Note from CEO

As a restaurant owner myself and someone in touch with a lot of other folks in similar shoes I know we are in unprecedented times.  We are seeing sales as of yesterday down 35% year over year across our 1,200 MarginEdge partners – sadly my places are in malls and it is even worse.  We are here to help where we can. 

One area we know many of us are interested in is what the Government (State & Federal) will be doing to help.  Many of you have heard a large stimulus is being planned by the SBA.  This will be loans directly from the SBA, not from banks, at a fixed rate of 3.75% and up to $2M with a long-term payback.  This is designed to help small businesses through the cash crunch that many of us will experience.  We will be following this closely and keeping you updated but here is the first overview - https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba-newsroom/press-releases-media-advisories/sba-provide-disaster-assistance-loans-small-businesses-impacted-coronavirus-covid-19

Here is a link to related forms and applications so you can begin to familiarize yourself so when the dust settles you are able to submit quickly: https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/Information/PaperForms

Please note these forms may change as part of the specific rollout of this program, however they are likely to follow a very similar format as it will be part of the SBA's disaster relief program. Apparently it will be first come first serve so being ready will help!

Additionally, we are working quickly to provide a central resource for all things related to this pandemic including resources, ideas and initiatives from restaurants across the country and proactively help tackle any questions where information might not be readily available.

As we compile this resource (estimated release early next week) if you have any ideas that you would like to share with our community, or questions/issues you would like to see us address, please reply directly and we will be sure to include them. We would love to share ideas, a friend this morning told me “We are opening with a highly paired back menu to minimize inventory and labor” and my immediate thought was DUH why didn’t I think of that!  We are happy to collect ideas and post them in a central place in the coming days – send them along!

Our hope is to support our MarginEdge community, and our industry as a whole, in any way we can – please stay in touch and we will do the same.

Stay safe,

Bo