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The Central New York Business Journal, a family-owned small business, has been publishing for 34 years. During that time, the business community in our region has never faced a challenge like the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery from it. While business activity in this era of social distancing is much lower than before, even as regional […]

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The Central New York Business Journal, a family-owned small business, has been publishing for 34 years. During that time, the business community in our region has never faced a challenge like the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery from it.

While business activity in this era of social distancing is much lower than before, even as regional reopening has begun, the need for business news is more urgent than ever.

The demand for information to help businesses navigate this crisis and comeback is growing. We can say that with confidence because we see it in our recent audience analytics.

• At the beginning of the statewide shutdown, we temporarily transitioned to exclusively digital delivery. Since then, we have been emailing the Digital Edition of the Central New York Business Journal (the publication you are reading right now) to an average of 17,800 recipients each week. That represents an increase of more than 2,000 recipients per week over the period prior to mid-March.

• Not only have we been sending out more emails, but a growing percentage of them are being opened. Since March 15, the open rate for weekly Digital Edition emails has jumped from 12 percent to 17 percent.

• Our daily Coffee Break and Daily News Alert emails have also shown gains. The open rates for both, which were already well above Constant Contact’s industry averages, increased over two percentage points since mid-March. Those two email publications combined are now opened by recipients over 16,000 times each week.

• The average number of unique users visiting our website (cnybj.com) every day has increased 6 percent since March 15. Daily advertising impressions — the average number of times an ad on our web pages is viewed each day — have climbed 103 percent during the same period.

The entire staff at the Central New York Business Journal is grateful that you have turned to us as your business-news source in these uncertain times. Thank you.

If the content we provide is valuable to you, there are ways you can access more of it and help us to continue making it available.

The best way to stay connected to news and information about the Central New York business community is a subscription that provides a full year of unlimited access to our website and archives and a free copy of the annual Book of Lists, along with the weekly edition. You can subscribe on our website at https://www.cnybj.com/newsstand/

We also offer a number of email publications free of charge. Coffee Break is a news roundup from New York State, the nation, and the world every morning. Daily News Alerts provides local breaking news from our CNYBJ staff every afternoon. BizEventz News & Updates are news and updates on our business events happening in Central New York. Healthcare Provider E-Newsletter is written for and sent directly to health-care providers in the region every other month. You can sign up for any of these free email alerts at: https://www.cnybj.com/news-email-alerts/

Our goal before the pandemic was to serve the Central New York business community through news, advertising opportunities, events, and data delivered across a variety of platforms. We continue to do so now and will keep doing it long after the current crisis has passed. In good times and in bad, we appreciate you being a member of our growing audience and we are proud to be here for you.

Pandemic Thinking: How to Keep Your Head in the (Long) Game

Business Mentors, Small Business, Subscriber Only

The COVID-19 pandemic is crippling and toppling many U.S. small businesses. Often called “the backbone of the economy,” small businesses that are managing to survive face an uncertain future. As states start to reopen, consumer spending is in steep decline while unemployment skyrockets and many people remain hesitant to venture out. Some entrepreneurs find their

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The COVID-19 pandemic is crippling and toppling many U.S. small businesses. Often called “the backbone of the economy,” small businesses that are managing to survive face an uncertain future.

As states start to reopen, consumer spending is in steep decline while unemployment skyrockets and many people remain hesitant to venture out. Some entrepreneurs find their businesses in trouble because they had the wrong mindset toward customers all along.

Small-business owners everywhere are infected by pandemic thinking. But they were infected with this thinking before the pandemic. It’s only now the strategic weakness of short-term, fear-based, transactional thinking in all different kinds of businesses is becoming more obvious. Pandemic thinkers ask the wrong question, “What can you do for me today?” Rather than, “How can we work together to build a long-term mutually-profitable relationship?”

Business owners who built long-term relationships with customers and clients can weather this storm. Those who didn’t think this way before can adopt elements of this kind of thinking and they will start seeing the benefits almost right away.

Here are three tips for small-business owners on how to develop long-term relationships that benefit both customers and businesses:

• When first meeting, look ahead at the relationship 10 years from now. The scale of a person’s thinking has a lot to do with whether they win the game. Look for all opportunities to be of service, even in some small way, to earn the right to call the person a client. Every deal doesn’t have to be a grand slam. Just get on base. Just get into the game. That way you can discover opportunities to be of greater service and have a client for life.

• Show you care. A lot of people don’t know how to show that they care. Ask yourself when is the last time you called to check on a former client to find out what’s happened in their life or business since the last time you did business together? What are their plans for the future? What can you take off their plate and help them with today even if what they need is just someone to help them think things through? Good relationships built over time are especially evident during the pandemic. Ironically, though, a pandemic is a perfect time to begin a marketing campaign like this and besides, you probably have a lot of free time on your hands anyway.

• Have a long-term business plan. A business being run without a 12-month, forward-looking budget is like a car being driven with a windshield covered in mud, and on an unfamiliar road with no particular place to go. A business that is being run without weekly cash-flow projections is like a person stumbling around in the dark in an unfamiliar house. To take an active, consistent interest in your clients and develop programs encouraging them to keep coming back, it helps to have a long-term written plan for your own business.

Businesses generate revenue by solving problems for their clients and customers. And right now there’s an abundance of problems, which is another way to say there’s an abundance of opportunities. Whether you already have or decide to begin developing great long-term relationships with clients, it’s an investment that will pay long-term dividends.

RJon Robins is founder and CEO of “How To Manage A Small Law Firm” (www.howtomanageasmalllawfirm.com), which provides management services for the solo and small law firm market.

CNYBJ Reader Survey: Majority believe New York State reopening at appropriate pace

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, Subscriber Only

Most do not expect full economic recovery in CNY until 2021 or later SYRACUSE — New York State is moving at “an appropriate pace” to lift NY PAUSE restrictions and reopen the economy, according to a majority (58 percent) of CNYBJ readers responding to an online survey. The Central New York Business Journal COVID-19 Business

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Most do not expect full economic recovery in CNY until 2021 or later

SYRACUSE — New York State is moving at “an appropriate pace” to lift NY PAUSE restrictions and reopen the economy, according to a majority (58 percent) of CNYBJ readers responding to an online survey.

The Central New York Business Journal COVID-19 Business Recovery Survey was conducted May 12-17 through an online questionnaire emailed to subscribers of CNYBJ’s digital news publications. A total of 286 completed surveys were returned.

Slightly over one-third (34 percent) of respondents believed restrictions were being lifted too slowly, while 7 percent believed the pace has been too fast.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the May 15 Phase One reopening of the Central New York, Mohawk Valley, Southern Tier, North Country, and Finger Lakes regions during the data-collection period for our survey.

Respondents were almost evenly split in their levels of concern over a second wave of the coronavirus hitting after restrictions are lifted, with 49 percent saying they were either “very” or “moderately” worried about a second wave, and 51 percent saying they were only “somewhat” or “not at all” worried.

The survey respondents expect that the road to economic recovery will be a long one.

• Only 19 percent expect Central New York’s economy to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels by the end of 2020. We found 42 percent believe such a recovery won’t happen until “Q3 of 2021 or later.”

• The outlook was somewhat more optimistic when respondents were asked about recovery of business conditions in their industry, with 37 percent expecting recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels by the end of 2020.

• Despite the cautious expectations for recovery, 65 percent said they were “very confident” their business or place of employment would be in business one year from now, and another 19 percent were “moderately” confident.

When asked about the impact on day-to-day operations of their businesses if regulations requiring continued social distancing and the wearing of masks in public were to remain in place after NY PAUSE has been lifted, 46 percent expected only “minimal” impact, 32 percent expected “moderate” impact, 21 percent expected “significant” impact, and less than one percent said such restrictions would make day-to-day operations “impossible.”

“The survey results show respondents are taking an optimistic view of their ability to survive the pandemic and a can-do attitude about being able to incorporate social-distancing and other safety guidelines into their operations while getting back to business,” says Adam Rombel, editor-in-chief of the Central New York Business Journal. “At the same time, business owners and managers are cognizant of the immense challenges that lie ahead for the Central New York economy, coming out of the dark of this crisis.”

Almost nine in 10 (88 percent) respondents said that they or someone in their organization had been working remotely from home during NY PAUSE, but most (57 percent) do not expect the percentage of people in their organizations working remotely, at least part of the time, will increase long-term after the COVID-19 crisis is over. Thirty percent expect the percentage will increase “slightly,” and 13 percent predict it will increase “significantly.”

Over half (57 percent) of respondents said their company received a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the emergency, potentially forgivable loan program designed to help small companies keep their employees during the coronavirus crisis. The survey found just 3 percent of respondents applied but had the loan application rejected or not yet approved. The other 40 percent did not apply or were unsure if they did.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis was approved of by over two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents, echoing the positive approval the governor has registered in a number of statewide and national polls taken throughout the pandemic.

Respondents gave overwhelmingly positive approval ratings for handling of the crisis to their local-government officials (87 percent approval) and their employers (96 percent approval).

President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis was approved of by 47 percent of respondents. Those approving of the president had sharply different opinions on several issues than those who disapproved of his performance. They were much more likely to say that New York State was moving too slowly on reopening the economy (58 percent of Trump approvers versus 13 percent of Trump disapprovers), less worried about a second wave of the virus hitting after re-opening (28 percent “very” or “moderately” worried among Trump approvers versus 68 percent among Trump disapprovers), and had a lower level of approval for Gov. Cuomo (44 percent approval among Trump approvers versus 90 percent among Trump disapprovers).

Respondent Profile

Most survey respondents owned or worked for small businesses, with 59 percent at an organization with fewer than 50 employees, and 73 percent at a company with fewer than 100 employees.

The survey respondents were widely distributed across the full range of industry sectors in the region. The industry categories most represented were professional services (22 percent); construction and real estate (14 percent); banking, finance, and insurance (9 percent); manufacturing (8 percent); and nonprofits (7 percent).

Based on job titles provided by the survey respondents, a majority held leadership positions in their organizations. Forty-three percent were at the owner/president/CEO/partner/executive director level, 6 percent were at the vice president/C-suite (excluding CEO) level, 7 percent were directors, and 14 percent identified themselves as managers.

Onondaga County was the most common (59 percent) primary-workplace location among respondents, followed by Oneida County (12 percent), Broome County (5 percent), and Oswego County (4 percent). Sixteen percent were spread throughout the remainder of the 16-county Central New York region, and 4 percent were outside Central New York (primarily in adjoining areas and Albany County).

A full report of the survey findings, including data tables for each question, will be made available to paid CNYBJ subscribers and survey respondents.

Reopening Parts of New York is Reason for Cautious Optimism

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Certain areas of New York are finally making important steps in a positive direction after weeks of lockdown orders and business closures. While there is cautious optimism in the regions that started reopening May 15 — the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley, Central New York, and North Country — we must remember there is

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The financial impacts of COVID-19 on our local and state economies cannot be understated. Residents, small-business owners, and unemployed workers are facing enormous financial shortfalls. Local and state governments will also be forced to manage major budget gaps, very likely, for years to come. As we prepare for life on the other side of this pandemic, it is critical we integrate the valuable lessons we have learned during this experience.

On May 13, we heard directly from business owners and advocates regarding their own experiences during this unprecedented health crisis. Nearly 20 panelists provided their stories during a joint legislative hearing, which reviewed the government’s response to COVID-19 within the small-business community. Across a number of different sectors, delays in loan processing, supply-chain disruptions, a lack of information, and a host of other challenges were detailed by an understandably frustrated and anxious community.

The Assembly Minority Conference has always fought for the state’s small businesses and job-creators. As the process of reopening New York gets under- way, we will continue to provide whatever help we can to get businesses up and running again. There is a long road ahead for businesses that have been forced to close and for employees who are out of work. For state policymakers, it’s time to finally establish an economic climate that fosters prosperity, and eliminates the old way of doing business, which relied heavily on high taxes and costly regulations.

I’m proud to have offered numerous proposals designed to help right the ship. If we are going to rebuild New York, it must be done with sustained improvements. To that end, the Assembly Minority has proposed the “Jump-Start New York” initiative, featuring a number of economic-relief measures that provide a blueprint for sustained recovery in the early days of reopening and well into the future.

Merely reopening New York will not suffice. We must facilitate a better economy with a more resilient health-care infrastructure. We must not only fix the damage done to our state, but also enhance its capacity for growth. There is still much work left to do.

William (Will) A. Barclay, Republican, is the New York Assembly Minority Leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact Barclay at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us or (315) 598-5185.

It’s Time for the Legislature to Get Back to Work

Opinion, Subscriber Only

In their first major public action since we passed the budget in early April, Democrats in the Senate and Assembly convened a virtual hearing on May 13 for small-business owners, advocacy groups, and lawmakers to discuss the federal government’s economic response to the COVID-19 crisis. You would be hard- pressed to find a legislator who

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Why wouldn’t state Democrats want to focus on the state government’s response?

If you want to change things for the better, I believe it’s more important to look in the mirror than point fingers. Since the beginning of the outbreak, our Assembly Minority Conference has not been blaming Washington, D.C. We have been doing the work we were elected to do. Our Small Business Emergency Recovery Act would’ve used the state’s $890 million settlement reserve fund to distribute needed capital to small businesses. It would have offered 0-percent interest recovery loans, repurposed all existing development tax credits specifically for small businesses and delivered real regulatory relief.

Our conference sent a letter to President Trump on behalf of New York’s farmers. The administration responded by granting our request that it extend the H2-Visa program for farmworkers. We also sought federal reimbursement for lost agricultural revenues. The administration responded by creating the $19 billion Coronavirus Food Assistance program, $16 billion of which is earmarked for “direct support based on actual losses for agricultural producers.”

We rejected the idea of a one-size-fits- all approach to reopening our statewide economy and pressured the state to authorize a regional approach to getting back to work. We joined teachers, parents, and administrators in speaking out against Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to reimagine our statewide education system by eliminating classroom learning. Most importantly, we reject the notion that government should continue to be a one-man show. It’s time for the governor to relinquish his emergency authority, and it’s time for lawmakers across the state to return to Albany and get to work.

There is so much to do in the coming weeks. We should be holding bipartisan hearings to investigate the crisis in our nursing homes. We should be holding bipartisan hearings to find out why the state Department of Labor has taken so long to process urgent unemployment claims for individuals who are out of work through no fault of their own. And we should be working to make sure we’re getting our local economies moving again as quickly as we can and as safely as possible.

Assembly Republicans are ready to get back to work. We don’t have any interest in blaming Washington. We want to get results for the people who matter most to us — our constituents.

Brian M. Kolb (R,I,C–Canandaigua) represents the 131st Assembly District, which encompasses all of Ontario County and parts of Seneca County. Contact him at kolbb@nyassembly.gov

Report: 84 percent of hotels have laid off or furloughed workers due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

A new report from the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) indicates that 84 percent of hotels said they have laid off or furloughed workers due to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting “historic” drop in travel demand. Only 37 percent of hotels indicated they have been able to rehire employees through economic-relief measures like

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AMANDA GOYER

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

KeyBank has named AMANDA GOYER corporate responsibility officer for its Central New York market. She joined KeyBank in February 2020 and is also corporate responsibility officer for the Capital Region market. In her new role in Central New York, Goyer succeeds Kawanza Humphrey, who now oversees corporate responsibility efforts in KeyBank’s Buffalo, Rochester, and western

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DEBRA GAMBLE

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

DEBRA GAMBLE has joined Advocates for Upstate Medical University as administrative coordinator. In this position, she reports to the Advocates’ board of directors and plays a critical role in the organization’s successful operation. She replaces Jonathan Adler who retired in May. Gamble has experience in operations and programmatic financial management, research, and contract funding oversight,

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JASON DISCO

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

BPAS Actuarial & Pension Services (APS) has promoted JASON DISCO to VP, sales. BPAS APS is a division of BPAS, a leading national provider of retirement plans, benefit plans, fund administration, and collective investment trusts. Disco joined BPAS APS in 2015 as director of defined benefit (DB) sales, where he focused on delivering innovative DB

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AccessCNY

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

AccessCNY recently added two new members to its leadership team. LYNNETTE SHERWOOD has been named AccessCNY’s new associate director for day habilitation and community-based services. Sherwood received her bachelor’s degree from the College of Saint Rose and brings more than 21 years of human-services experience. She has served the participants of AccessCNY/Transitional Living Services for

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