Preparing your business for a post-pandemic world

On Wednesday, May 13th, Choose DuPage hosted the DuPage County Business Forum, a virtual event designed to help the business community deal with the impact of COVID-19. Nearly 200 small business owners and managers joined to hear about preparing their businesses for a post-pandemic world. 

The program kicked off with a welcome from DuPage County Board Chairman, Dan Cronin. The Chairman announced that DuPage County in conjunction with Choose DuPage is launching Reinvest DuPage, a small business relief program that will provide grants to sustain small businesses and independent contractors impacted by COVID-19.

Greg Bedalov, President & CEO of Choose DuPage followed with an economic outlook. Bedalov presented Choose DuPage’s Q1 Economic Indicators Report, which can be found here. He then expanded on Chairman Cronin’s announcement of Reinvest DuPage, providing the details of the program and encouraging attendees to join Choose DuPage for a webinar on Friday, May 15 at 11:00 AM CST to learn more, including how to apply (click here to register). More details about the program can be found here. 

Creating & Maintaining Company Culture in a Virtual Environment

Melissa Dimitri and Angela Jhanji of Grant Thornton gave a presentation on creating and maintaining company culture in a virtual environment. Their presentation touched on ways employers can show more empathy in order to keep employees engaged and help manage stress. They shared that leveraging authentic engagement can also lead to business efficiencies, and how employers should be prepared to accept the ‘new’ in the ‘new normal’. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE PRESENTATION.

Understanding the CARES Act & How to Begin Easing into the New Normal of Business

Bert Neuhring and Susannah Heitger of Crowe LLP gave a presentation on the CARES Act and PPP guidance, compliance, and easing into the unknown new normal. It included a series of recommendations for paycheck protection program recipients, such as building a case today around the necessity of the loan if you are requesting forgiveness. They also touched on compliance and reporting for the CARES Act, offering recommendations such as reading and understanding documents, determining if certifications are necessary, documenting decisions and activities, track and account for transactions, and document all costs for the forgiveness. 

The presentation also discussed how to write your own playbook when easing into the unknown new normal, along with a number of resources to help businesses.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE PRESENTATION.

For more information on the DuPage County Business Forum, please contact info@choosedupage.com.