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Corey Miller
The Gloucester Main Street Association provided loans for its members and took to social media to keep Main Street businesses prominent within news feeds.
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Corey Miller
The Greater Williamsburg Business Council used the power of the world wide web to keep members of its business hub connected though webinars, programs and online networking.
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Funded by a grant and kick-started by a $20,000 gift provided by a Riverside Walter Reed Hospital physician and his nurse practitioner wife and a matched donation from another donor, the Gloucester Main Street Association was able to flood the market with vouchers to keep customers flowing into its businesses.
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Esther Desimini, president of Riverside Walter Reed Hospital
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Vouchers for Gloucester businesses were given to healthcare workers. The public purchased $60,000 of vouchers. In total, over $100,000 was infused into local downtown businesses.
“In the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program, we did about $77 million in loans,” said John O’Shaughnessy, EVP, Senior Credit Officer at Chesapeake Bank in Kilmarnock.
The bank also eased the minds of business owners concerned with losing their storefronts.
“Fortunately, the regulators came out with some guidance for banks that allowed us to do some things that we wouldn’t normally do, such as offer payment deferrals, which a lot of folks did, or just convert their loan to an interest-only payment. The principal then would be added to the end of the loan. So that afforded customers a lot of flexibility just from a cash flow standpoint. They weren’t saddled with a monthly payment that they couldn’t handle. We had a lot of borrowers take advantage of that program,” he said.
In Williamsburg, Chesapeake Bank provided $33 million worth of loans to local businesses.
“We did most of them in April. Round one they ran out of money, and then Congress got back together and put more money in and that went until August 5. But I’d say we did 95 percent of those in April and May,” said Leigh Houghland, Regional Executive, SVP at Chesapeake Bank in Williamsburg.
The bank, which has branches in the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula and Williamsburg, put over $100 million into those local economies.
“It’s been a huge shot in the arm to the local economies and our businesses.
It’s allowed our business customers to maintain their employees, which is what it’s really targeted to do. It’s designed to keep people on the payroll. And if you stop and think about it, little old Chesapeake Bank has put $100 million into our local economy. It’s pretty staggering,” said O’Shaughnessy.
Both bankers credit the bank’s preparedness and messaging as key to helping save many of the businesses bringing owners through the front door.
“We were very intentional in our messaging,” said Houghland. “We were communicating to our business clients, and then as the application process became more understood and the opening date came, we were again emailing all of our business owners about the program, when it would open, what the process would be,” said Houghland.
“We [communicated] through a variety of ways, primarily through social media and the website … and a lot by word of mouth,” said O’Shaughnessy. “Joe would talk to Mary and Mary would say, ‘I can’t get my Paycheck Protection Program loan,’ and Joe would say, ‘Well I bank at Chesapeake Bank and they already got me mine.’”
For a financial institution like Chesapeake Bank, which competes with large national banks, being the hometown hero for small businesses is an honor.
“We generated a lot of goodwill from our ability to help [business owners] with the Paycheck Protection Program and do it efficiently. A lot of the clients that heard that we were doing a good job that weren’t banking with us, came over and we were able to help them. And now they’ve moved their relationships, their banking relationships to us,” said Houghland.
While access to working capital benefited many businesses during the pandemic, having the structure and support of a business membership organization kept other businesses afloat.
In Williamsburg, the Greater Williamsburg Business Council used the power of the world wide web to keep members of its business hub connected though webinars, programs and online networking. Those opportunities included PPP loan webinars, ASPIRE Young Professionals Mentorship Program, monthly Morning Blend networking events on Zoom, as well as its new Networking Blitz events using the Blitzr speed networking platform.
The Council has also maintained a COVID-19 Recovery Center on its website, providing the most up-to-date grant opportunities, industry-specific guidelines and vaccination resources organized by locality.
“We have been and will continue to be a first line resource for our members during the pandemic. Our goal is to assist them in navigating the right channels to make their businesses better for when things return to a new normal,” said Terry Banez, Greater Williamsburg Business Council CEO.
Gloucester Main Street Association is another organization that came to the aid of its membership businesses. Established to support local businesses in Gloucester’s Main Street corridor, the association ensures business sustainability for the foreseeable future as part of its ongoing revitalization effort.
The association was put to the test last March when Governor Ralph Northam placed restrictions on businesses in response to COVID.
“The first week that the governor had given the mandate to close certain businesses, our salons and our massage therapy businesses were not allowed to be open,” said Jenny Crittenden, director of the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust. “We had other [businesses] that had 72 hours to modify their business models.”
She credits the quick creativity of the business owners as the reason their businesses continued to thrive during the pandemic.
“We had some of our women’s boutiques become smaller versions of Amazon, and they were doing delivery service and online fashion shows. Restaurants offered curbside pickup. So, they were becoming incredibly creative,” she said.
The association also provided loans for its members and took to social media to keep Main Street businesses prominent within news feeds.
“We freed up funding and within the first week, we were able to partner with the Gloucester Revolving Loan Fund and offer 10 businesses $5,000 loans at 0% interest,” she said.
“The next thing we did was we began to track what was going on. We made phone call after phone call to our businesses to ask: How are you doing? How many employees have you had to lay off? What are your new hours? What services are you now offering that you didn’t? What services were you offering now that you can’t? And we created very attractive graphics, and we pushed them out on social media.”
One of the most impressive moves made by the association involved the creation and implementation of an e-commerce platform designed to bridge the gap between the community and the businesses on Main. Funded by a grant and kick-started by a $20,000 gift provided by a Riverside Walter Reed Hospital physician and his nurse practitioner wife and a matched donation from another donor, the association was able to flood the market with vouchers to keep customers flowing into its Main Street businesses.
“We built out this e-commerce platform that allowed all of our retailers, our restaurants, and our personal service businesses to be represented where anyone from anywhere could purchase a gift voucher. Then it became the thought process, that we’re going to be buying $40,000 worth of gift vouchers to Downtown, but who’s going to get them? It was the doctor and the nurse practitioner who came up with the idea of giving them to the hospital care workers at Riverside Walter Reed Hospital. And so, that’s what happened. They were given to over 400 healthcare workers,” said Crittenden.
When they turned on the platform to the public, the community purchased $60,000 of vouchers.
“It’s like in the first two weeks we infused downtown with a $100,000,” she said. “So, it’s a win-win that all these wonderful vouchers went out to the hospital care workers, and an overburdened community got to support local businesses downtown and feel great about that.”
Perhaps the most impressive statistic reported was the number of businesses that closed their doors.
“I have not lost a single business downtown,” Crittenden said, “and we are super proud of that statistic.”
Go to chesbank.com to learn how Chesapeake Bank helps small businesses. | Go to GloucesterVilliage.com and RiversideOnline.com for additional information about resources in Gloucester. | The Greater Williamsburg Business Council offers timely information and resources at BusinessWilliamsburg.com.