Franchise Relations – International Franchise Association

Webinar Recording | Franchisor Forum: Where in the Funnel to Discuss Financing with Candidates

Sara Williamson — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 12:00:41 +0000

Webinar Recording | Connecting the Dots: Partners in the Franchise Ecosystem

Sara Williamson — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 12:00:48 +0000

Webinar Recording | How Franchisors & Franchisees Can Optimize Revenue Growth Through Integrated Marketing & Operations

Sara Williamson — Wed, 22 May 2024 12:00:39 +0000

Webinar Recording | Connecting Payments to Royalty Calculations Software

Sara Williamson — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 12:00:09 +0000

Webinar Recording | Personal Information in the Franchise Relationship

Sara Williamson — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 12:00:33 +0000

DISPUTE RESOLUTION TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT OF A WORKING MODEL

Greg Cory — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 20:37:41 +0000

Tips for creating long-term health and alleviating potential issues for your franchise system.

By William Slater Vincent, Esq., Foot Solutions and IFA Franchise Relations Committee member

Disputes between the franchisor and the franchisee are bound to happen sooner or later. Resolving disputes between the franchisor and the franchisee can be expensive and time consuming. Disputes can also adversely impact the franchise system and create ill-will and a hostile working relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee. Therefore, it is in the best interests of all parties for a dispute resolution process to be implemented that is proactive and allows to the maximum extent possible the resolving of disputes at the lowest levels informally and not through litigation. This article sets forth a dispute resolution process that is effective for the long-term health of the franchise system and the franchisor-franchisee relationship. This process is supported through the research of the dispute resolution process of 12 franchise systems.

Phase One: Informal Dispute Resolution

Typically, a proactive franchisor who views the franchise relationship as a business partnership will have several informal ways to settle disputes. Th e fi rst such method is by avoidance. A proactive franchisor practices avoidance through its training franchisees. During this type of training, the franchisor covers in great detail all of the terms, DISPUTE RESOLUTION TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT OF A WORKING MODEL By William Slater Vincent, Esq., Foot Solutions and IFA Franchise Relations Committee member conditions, and obligations required of the franchisee as found in the franchise agreement and other agreements that both parties have signed. Th erefore, at the beginning of the franchise relationship the franchisor has made sure that the franchisee is completely aware of all of his or her responsibilities and obligations. Th is training feature alone will eliminate, or at least alleviate, numerous potential problems.

Th e second stage of informal dispute resolution is performed by the franchisor’s field personnel. Most of the correspondence and personal business that a franchisee has is with the franchisor’s field personnel. Th e field personnel are those who typically first fi nd out and become aware of any problems. Since the field personnel are the first line of resolution in a franchise system, they meet face-to-face with the franchisee to discuss the problem and attempt to affect a practical solution. A great number of disputes are resolved through a one-on-one meeting at this level.

However, there are occasions that dictate that the field personnel are not the appropriate people to resolve the dispute. In such a situation, there will be correspondence between the home office personnel of the franchisor and the franchisee. Th is correspondence typically involves telephone contacts, letters, emails and face-to-face meetings. Th ese face-to-face meetings can occur either at the franchisor’s headquarters or at the franchisee’s location. Once again, at this level, many disputes are resolved.

Oftentimes the franchisee who is in noncompliance will require franchisor assistance. In such a situation, more is required to solve the dispute than face-to-face meetings with field personnel or headquarters’ personnel. In these situations, the franchisor will have a program in place to help franchisees comply with their responsibilities and obligations under the franchise agreement. Situations appropriate for this approach include those beyond the franchisee’s control. For example, this approach is appropriate if the franchisee is having difficulty paying royalties and other fees due to competitive market conditions, a poor location and/or a general economic recession.

In the event the above methods fail to resolve the dispute, the next stage is that of mediation. Th e mediation process entails a non-binding informal presentation by both the franchisor and the franchisee of the dispute to an independent mediator. Th e independent mediator attempts to determine the underlying causes of the dispute and have the parties agree on a mutually beneficial and satisfactory resolution. Mediation is non-binding but allows an outside party to hear both sides. As a result of the use of an independent third party, oftentimes both sides will successfully resolve the dispute.

Occasionally disputes will arise between the franchisor and a large number of its franchisees. In this situation, the dispute is not with an individual franchisee, but with multiple franchisees. To settle such disputes informally, the franchisor will utilize services of its franchisee advisory council or, if there is one, an independent franchisee association. However, the only time such an organization would be used is when disputes needing to be resolved involve the franchise system as a whole. Such an organization would not be used to settle disputes between individual franchisees and the franchisor.

Phase Two: Arbitration

Occasionally, the informal methods to resolve disputes mentioned above will fail. At this point, arbitration usually enters the picture. Most franchisors have included mandatory arbitration in their franchise agreements. Arbitration involves the resolution of the dispute between the franchisor and the franchisee by submitting the dispute to one or more impartial persons who serve as arbitrators. These arbitrators will hear both sides, present their positions, then render a final and binding decision in the matter.

Compared to court cases, arbitration tends to be less expensive and consumes less resources on the part of both the franchisor and the franchisee.

Conclusion

The franchisor-franchisee relationship has often been described as a partnership similar to a marriage. However, as the relationship continues, tensions and disputes can arise. A proactive dispute resolution process is one that emphasizes the settlement of the dispute at the lowest level possible. Th is allows for the retention and maintenance of goodwill and trust between both parties that are not able to be achieved in a more adversarial setting.

William Slater Vincent, Esq., is a board member of Foot Solutions, retired professor of law, management and entrepreneurship and a member of the International Franchise Association Franchise Relations Committee.

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Emerging Brands – COVID-19 Procedures, Support and Communications with Franchisees: What you should do to lead them

Greg Cory — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 22:12:57 +0000

Thursday, April 2, 2020; 12:15pm-1:15pm

Emerging Brands – COVID-19 Procedures, Support and Communications with Franchisees: What you should do to lead them

Panelists: Eric Stites / Sam Ballas / Ron Feldman

Webinar Summary –

Franchisor members discussed the challenges and solutions their brands are encountering amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as financial relief options available to businesses in light of recent legislation. Panelists discussed the need for companies to establish and maintain a flow of accurate information and data from brands and government resources, including from state and CDC sources. The panelists also reviewed recent updates pertaining to rulemaking from the Department of Treasury on Paycheck Protection Program Loans (PPPL)

Key Bullets –

Plan out a 7, 8-14 and 14-21 day strategy for your franchisees, with a focus on unit level operations, communications and benchmarks.
Work with your franchisees to go in-depth in their financial and cash flow plans to determine breakeven operations points as a place of stability to work from, and assign senior level staff to check in continuously
Develop a plan for when crisis begins to taper off
Be an active listener, be open, and be responsive to what franchisees are saying and to their guidance – don’t just be in “problem solver” mode always
Continue to follow Treasury rulemaking and regulations process for information regarding application and loan money receipt

Full Bullets –

Franchisor Challenges
- Develop inflow of accurate information and data
  - IFA
  - Brand legal and CPA engagement
  - CDC
  - GR Grassroots engagement
  - State data on health mandates
  - Unit Level Data
- Brand Must Do’s – first 7 days
  - Communications strategy – calm and confidence; franchisees need to understand what they should be doing to survive the crisis
  - Amplify CDC Protocols
  - Rebuilding brands “unit level” operations and business model
  - Deployment of COVID-19 business model à takeaway
  - Assign brand leadership – SVP, directors now have communications roles with different locations; getting benchmarks and KPIs developed
  - Establish collection of unit level data
- 8-14 days
  - Review Cash flow reports
  - Weekly mandatory calls with all franchisees
  - Brand “white paper” and send out every two days
  - Develop unit level weekly break-even model
  - Re-focus marketing strategy
  - IFA has webinars, industry calls, peer network to utilize
  - Retract additional data from other associations you engage with – NRA, IFMA
  - Communicate and negotiate with supply chain partners and vendors – payment relief, delay, discounting and deferment of costs
  - Franchisor needs to correspond with franchisee landlords of what the ask needs to be – send franchisees a template for their use to request rent deferment and abatement
  - Work with franchisees and validate the COVID-19 breakeven model
  - Continue to adapt this model and make changes as needed
- 14-21 days
  - Continued unit level revenue, cost, and bottom line engagement
  - Franchisee debt forbearance and deferment strategy
  - Added pressure on landlords
  - Validation of supply chain and preferred vendor strategy à ongoing to reevaluation for a further push into different quarters
  - Deliver Brands COVID-19 Franchisee Relief Plan
  - Brands are looking at itself and what the corporation operational structure needs to do for COVID-19 à looking at the corporate office to make sure that the “mother ship” is healthy
- Ops and Off-ramping
  - Management of legislative issues and CARES Act – pushing these out to franchisees, weekly or daily
  - Continued benchmarking and KPI collection – pushing to franchisees
  - Transparency for all units on ULE and COVID-19 business model reports send to all franchisees showing all locations
  - Supply chain management
  - Develop plan and strategy for when crisis begins to taper off

Create an active listening situation and develop human connection with franchisees; don’t just go into problem-solving mode. Keep formal and informal channels open
- One-on-one calls, video calls when possible. Seeing franchisees gives them confidence
Daily game-plan and boil it down for franchisees. Help them to determine a way forward
Highlight the wins, even small wins
- Units that are above break-even points
- Keep communication on this open and on-going

Breaking news!

Payment relief – SBA is required to pay principal, interest and any associated fees owed on 7a loan in regular servicing starting with the next payment due for both existing and new borrowers.
- Existing borrower not on deferment: six months of P&I with the next payment due
- Existing borrower on deferment: six months of P&I after the deferment period
- New borrower: six month of payment of P&I with first payment, only for new loans
EIDL vs. PPPL
- EIDL – no loan forgiveness, all are eligible, borrow up to $2 million, 30 year loan, use of funds: working capital, loans are made by SBA
  - $10,000 grant once application has been processed, but no timeframe on when you’ll receive money
  - SBA is processing lots of loans, and so the time horizon is difficult to know
- PPPL – loans made by banks authorized to make SBA loans; guaranteed 100% by US Government. Waiting on rulemaking and guidance by Treasury
  - All franchisees eligible
  - Loans may be forgiven if borrowers maintain payroll during crisis
  - 12 month average of payroll headcount and dollar; if you keep this average, then your loan will be forgiven. If they are lower, then your forgiveness will be lower on a sliding scale
  - Win on interest rate, loss on amortization
  - No collateral, credit requirements, personal guarantee
  - Max loan is 2.5x average monthly payroll
  - No prepayment penalty
- PPPL can be forgiven – unsecured loan that you’re getting at 0.5% to stay open and pay your employees. Beneficial for those businesses that are still open and paying their payroll
  - Approved use of funds: payroll, rent, utilities, interest à if you use the money for anything other than these categories, you’ll be committing fraud against the federal government
- Maintain payroll – it’s number of people, not the same people
- Cash > tax credits at this moment in time. Take the money; cash is king

Under PPPL, you must check a box that you’ve been “affected” by Coronavirus, which is essentially every business

Fitness and Health Industry in Times of Coronavirus

Greg Cory — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 09:00:10 +0000

View Recording

Thursday, March 26, 2020; 3pm-4pm

Fitness and Health Industry in Times of Coronavirus

Panelists: Charlie Graves / Dave Mortensen

Webinar Summary –

In the “Fitness and Health Industry in Times of Coronavirus” webinar, member leaders from Athletic Republic and Planet Fitness discussed the effects of COVID-19 on the fitness and gym space, franchisor-franchisee relations, and steps taken now and after the pandemic ends to communicate and retain members, and retain the customer experience. The panelists outlined the health and sanitation guidelines and differences for open versus closed locations, and emphasized important cost control strategies that they as franchisors are taking and recommending to guide and support franchisees through the economic turbulence.

Key Bullets –

Important to build a communication cadence internally and externally – communicating to members about closures, sanitation procedures, and membership
Adapt to current realities – moving key gym aspects online and creating new areas for revenue with home fitness capabilities; offer extensions/credits to current members
Advise franchisees on cost control measures, including: rent deferments; working with lender relationships; freezing monthly recurring costs with vendors; team member retention strategies
Be prepared and nimble to understand and adapt to new government and health agency advisories and recommendations as you plan to re-open and re-engage with members, and be sensitive to their concerns

Full Bullets –

Athletic Republic à

Communication cadence
- Frequent playbooks
- Webinars on Tuesday/Thursday
- Franchisee phone calls –
- Materials posted on intranet
Draw on core values
- Dealing with the realities of a very difficult time. Enabling our values and communicating
Different approaches: For Open centers
- Strict athlete hygiene
- Low ratio of athlete/trainer
- Extra cleaning between sessions
- Deep/Steam clean
- Removing hard to clean items
For Closed centers
- Streaming and online classes
- Moving proprietary classes that have certain equipment needs to home with purchase
- Offering gift card sales – members wanting to support the staff
Cost control strategies
- Rent deferment
- Loan deferment
- Staff retention
- Temporarily waived marketing fund contributions
- Membership – issue credits vs. refund … offer extensions vs. cancelations
  - Membership base has gotten behind this and supported it
Plan for Re-opening
- Marketing engagement
- Introduce new programs and products
- Training center maintenance and cleaning
- Trainer education and development
- Moving forward with e-learning platform

Planet Fitness à

Emergency Response team
- Daily scheduled calls
- Dedicated email for franchisees and team members
- Increased member services team
- Templated Member/Team member communications
Franchisee connects
- Bi-weekly franchisee leadership Zoom calls
- Weekly all franchisee calls with open Q&A
- Committed to a one day turnaround on any member inquiry
Understanding the distinction between “clean” and “sanitary”
Over 2000 locations worldwide were closed
What are we doing while closed? Increased member engagement
- “United We Move” campaign
- Facebook Live daily workouts
- PF Mobile App workouts
Cost Control Strategies
- Rent abatement/deferral
- Working lender relationships
- Team member considerations
- Vendors have all frozen monthly recurring services and costs
- Membership – frozen all member fees and extended all contracts
Franchisee resource (Planet Fitness University)
- Organized a section on Covid-19
- Templates for member communications
- Template for landlord communications
- Holding weekly leadership development sessions for franchisee team members
- Revised/enhanced – cleanliness and sanitation courses
- Accelerated required training courses
  - Consumers will re-emerge into a different world and preparing for different possible outcomes
Reopening plans
- Preparing for government mandates – keeping an eye on guidelines to come
- Enhanced cleanliness and sanitation protocols
- Revised marketing approach
- Revisit social distancing impacts

Leading Through Change: Crisis Management and Building Your Brand at the Same Time

Greg Cory — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 23:23:55 +0000

View Recording

Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 12pm-1pm

Leading Through Change: Crisis Management and Building Your Brand at the Same Time

Panelists: Sid Feltenstein / Jim Amos / Steve Greenbaum, CFE

Webinar Summary –

Former IFA leadership offered historical perspectives on times of crisis to chart a course through this period of COVID-19-related instability. The panelists stressed the need for positive culture aligned on common values of trust, open communication, and mutual support between franchisor and franchisee. The panelists also detailed the need for self-less leadership that puts the needs and priorities of others first, for relentless communication with stakeholders, and for empathy to those affected by the ongoing public health crisis.

Key Bullets –

Public health crisis and ensuing economic crisis is compressing the cycle of entrepreneurship, growth, decline, and renewal, and confronting businesses with challenges and opportunities
Franchisors must communicate to franchisees, customers, and lend support to franchisees dealing with debt obligations
Understand the mutuality of the franchise system: the extent to which your franchisees are successful inures to your benefit and business survival over the long term
Prioritize effectively: identify where your team and resources will be needed and apply to greatest impact
Highlight and share examples of self-less leadership throughout your system, and put your needs aside for the good and survival of your franchisees

Full Bullets –

Any change is difficult, particularly change during stressful times
People in leadership must make decisions in real time
Culture is important and will determine the end-game. We change the culture by how we behave as leaders
Problems come when the world changes but cultures can’t
Encourage forward thinking leadership, clear and cool-headed thinking, and a culture of initiative and independence
Cycle of entrepreneurship, growth, decline, renewal is compressed
Need for leaders to call people to hope; negative thinking does not improve the situation

For Franchisors:
- Investing in franchise offering is an investment in you
- Communication: be in constant communication with your franchisee base
  - Sharing best practices
  - Where the business stands
  - They need to hear from you
- Lending Support: most franchisees have some degree of debt and probably can’t afford to pay that debt; lenders are very open and understanding to customers at the moment
- Franchisees will need many other things. Put your needs aside to be as helpful as you can to your franchisees, because the survival of your business is that of your franchisees.
- To the extent that your franchisees are successful inures to your benefit over the long term
Challenging times: we must work harder than we ever have
- Look to history to inform the present
- This might have more profound change
Self-less leadership – focus on franchisees, employees, families. Putting others first is an expression of leadership and taking care of others
Relentless communication
Empathy – for what is happening, walking in the shoes of those impacted
Culture – rock-solid culture and how we respond and how our values align to challenges like this will define how we live and operate
Prioritize effectively – breakdowns will happen; determine where your team needs to start and apply resources for the greatest impact
Ability to execute – it’s one thing to have good ideas, and another to do something
Highlight and share examples of selflessness and leadership
Crisis means both danger and opportunity: respect the risk of the virus to your health, and understand that it is an opportunity to grow

No consensus point of view on how long economic recovery will take. Most people will remain in an economic hold. Consumer spending levels will be the marker of growth

Franchisors are guiding franchisees on how to deal with their bankers; how to defer interest and principle payments. All are working on lease deferrals, rent etc.

As you do cashflow planning and help franchisees to, you need to understand what to solve for and what strategies with purveyors can assist

Unemployment insurance benefits for employees

SBA 7a loans and loan forbearance

Leadership is about doing the right thing

Understand the financial impact that franchisees are going to. Whether to waive or reduce royalties is a brand-by-brand choice

If franchisors are not well-capitalized, then they’ll struggle to support franchisees more generally

Young brands may have some strengths in this situation – more individualized support, and can pinpoint where franchisees’ needs are.

Much of this has to do with capitalization

What Coronavirus Means for Franchise Brands

Greg Cory — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 12:11:11 +0000

View Recording

Tuesday, March 24, 2020; 12pm-1pm

What Coronavirus Means for Franchise Brands

Panelists: Charlie Chase / David Barr / John Teza, CFE

Webinar Summary –

In the “What Coronavirus Means for Franchise Brands” webinar, IFA Immediate Past Chair David Barr, John Teza, and IFA Vice Chair Charlie Chase discussed their approaches as franchisors while they deal with scaling down operations, cash flow, brands health, and planning for the near term due to COVID-19. The panelists urged franchisors to carefully plan for the short-term realities and to remain nimble to respond to the needs of customers and consumers. The panelists recommended a planning framework that emphasized education, collaboration, and communication over and above how franchise brands would normally train and talk to their franchise systems and teams.

Key Bullets –

Asymmetrical impact of health crisis and non-essential business closures affects businesses and geographies differently – be prepared with information on the needs of different jurisdictions
Enact downside planning that serves guests and employees in a way that accounts for near-term realities and scaled-down operations
Create different operating maxims to match the moment: Educate, Collaborate, Communicate. Educate = understand the realities/limitations; Collaborate = work constructively with franchisees and systems to meet their needs; Communicate = clear and transparent distribution of information.
Franchisor plans and action to ensure stable cash flows allow franchisees to look to system leadership, and those tools and guidance can be utilized by franchisees.

Full Bullets –

David Barr: What should Franchisors be thinking about today and tomorrow
- Cash Flow for franchisor à different ways to look at cash flows; concern for emerging brands today
  - Royalties
    - Franchisees are down 20% so royalties will be down 20% – you must be careful to assess the viability of the franchisees given how far they’re down; what is their capacity to pay royalties. Assure they have cash flows up to August/September. Typically cash flow planning wasn’t done on the front end
    - Initial franchise fees have dried up
  - Expenses
    - Personnel
    - Franchise Dev – are you going to continue to spend money in these areas
    - Training
    - Marketing
- Franchisee assistance – how do franchisees remain viable?
  - Assisting franchisees with cash flow projections
  - Liquidity
    - Contract review
      - Contract reviews, reaching out to landlords, abate certain contracts, work with franchisees as they work with those contract providers
    - SBA Disaster Loans
      - EIDL loans available on the SBA website – loans up to $2 million based on current needs from a liquidity standpoint
    - CARES Act
      - Congress debating the CARES Act
      - Loans will be available through this legislation that allows more multi-unit franchisees to qualify even if they’re above the typical small business threshold
      - Can apply for SBA 7a loan
      - Second step of loan forgiveness – up to 2.5x of payroll
      - Can’t double dip in loan funds
Tomorrow – this will change brands in the future
- New standards about cleanliness will emerge
- Communicate with your customers and consumers – how do you keep your customers connected online and when they aren’t present
- Staying relevant to customers’ needs
- Franchisee assistance – engage in digital way
  - Relaunch – opening and re-opening

John Teza:
- Asymmetrical impact of this virus – not all geographies are affected in the same way
- Some brands are totally shut down; no revenue
- Some businesses in good position from a cash perspective, some are not
- Phase three planning: optimizing for short term reality
  - Downside planning – serve guests and employees in a manner to beat forecasts
  - Off premise modes – rolling out third party delivery to systems – be nimble and consider new thinking to safely serve communities
  - Turn operating models on their heads if need be
  - Need a business that people can come back to at the end of this

Charlie Chase:
- Oversees a portfolio of home improvement brands
- 50% locations are operating, 50% are not.
- Different operating maxims
  - Operate within our values – discrete values that we hold in crisis or not
  - Compared with what people have been involved with in the past – using comparisons of this with how others have coped with challenges in the past
  - Framework – educate, collaborate, communicate – understand the reality, collaborating for their reality, and overcommunicating by a factor of 10 with respect to what’s going on
- Some think it won’t affect you, but other parts of the country
- Bottom-up and top-down thinking – board support and moving into the shoes of people on the ground
- 2.5 weeks ago we had operations where some franchisees were using unemployment to keep people paid, because they knew 3 weeks of no revenue would knock them out
- What does leadership stand for in your world? How do you provide words, leadership and guidance to keep people focused?
  - Agility – keep your knees bent
  - Accuracy – facts, history to guide what’s ahead
  - Transparency – we want people to know what we are doing, so that the rumor mill isn’t spun up; keep everyone informed and clear on what’s going on
- Words matter – language is important. Don’t use phrase shutdown/closedown. Use “scaling down” to a certain level. Think of middle period as rest, recuperating, retraining so that you can scale up and regain what you’ve lost

Having a well-defined plan, where you can articulate into and through that plan
- Communicating where you are today and tomorrow
Take care of business quickly and definitively, and push those tools down to our franchisees who need to go through this same experience
- Put your oxygen mask on first, and then put the oxygen mask on your franchisees
Believe in what you’re doing so strongly that other people are inspired to do what you’re doing
What’s the virtual version of a store walk or market walk? Perhaps it’s a webinar, but we need to find new ways to reach out – David has encouraged more teams to reach out via Zoom or GoToMeeting
Charlie is reaching out to 4-5 franchisees a day – communicating safety, checking in on their families, and people will appreciate and respect the time taken
SBA loans:
- Disaster recovery is typical SBA program (hurricanes, tornados etc.) à looking at liquidity and what immediate needs are due to disaster; no unemployment consideration, and personal guarantee required
- CARES Act: Loan based on payroll, debt, utilities, lease. Look back on operations; no personal guarantee
  - Based on your employment this year versus last year
  - 80% of employment, you’ll get 80% forgiveness
  - Do the right thing for your business, how much you need on the loan and however much gets forgiven on the backend does
- IFA has other specialists who will provide more information on this in the future
- You can’t double dip in loans
Any litigation expected from franchisees?
How do you handle franchisees who are asking royalties to be waived? Monthly minimums etc?
- Everyone is taking a different approach
- How does the brand get to the other side? Forms a basis of discussion with franchisees to how to chart a course through the crisis
- There are few people who have the balance sheet of big franchisors
- Encouraging people to sit down and make good business cases with landlords, vendors, and franchisors. Have a conversation with franchisees to say “we’re in this together” and for viability together over the longer term
- When units are closed, then royalty minimums are being waived
What do about rent if revenue is down?
- Urging communication with landlords about the fact of liquidity
- Recommend to franchisees to have a discussion with leases and vendors – promote dialogue
Do franchisors acquire the unit?
- All franchisors will be faced with those decisions internally and externally
- Now is not the time to undertake that question
- Later is the time to discuss picking up distressed units
- No certainty around the length of this – if we knew it were a month or that a stimulus package would provide relief for a fixed time then we would be in a better position.
China isn’t back à we’re seeing a public debate about health versus economic health. Even if the government said you can re-open, does your consumer come back? Assess your plans and be honest about what your situation is
- You won’t see a full complement of customers until the number of people dying is off the nightly news. So be realistic about an August-September timeline for your liquidity and cash-on-hand
We don’t know what norms will shift on a go-forward basis – social distancing etc
- The only other comparison we have is 9/11
- We’ll get through this, and not jump to conclusions about what the impacts will be; we need to focus on what do know in the moment
Put yourself in the shoes of front-line workers and get them liquidity as quickly as possible