Weekly Updates. Putting our data to work.

Raffi Yousefian is the principal at RY CPAs and a long time friend of MarginEdge. He serves many restaurant groups as part of his practice and hopped in to help us compile the latest on guidance around spending your PPP funds with a special lens for the unique dynamics of our industry.

He helped us take confusing, muddy language and distill it into something that is immediately actionable. He outlined four scenarios for restaurants that are representative of most of our situations and showed the implications of PPP relief, implementation and forgiveness considerations for each. Of course, all of these details are continuing to take shape, but this is our best assessment given the information available. So much of this content was driven by your questions so I hope you find it really helpful!

Almost everyday I hear from folks in our network asking if anyone has received PPP or EIDL funding. I don't personally know anyone who has but if you have seen dollars make it to your account we would love to hear about it! I still feel like we are going to see the relief, but between the banks waiting on guidance, the SBA managing this project with a team of 4,000 and the negotiations in Congress I think we have a little more time to wait.

After seeing the spike in the week-over-week view due to a couple of our partners doing a ton of holiday catering business (with an even bigger spike today!), we were curious if the same effect might have occurred on other days since this all began. Looks like the median and average tracked pretty closely up until the Easter/Passover impact.

Take away here for those of you still open might be to think about large format options for special occasions. While we don't have any major holidays pending after this weekend, maybe a birthday or anniversary dinner option that people could enjoy or send to friends who are celebrating solo this year (maybe include flowers or birthday cake?). Not sure exactly how it would look but we may have a sales opportunity anywhere where people are trying to maintain tradition in undoubtedly untraditional times.

I'm sure you know but late last night we cleared an important legislative hurdle on the way to seeing some federal assistance and financial relief. Not the last hurdle this package needs to cross and even then it will take time for the specific regulations to be written. Headline, it seems relief is on the way but too early to know when it might make its way to our businesses. We are watching closely and as any of this takes shape, you will be the first to know.

I know from talking to many of you that you are in my shoes exactly – at my restaurants I have been forced to let go of all hourly team members for now, and I have a small number of salaried managers that have been with us forever that I am desperately trying to keep on payroll. This is where the FMLA Act gets interesting and Uncle Sam may actually be able to help quickly.

Things are changing by the hour - a phrase I always thought was silly until this past week. We are doing our best to keep up and while none of us know exactly how any of this will shake out, we will continue to send along anything we learn along the way.  Last night new programs were passed into law related to FMLA and SBA loans but neither has any real detailed regulations yet so we will update on those later. 

As our sample size continues to decrease as a result of voluntary and mandated closures and reduced operations for those still open, we changed our year-over-year view to show percentage change across all markets. We also included a view only showing percentage change for locations that were still operating in some capacity. You can also see percentage of closures by market across our data set.

As you know, the SBA is rolling out a program to provide low-interest loans of up to $2M to small businesses that have been severely impacted by Coronavirus. These Disaster Loans are being made available on a state-by-state basis as they declare emergencies. 

Here are ways you can prepare to apply.

I am sure you are aware of American Express Merchant Financing. I didn't expect it but it is still available and providing rapid 12 month working capital loans at reasonable rates (the same rates they have for years when the sky wasn’t falling). In two hours I received approval for same day funding of up to $120k for my restaurant in Boston. 

Honestly, I was surprised given what is happening. We didn't take the full amount and you can pull what you need, but thought it was very cool of American Express to keep that line open during these crazy times. 

WASHINGTON—Despite the Trump administration’s promise to deliver aid quickly, smallbusiness owners who have applied for federally guaranteed loans to keep them afloat during the coronavirus pandemic are still largely waiting for the money, according to business advocates and banking industry officials.

Today the U.S. Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the U.S. Department of Labor (Labor) announced that small and midsize employers can begin taking advantage of two new refundable payroll tax credits, designed to immediately and fully reimburse them, dollar-for-dollar, for the cost of providing Coronavirus-related leave to their employees. This relief to employees and small and midsize businesses is provided under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (Act), signed by President Trump on March 18, 2020.

As restaurants have shut down across the United States in response to city and statewide coronavirus-related lockdown mandates, business owners are wondering if this disaster is covered under their business insurance protection plans. And while there is likely no pandemic provision (or exception) in any restaurant’s insurance coverage, business owners are hoping for relief in the global health emergency that could result in economic catastrophe.

The restaurant industry is home to more than 15 million trained and skilled employees in restaurants across the country serving the public every day. The restaurant industry is open and the tables at America’s 1+ million restaurant and foodservice locations are always a great place to gather with friends and family. To ensure that restaurants have the latest information about coronavirus, we created this industry-specific guidance for owners and operators.

A comprehensive list of resources at the state and local level for restaurant businesses and employees impacted by COVID provided by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.

Join the Rally for Restaurants movement today, buy a gift card (or five), and challenge your friends to do the same. Give yourself something to look forward to while giving small business owners a fighting chance.

Multifunding created a message board to assist businesses navigating applying for SBA Disaster Loans. This thread has been a valuable resource to members of our community.

Restaurants are also using this unprecedented time to serve the community and push perishable products. Hook Hall’s cavernous bar and events space has turned into a relief center that sets up restaurant workers with meals and home essentials. Eastern Market’s Eat Brgz dropped off chicken and beef burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches to 400 firefighter-EMTs across D.C.’s 34 fire stations through nonprofit Food On The Stove Tuesday afternoon. Fast-casual newcomer Immigrant Food is is donating ingredients and inventory to staff and the local immigrant community through the restaurant’s five NGO partners. And Bethesda steakhouse Medium Rare is donating prepared meals every night to quarantined seniors.