It might be a time of social distancing, but know this: your small business is not alone. You have many allies ready to help you emerge from the pandemic stronger than before.
But you might be asking yourself where to begin or who to turn to. What small business recovery resources are available outside of your own Chamber of Commerce or your personal business network? From creating a business plan to getting financial, marketing, and technology assistance, help is here. We compiled a list starting with LinkedIn resources, financing, and partnerships to start your journey in the right direction. Let’s take a look.
A guide for small business recovery
One of the best destinations for small businesses is LinkedIn and its small business resources. With LinkedIn Learning courses, a LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog, and even a LinkedIn COVID-19 Resource Hub, small business owners can share their experiences in adapting to the changing world of work.
This unique perspective from thousands of small businesses made LinkedIn an ideal partner for the Cisco Beyond Survival: a Small Business Resiliency Guide. In the Guide, you’ll find tools and best practices like those used by Second Harvest, Karameller, and Del Brenta. We also share industry insights, helpful resources, and stories of innovation. In fact, it helped inspire this blog post. These tools are designed to help you weather our current economic environment and prepare you for what lies ahead.
Funding small business recovery
Part of weathering the current environment is maintaining financial stability. As you start to explore what business looks like going into 2021, here are several financial resources that might be helpful.
- Cisco Capital Small Business Financing: Get the financing you need for IT upgrades with no up-front costs, predictable payment schedules, and rates at low as 0%.
- COVID-19 Small Business Loan and Grant Programs: Navigate federal and state stimulus options, with a list of support and programs designed for small businesses.
- Financial Resources for Women- and Minority-Owned Businesses Affected by COVID-19: Find information and resources to help affected women- and minority-owned small businesses. (Please note, some programs listed are no longer accepting applications due to the overwhelming responses they received earlier this year.)
- Financial Assistance Programs for Small Businesses by State: Search for financial resources available in your state and county.
- Support for Canadian Small Businesses: Find a host of resources available to small businesses StartUp Canada’s COVID-19 resource.
Creating powerful partnerships and collaborations
At Cisco, we created various small business recovery initiatives to help you access valuable information, expert insights, and other resources so that you can focus on keeping your business running. We also teamed up with industry organizations, associations, and global corporations to make it easy for you to obtain and leverage these resources.
Perhaps one positive development from COVID-19 is that organizations of all sizes have joined forces to offer support for small businesses. Our contribution: a passion for small business combined with deep technical expertise. Explore these initiatives for access to a new support network, best practices, and more.
- National Small Business Association (NSBA): The NSBA’s COVID-19 resources page has a wealth of information about financing, security, best practices, and more.
- Women of Influence: This community of women professionals in Canada offers fellow entrepreneurs a support network to help guide them through the crisis.
- Stand for Small: Led by American Express, this coalition of more than 40 companies offers small businesses a host of resources and benefits.
- Open We Stand: GoDaddy has partnered with like-minded organizations to provide a resource hub designed to help small businesses keep their doors (both literal and virtual) open.
- Cisco Small Business Recovery Resources: Our small business recovery site is a one-stop shop with the information small businesses need to adapt, adopt, and overcome. From simplified remote work, security, and networking solutions to financing options, we can help small businesses build resiliency for today and beyond.
Preparing for what’s ahead
With these resources, your business can explore additional avenues on your path to business resiliency. And armed with this knowledge and tools to support your small business, you’re ready to begin thinking about the future.
What does that entail? Get our free ebook powered by LinkedIn insights, Beyond Survival: A Small Business Resiliency Guide to learn the next steps.
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