely via the drive up or via mobile banking, online banking or telebanking. Our commercial team is available to work with clients as always with the caveat that we should not be meeting in person at this point.
Brett Perrier, Perrier Esquerre Contractors LLC: The COVID-19 virus took us by surprise. Before the virus, we did not have a communicable disease outbreak policy in place. Now we have developed a plan that addresses how we can still safely and cautiously perform our daily tasks. These measures include implementing extra safety precautions at our job sites to keep our valued field crew safe. We have each field member fill out a questionnaire addressing all the early signs of COVID-19. We have implemented the social distancing rule on our job sites, along with limited workers to 10 within a certain amount of space. Proper PPE has been provided to all workers along with hand sanitizer stations. Our superintendents have been really receptive to the overnight change in some job site procedures. Overall it has been stressful for all, but we are getting through it.
Marguerite Oestreicher, New Orleans Habitat for Humanity: Because we have multiple lines of business (Habitat provides housing related social services, originates loans and manages a portfolio of rental properties, operates two retail stores, runs a construction company as well as fundraising and communications departments), this varies quite a bit depending on the department. Office workers are working remotely but that’s not possible for our ReStore and Construction teams. We are holding daily phone or video conferences within each department. We presently use Google Hhangout, Slack and Zoom. Also using Call-Em-All for broad texting distribution.
Did your business continuity plan work or were there surprises?
John Zollinger: We did have one barrier to overcome and that was the number of licenses to operate remotely. This was changed and expanded within two days.
Brett Perrier: The biggest unknown as of right now is some lead times on some materials we are procuring that are imported from other countries. We just don’t know at this time how those lead times will be affected.
Marguerite Oestreicher: We have had emergency plans in place for some time and started fast tracking remote working two weeks ago. The biggest surprise for us was how quickly everything moved. Plans that seemed prudent and reasonable in the morning were no longer applicable by end of day. The Habitat management team has done an exemplary job staying in touch with their teams and leading them through this very challenging time.
Rodney Greenup, Greenup Industries LLC: Our continuity plan was centered around interruptions caused by hurricanes and floods and this is totally different. We are a cloud-based and paperless organization so we are still open for business but the potential interruptions to supply chain is being evaluated daily. Also, we have had to develop new policies with regard to evaluating vendors and suppliers that work with us to ensure that they are checking, reporting and being honest about potential for exposure to my employees and my clients. It’s something we never considered but are having to develop daily.
Have you found silver linings in these difficult times?
Kimberly Tara: I’m so lucky to be able to spend more time with my three year old and 18 month old in addition to my husband being home more! We are trying to really appreciate our time together and slow down. I think this is a great time to reset!
Andrew Legrand, Spera Law Group: Courts and other lawyers are being forced to adjust to work-from-home scenarios. I believe this will force more of the legal profession to adopt 21st century technology, which will ultimately benefit our clients with increased efficiency and reduced costs.
Freda Paz, The Calling Card: Yes. There is no doubt in my mind small businesses like mine (very small) will get the help necessary to sustain income loss and in some cases continue paying our employees. It is in the best interest of the city and the country in general to maintain the economy. The silver lining for me is that I will use this down time as an opportunity to addresses weaknesses in the businesses, repair them and come out stronger on the other side. I realize this may sound overly positive but this is the only way I can cope.
Bobbie Hill: It is human nature for disaster to bring out the best in people. We find that our staff, our families, friends and neighbors are there for each other. Many are getting lots of house projects done, sorting and cleaning, working in their yards, and enjoying virtual happy hours with people locally as well as with friends and family at great distances. We’ve heard many say how much fun that has been and saying they want to do more of this with people from afar. We all seek community at these times.
Brett Perrier: Professional: I think the silver lining will occur once we endure this pandemic and see it to the end. I believe it will make our company stronger as a whole, as most adverse situations tend to do with teams. This pandemic will also help us improve our safety measures regarding disease outbreaks which we have never been exposed to before. Personally: This time does allow us to spend more time with our family. I was able to teach my 8 year old daughter how to ride a bike with no training wheels in two days! That will be the highlight of my year, no matter what happens going forward.
How are you maintaining your company culture?
Brett Perrier: It has been tough. One aspect of our culture is having team gatherings in a big group and what I call “breaking bread together” (having meals and drinks). We have not been able to break any bread over the last several weeks. As of today, we are starting to meet daily via video conferencing so we can all stay in touch. I think on a positive note, the culture of safety will be ramped up and will continue to be enforced and improved.
Jeff Wilke, SVN | Gulf Partners: We are having webinars and company-wide calls with our corporate headquarters in Boston to make sure we are all up to speed with some of the real estate related issues that have arisen like the force majeure clause in leases that will be argued in the courts when they open back up. Force majeure clause is a provision in a contract that excuses a party from not performing its contractual obligations that become impossible or impracticable, due to an event or effect that the parties could not have anticipated or controlled.
Bonnie Boyd, BBC Destination Management: Flexibility and agility. and communication communication communication. Acting together get the positive message out locally, nationally and across the globe.
Do you have advice for other local companies?
Freda Paz: Stay informed and connected through the various business and civic organizations that are staying focused and working very hard in providing temporary solutions to the business community.
John Zollinger: Cash has always been KING and will continue to be. Having a strong cash reserve is the best defense for unforeseen things happening. We lend money for a living, and depend on people to borrow money to expand their business, etc. However, leverage is only good when things are going well. Too much of anything is bad. Cash reserves allow you to hold onto your most valuable assets, which in most every business is your best people. So, do you best to make sure that you take care of your best people.
Jeff Wilke: Don’t panic and create more chaos than is needed for the situation. Focus on necessities of food, water and shelter. … I hope that the people hoarding supplies that are desperately returning them because they need money learn a valuable lesson. If they had thought of others first they would not have created another layer of chaos.
Bobbie Hill: We suspect that most people are doing the same things we are doing. It is certainly important that we all work to find ways to maintain our health and wellbeing and protect those around us so that we can flatten the curve. We suspect there are lessons we will learn, new ways to work and live more efficiently, be more productive both at home and at work, and multiple ways to stay connected. We need to also ask ourselves what this pandemic can teach us about living more responsibly. What can this do to help us address the climate challenges the world is facing?
