It’s Cleaning Time owners believe in environment safe house cleaning, actively research the best products, and can discuss options on using them in your home.
We were proud to have a conversation with owners, Eloisa and Mario Alvarez, of It’s Cleaning Time about their entrepreneur journey, challenges during COVID-19, and how EGBI has assisted them through various stages of their business. EGBI board member, supporter and local business owner Alejandra de la Torre – State Farm Agent was moderator of the conversation. Eloisa and Mario spoke about all the support they received from EGBI through COVID-19 crisis including weekly group meetings and business coaching.
Interview with Eloisa and Mario of It’s Cleaning Time below.
In February 2015, Iskander and his Ecuadorian wife Tuky opened Cuba 512 as a manifestation of their own American Dream. Cuba512 is a place of discovery that serves traditional Cuban dishes. All dishes are freshly prepared with hand-picked ingredients and served alongside island fresh cocktails & tropical smoothies. Cuba512 promises you a highly authentic Cuban experience by catering to all your senses. Its talented staff, decor, music, food, and beverage bring the ambiance of Cuba directly to Austin with hand crafted, Caribbean mojitos. They have an extensive take out menu.
We were proud to have a conversation with Tuky about their entrepreneur journey, challenges during COVID-19, how EGBI has assisted them through coaching, and their delicious food. Cuba512 will be the provider of the Ropa Viaja (shredded beef slowly cooked in tomato base sauce, onion, bell peppers) for our annual fundraiser, Celebrating Success. All are invited to join us on September 9th, 2020 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM for our virtual fundraiser.
We are filled with sadness and frustration over the recent events against African Americans these past few months. We join the call to find ways to stop police brutality and heal our nation. These horrific acts have led to unrest across the country. We must come together to ensure all of our brothers and sisters are permitted the same opportunities and equal justice.
For the last fifteen years, EGBI has been working to help individuals achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. Along with our partners, we are working to break down the barriers many minorities in our communities face. By providing training, coaching and support services to small businesses, our clients are receiving the tools necessary to develop sustainable businesses. Businesses that are making a positive impact in our community.
Today, we proudly stand with our partners as we work to create a better nation. A nation where everyone, regardless of the color of their skin or where they were born, will be treated equally and be able to pursue their dreams. We mourn for these beautiful lives that were taken way too soon, but we must never forget and never stay silent.
Due to the current unprecedented events, many of us have been forced to move our work remotely or adjust to a new way of communicating from our homes. Now the questions is, where do I even start? Here is a quick go to list to begin.
DropBox Bring your files and cloud content together with the tools your team wants to use.
Free Conference Call provides HD audio conferencing, screen sharing and video conferencing with up to 1000 participants. Sign up for a free account.
Google Free access to Hangouts Meet, which allows up to 250 participants and live streaming up to 100,000 viewers per domain, and G-suite until July 1, 2020 .
Jamm Free platform for voice and video collaboration for teams working remotely (integrates with Slack) .
LoomVideo recording and sharing service offering boosts to free service plan, discounted prices on LoomPro, and free access for educational institutions through July 1, 2020 . There is no recording limit until July 1, 2020.
Microsoft 365Free 6 month trial of Microsoft 365 E1, with web-based Office apps and business services including email, file storage and sharing, meetings, and instant messaging
Webex– Video Conferencing, Online Meetings and Screen Share
EGBI offers small business owners’ guidance for how to keep
your business afloat in the time of Covid-19. These tips are compiled from
various websites, conference calls, and conversations over the past two weeks
and are SUBJECT to CHANGE from day to day. These tips are not a substitute for
legal guidance and your own investigation. Use this guide to point you to things
you should be thinking about.
Governmental Health and Safety Orders
Federal covis-19 orders trump State Covid-19
orders. State orders trump local orders, but right now in Texas the governor is
allowing cities and counties to pass stronger orders than the state.
If you violate the orders, you
could be arrested and fined up to $1200 per offense.
The link to the current State of Texas current Covid-19 orders HERE.
Stay open and generate revenue if possible, based on your city/county public health response orders)
Use the assets of the company (checking, savings and investments)
Make a loan to the business from your personal assets
Existing line of credit with a financial institution. It is unlikely that you would be able to get a line of credit in the middle of a crisis. If you do have a line of credit, be prepared that the financial institution might cancel it during the crisis.
SBA disaster loan – currently – Apply directly with SBA. SBA will determine the loan amount. Must have business financial records and tax returns to prove your need. Loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills. The interest rate is 3.75% for small businesses without credit available elsewhere Businesses with credit available elsewhere are not eligible.
If you are declined an SBA loan, they will follow up with you to review your application. Don’t take NO the first time. Check out the Press Release.
You can start filling out the documents you will
need:
SBA Covid-19 disaster loans – proposed – as part
of the 3rd bill that congress is debating, part of the proposal is
that small businesses would apply for SBA Covid-19 disaster loans through
financial institutions; offering working capital to keep the business open and
staff in place even while there is no revenue; and potentially loan proceeds
for wages might be forgiven in an effort to keep people employed.
Other disaster loans as they become available
from cities and counties.
Unemployment compensation – Self-employed people
may apply if you have a loss of 50% of revenue or more as verified by financial
records and IRS tax records.
You have a couple of choices for lowering Expenses:
(use the same thinking for your personal expenses)
Insurance – pay your insurance: health
and business (if you remain open) Once you miss a payment, you are without
insurance.
State Sales Tax – CALL AND GET ON A
PAYMENT PLAN send them their money when its due.
Key People – You want to take care of
your people so that they will return to you after the crisis.
Employees: Read your Employee handbook.
These will tell you how your business will treat your employees for
termination, sick leave and vacation time.
Employees will qualify for unemployment compensation
if they have lost significant revenue from their job or have had to reduce
hours because of government orders. The waiting period for unemployment compensation
has been waived. APPLY early. They are very busy. (Employers can request a
waiver from an increase in unemployment insurance caused by employees filing
claims because of Covid-19)
Furlough (pay benefits but not wages for
employees you hope will return after the crisis) vs termination (end
employment). Your employees are the backbone of your business.
If you don’t have an employee handbook, at a
minimum write down your leave policies.
Loans – start talking to ALL your lenders
about deferring payments.
Have your account number ready.
GET THE PERSONS NAME, a physical address
and an email. After your conversation, send them an email recapping what was
agreed on. MAKE A PAPER TRAIL.
They might tell you that you can defer now but
will have to pay off in a few short months. You might be able to catch up
payments in a few months via an SBA loan (more about that later).
Foreclosures won’t happen immediately –
courts are closed to non-emergency actions; HUD, Fannie and Freddie (mortgage
buyers) have stated they will not foreclose or evict during the crisis.
Vendors – check with all to see what they
are willing to do. For instance, ATT has offered to defer phone bills under
certain situations.
Reduce expenses: save as much as you can
to be able to keep paying employees
Start preparing financial plans for 2 months, 4
months, and ramp up when this is over. (EGBI can help)
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (law passed last
week)
Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees may qualify for exemption from the requirement to provide leave due to school closings or childcare unavailability if the leave requirements would jeopardize the viability of the business as a going concern.
Employee must have worked one month to be eligible
Two Weeks (2) / Eighty (80) Hours paid sick leave ( for Coronavirus) at usual rate
Cannot force employee to use other accrued leave first
Eligible employees may take up to twelve (12) weeks of job-protected FMLA leave where they are unable to work or telework because of a need for leave to care for a son or daughter if their (primary or secondary) school or place of care has been closed, or their child-care provider is unavailable, because of a public health emergency declared with respect to COVID-19- coronavirus.
The first 10 days of FMLA leave is unpaid, but employees may elect to substitute accrued vacation, personal leave, or sick leave for the unpaid leave under this section.
An employer may not require such substitution.
After the 10 days are exhausted, employers must pay the employee not less than two-thirds of the employee’s regular rate of pay for each day of FMLA leave taken thereafter, capped at $200 per day, and $10,000 in the aggregate.
Insurance: if your business is moving to a delivery service using employee vehicles, make sure they have auto insurance and make sure they call their insurance company and let them know they will be using their vehicle in part for business.
Employer insurance: ask your insurance for a “drop down policy” to also cover the business for any auto insurance issues.
Alcohol – Do NOT allow any employee or contractor to transport alcohol until you confirm transport of alcohol is OK
Succession planning – who can keep your business
going if you were to get sick or worse.
Speak to an attorney about your LLC operating
agreements and your estate planning documents and who can operate your business
when you are not available
Ask about a Special power of attorney vs durable
power of attorney
IRS
Filing and due date for federal taxes was extended to July 15.
Lastly, small business owners can schedule telephone or Zoom coaching sessions with EGBI staff. For current clients, coaching is free during the crisis. Please visit our website for staff contact information and updated information at www.egbi.org.
Is your
business experiencing down time? How can
we make the most of these unexpected
weeks for our small businesses? Change this time into your chance to improve
your business productivity through some online activities! Here are some tips for your work online.
Prepare for incoming questions and requests
People
might be facing a lot of unexpected difficulties which could last longer than what
we originally anticipating. In this situation, small business owners shouldn’t panic
and must prepare for incoming questions and requests from clients. For
instance, the owner of a restaurant business adjust his business to now offer
delivery services and prepare for cancellation calls.
Create and organize your client email list
You probably haven’t
had enough time to create and organize your email list because of your busy
schedule, but this is a necessity for all business owners. Creating and organizing
email list helps you find out whom to send event information for your business
marketing. When you’re organizing the list you also need to segment it, consider
the type of customers you will communicate to like potential customers and
current clients.
Make a website or rebuild your business website
After this period,
you may not have the time to rebuild your business website. Take this chance to
improve it which you’ve been put off for a long time. If you still don’t have
your business website, I have some suggestions for website tools. Squarespace, Wix,
Bigcommerce, Weebly, and WordPress are well-known website builders and Google
my business also offers free website builder for small businesses.
Don’t be frustrated
by this global crisis that came from the virus. You can overcome this hard time
by improving your online work productivity!
Taxpayers have the option of choosing to deduct as costs of using their vehicle a standard mileage rate or the actual costs involved. The best approach is to be able to compute both and take the biggest deduction.
Beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:
• 57.5 cents per mile driven for business use, down one half of a cent from the rate for 2019,
• 17 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, down three cents from the rate for 2019, and
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations.
So for example if on 2019 a business used a car exclusively for business purposes and drove it 15,000 miles, with the following actual expenses: repairs and maintenance $50, gasoline $2,000, depreciation $3,000, insurance $1,500. Actual expenses total $6,550, and when compared to the standard mileage amount of $8,625 (15,000X0.575), the taxpayer may elect to take the higher deduction of $8,625.
f you ask entrepreneurs why they started their businesses, motives spread all over the place, from following passion and wanting to turn a hobby into a business; being personally unable to hold an office job and needing to be its own boss; all the way to just “I saw an opportunity”, “I saw a market”, “I saw room for improvement”. After this, conversations often go into the “I wish I knew” topic, and that’s where pain starts talking by itself. You will hear stories about sleepless nights trying to solve operational problems and lost business opportunities due to lack of experience or not knowing where to find an answer. Thus, it always helps to have resources to learn from and reach out to in times of trouble.
The learning chance that helps one become a better business owner often comes as a result of a previously failed business. When the business owner is busy putting out fires day and night, it is only after failure that one will take the time to do a postmortem and understand what went wrong. Thus, it is important to stay on your feet, listen to your business, and make timely changes if/when needed.
A quick google search will get you to hundreds of “10 things I wish I knew before starting a business”, “7 things to know before opening your business”, “5 things I learned from running a business” and similar results. Of course this experience will be very different for people running different businesses and with different lifestyles, but here is a list of selected quotes I found quite relevant for most entrepreneurs:
Running the business takes 24/7
The biggest difference between a 9-to-5 job and being a business owner is the total lack of a fixed schedule. There is always the possibility for your client to have an issue with your product at an inconvenient time, or a supplier to have trouble in the middle of the night. Consider these possibilities, have contingency plans to address your customer’s needs, and organize responsibilities among your employees to ensure resiliency.
Optimize, outsource and automate everything you can
We at EGBI take our time to explain “The Four Roles An Entrepreneur Must Take” (Product Manager, Organizer and Manager, Marketer and Salesperson, Financier), and we emphasize that the entrepreneur must focus on the roles he is best at. Start by wearing many hats, but as soon as you have some traction, consider the best use of your scarce time will rely on dedicating your full attention to what you’re best at and outsourcing or hiring for other activities.
A part-time gig gives peace of mind
Once you give up a regular full time job in place of a business, you will be subject to the whims of seasonality and economic ups and downs. You can plan for these risks either by building a strong savings lung, or having a part-time gig to supplement the varying income from the business. This resiliency will give you peace of mind.
At the beginning everyone is excited and ready to help. When help is needed, it’s hard to come by.
People want you to succeed, and as soon as you start will get excited for your success. However, not everyone is willing or available to help you when you’re in such need for help. What should you do? Find access to reliable resources to help you through the hard times, find mentors, find a business coach.
With all this in mind, you should now know that you will face unexpected challenges, and learn from every opportunity you have. These common challenges I mentioned are not the end of the world, and do not mean that running a business is impossible. Challenges and obstacles are there for you to improve yourself and your business, and once you get to such a point in your entrepreneurial adventure, you will be more than welcome at EGBI for training, coaching and support.
Learn how to promote your business to Spanish speaking consumers.
Celebrating success is our annual event, and we celebrate the achievements of our clients and their impact on the local economy. This year will be a special year for us as we celebrate our 15th anniversary with our vision that all businesses should be profitable, sustainable and assets to the community. We have been interviewing a client each week to share their success stories, with a total of 15 businesses. Veronica Trevisan is our last story as our event is this Friday!
Veronica Trevisan is owner of Napegados, a strategist with a proven special method to help Spanish speaking small business owners use social media and online tools. Her company also assist company’s wanting to reach Spanish speaking consumers, communicate with culturally relevant campaigns.
Below is a Question & Answer we recently had with Veronica Trevisan.
Q: How has your
career added value to your life? To the community around you?
A: I am independent of my own schedule. I can negotiate a contract and make my own decision. I teach my clients step by step through online videos that are practical.
Q: How long have you
been working with EGBI and how have they helped you?
A: I have been working with EGBI since 2011. I graduated from the EGBI business workshop series. I learned from Barbra and other experts. Also, I was encouraged to network with other great resources like the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce by Monica. I could get 1-year free membership from one of the chamber that support EGBI in their efforts. EGBI is always open to set up the appointments and help plan each business idea together.
Q: Tell us a fun fact about yourself.
A: I like to commute around the city with my green electric bike in my free time. I enjoy the weather in Austin. On my bike I am able to find beautiful places close to my home where I may never have realized was there in my car.
Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: My clients have a huge barrier to learn things in English. I train and teach clients in Spanish to remove language barriers for them. I solve the problem of their marketing problems and use technology to manage their business. Many of my clients have become my friends.
Veronica Trevisan is the last of the 15 clients we have shared stories about each week leading up to our 15 year celebration. If you would like to further encourage these businesses, think about using the products and services of our alumni. To do so, visit our CLIENT BUSINESS DIRECTORY.
Celebrating Success Luncheon is this Friday, September 6th, 2019. We are happy to announce it is SOLD OUT! If you have already reserved your seat and need more information about the event, please visit HERE.
