Tag: coronavirus

5 COVID-19 resources for San Diego small businesses – April 2021

By Heather Dewis,

Note: San Diego County is currently in the state’s Orange Tier, which increases indoor restaurant capacity to 50 percent, increases indoor gym and brewery capacity to 25 percent, and removes retail capacity limits. California plans to eliminate the tier system on June 15 if current trends continue—more updates and resources to come.

With continued changes to COVID-19 relief programs, it can be challenging to sift through what’s available. Below, EDC has outlined new and ongoing business resources available in April 2021 as your small business or manufacturer navigates the impacts of COVID-19.

1. Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG)

Open NOW: Via SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance, the SVOG will distribute $16 billion in grants first come, first served to venues closed due to COVID-19. Apply now.

  • Award: Grant of 45 percent of gross earned revenue up to $10 million, with $2 billion reserved for applicants with up to 50 full-time employees
  • Application period: Today (April 26) until funds are depleted
  • Who’s eligible? Live venue operators/promoters, theatrical producers, live performing arts organization operators, relevant museum operators, zoos, and aquariums, motion picture theater operators, talent representatives, and more
  • Applicants must not have applied for or received a PPP loan on or after December 27, 2020

2. California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program

On April 28, the State of California will open a final round for its California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program. Prepare to apply.

  • Award: Grant of $5,000 to $25,000 per business
  • Application period: April 28 to May 4
  • Who’s eligible? Small businesses or nonprofits with yearly gross revenue of $2.5 million or less
  • Awards are needs-based, not first-come, first-served
  • Those who submitted their application and all documentation in earlier rounds do not need to reapply

Watch San Diego and Imperial Small Business Development Center’s on-demand webinars or contact EDC to learn more.

3. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

PPP loans are designed as direct incentives for small businesses to keep workers on payroll. Both first and second-time borrowers may apply for a loan, with priority to companies that haven’t received a first loan and those in heavily impacted sectors.

For all PPP applications

  • Application period: Ongoing through May 31, 2021
  • PPP loans are nontaxable and will be forgivable if employee retention criteria is met
  • Companies may receive both a PPP loan and EIDL loan without compromising PPP forgiveness

First Draw PPP

  • Award: Loan size dependent on business, with a 1 percent interest rate
  • Who’s eligible? Small businesses that meet SBA’s size standards, businesses with fewer than 500 employees or meet SBA’s industry size standards, or businesses with a NAICS code beginning with 72 with more than one physical location and fewer than 500 employees per location

Second Draw PPP

  • Award: Loan of up to $2 million with a 1 percent interest rate
  • Who’s eligible? Businesses above that have previously received a First Draw PPP loan and will or have used the full amount only for authorized uses, have no more than 300 employees, and can demonstrate at least a 25 percent reduction in gross receipts between comparable quarters in 2019 and 2020

Get expert help applying at no cost: 
Contact our team via the San Diego Small Business Development Center.

4. Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL)

EIDLs are available to businesses, private non-profits, homeowners, and renters who have been negatively impacted by COVID-19. Apply now.

  • Award: Loan up to $500,000 with 24 months of economic injury
  • Application period: Ongoing
  • Who’s eligible? Small business owners, qualified agricultural businesses, agricultural businesses with 500 or fewer employees, agricultural businesses engaged in food and fiber production, ranching, and raising of livestock, aquaculture, and more

5. Targeted EIDL Advance

Businesses and non-profit organizations that received a previous EIDL Advance in an amount less than $10,000 will have first priority to apply for the Targeted EIDL Advance. The SBA may reach out directly to you via email with instructions to determine eligibility and invite you to apply.

  • Award: Grant amount dependent on business
  • Application period: Ongoing
  • Who’s eligible? Non-farm businesses with 300 or fewer employees, that are located in federally identified low-income communities, and can demonstrate a reduction in revenue of more than 30 percent during an eight week period beginning on or after March 2, 2020
  • All communications from SBA will be sent from an official government email with an @sba.gov ending

EDC is here to help. Request our help finding resources, applying to relief programs, and more, at no charge.

Request EDC assistance

 

For more COVID-19 recovery resources and information, please visit this page, or see how we can help your company free of charge.

 

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San Diego Science & the Global Pandemic: A Recap

By Taylor Dunne,

San Diego Science & the Global Pandemic: a Recap

In August, San Diego: Life. Changing., a program of San Diego Regional EDC, wrapped up a series of virtual events highlighting the innovation economy and spirit of collaboration that exist in San Diego. The series looked at how the life sciences industry is playing a role in shaping the pandemic, and life after the pandemic, for our region.

The series kicked off in May through a partnership with Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., featuring a research institution searching for a vaccine, a therapeutics company working on a treatment, and a med-tech company developing ventilators and other devices to aid in COVID-19 treatment. The expert panel included Dr. Sumit Chanda, professor and director at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute; Joseph E. Payne, president and CEO of Arcturus Therapeutics; and John Stevens, VP of IT at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

San Diego: where collaboration happens.

The scientists that participated in the first webinar agreed that the collaborative spirit of San Diego is what makes the life-changing work that happens here possible. Dr. Chanda stated:

“I don’t know if it’s the weather or the synergy, but the partnerships that happen here don’t happen anywhere else. We are working with Scripps, UC San Diego, and a number of local companies across different disciplines.”

Stevens agreed, in saying: “The partnerships are really important – different companies with everyone working together is truly how we’re going to combat this going forward.”[Thermo Fisher] has leveraged a lot of great relationships in the San Diego area. New partnerships come in every day, and I think it’s important to keep working together as one team.”

Then, in June, EDC partnered with investor Illumina to have genomics experts weigh in on the pandemic. We were joined by Gary Schroth, distinguished scientist and Vice President at Illumina, and James Lu, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Helix. Gary and James helped us untangle the complicated world of DNA and understand how next-generation genome sequencing is helping scientists understand the intricacies of COVID-19.

Still hiring!

In July, we took a break from the scientists and heard from some of San Diego’s top hiring professionals as they shared pro tips for finding new career opportunities during the global pandemic. Jessica Serrano, Sr. Director of Talent Acquisition and Talent Systems at Lytx; Chris Shoemaker, Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at MindTouch; and Lee Wills, Head of Talent Acquisition and Employee Engagement for Sony North America shared their recommendations for finding and starting a new job while navigating this new remote-first environment. All three of these companies, and so many others, are still hiring for positions that could lead to a meaningful career in San Diego.

See the recorded event here

Stay inspired, San Diego.

Finally, with the help of trusted investor West Health, we wrapped the San Diego Science & the Global Pandemic webinar series up with a look at what he region is doing to ensure our senior population is receiving the care they deserve in a safe and accessible way as they continue to be among the most vulnerable to COVID-19. Moderated by Dr. Zia Agha, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of West Health, the conversation hit on the most important topics from food security for older adults, to dental care, to healthcare policies that will ensure long term success…as well as what WE can do to help the seniors in our community.

See the recorded event here

If you were able to tune in to our series, we hope that it provided you with some insight on the ongoing and impactful efforts of some of San Diego’s brightest, in a time in our world when we need it most. As always, San Diego steps up to change lives.

4 resources for San Diego small businesses – May 21, 2020

By Heather Dewis,

With so many relief and recovery programs launching every day, it can be difficult to figure out which ones your business should prioritize. In addition to financial resources for San Diego businesses and residents that we’ve compiled here, here are four recovery resources you should know about. 

1. Connect with your customers online via GoSite

Local digital software suite provider GoSite is helping small businesses connect with their customers online with a free website and payment method. Click here to learn more.

2. Reopening guides for San Diego’s restaurants, retailers, & small businesses

San Diego Regional EDC convened a broad coalition to develop step-by-step guides to help local businesses reopen. These guides have been tested in focus groups, and align with local, state and national guidance. EDC recognizes that in order to get to a point where reopening guides such as these are useful, other issues, like childcare, must be addressed first. Download your guide here.

3. SDGE late payment fee waivers

SDG&E will waive late payment fees for business customers whose finances have been hit hard. The company also urges customers who are struggling to pay their utility bill due to financial hardships stemming from the coronavirus to call its Customer Contact Center at 1-800-411-7343 to make payment arrangements. Click here to learn more.

4. Rady School business recovery coalition

The Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego will help businesses in the San Diego region navigate the unprecedented challenges faced by COVID-19. Drawing on expertise from the UC San Diego community, Rady will provide immediate pro bono assistance to businesses, including PPP loan forgiveness application templates, risk evaluation, and other guidance. Apply here.

For more COVID-19 recovery resources and information, please visit this page.

Regardless of how this all plays out, EDC is here to help. You can use the button below to request our assistance with finding information, applying to relief programs, and more.

Request EDC assistance

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Mark Cafferty: Recovery through an inclusive lens

By Mark Cafferty,

This column originally ran in the San Diego Business Journal on May 17, 2020:

I hope this message continues to find you and your families healthy and safe. Our team at EDC continues to work from home and we are focusing all of our time and energy on helping local small businesses get connected to the resources and services they need during these confusing and challenging times.

Over the last several weeks, I had the opportunity to serve on the RECOVER economic recovery advisory group formed by County Supervisor Greg Cox and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. The group was brought together to form a regional plan for reopening businesses and setting up appropriate communication channels with the business community. The group was comprised of several chambers of commerce, business and trade associations, economic development organizations, and education and labor groups. The hope going forward is that our collective reach will continue to provide our local government officials with quick and accurate feedback from a broad section of our business community as we navigate the various stages of economic recovery.  The guidelines that the group developed are posted here and can also be found on the City and County’s websites.

In a closing memo that I wrote to Mayor Faulconer and Supervisor Cox, I urged the City and the County—and all advisory group members—to continue to host and maintain similar discussions for regional businesses focused on childcare and the reopening of schools.

Clearly, a large segment of our workforce will not be able to return to employment with any level of normalcy while their children are still home with no prospect of school, summer school/camps, and childcare. Our partners at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and San Diego Workforce Partnership have already been focused heavily on childcare over the last few years. They are continuing the difficult job of working with childcare providers and businesses to ensure that we are not having these conversations or planning in vacuums.

Our team at EDC and more than 30 community partners have spent the last two years trying to create inclusive economic development strategies to ensure that more of our community members can thrive within our local economy. One of our three pillars has been addressing the growing educational achievement gap. We have been working to ensure that businesses are more engaged with this issue. Now more than ever, we feel that getting business and education leaders together to think through how we effectively reopen our schools and support each other through the difficult months ahead is one of the most critical issues we face. Our team at EDC will do everything we possibly can to continue to facilitate these discussions, push for solutions and set up communication systems to help maintain ongoing progress and success to ensure that we phase back into work-based and school-based activities in a coordinated fashion.

And finally, the impacts of this horrific healthcare and economic crisis have not hit our community (or our nation) evenly. African American, Asian, and Latino communities have been disproportionately impacted by the virus, and they have also been disproportionately impacted by the layoffs, business closures, school closures, and economic challenges our advisory group focused on. The locally-owned hospitality, retail, and restaurants have clearly been hit the hardest. Small and minority-owned businesses are in the most need of financial support and will continue to need our attention, our resources, and our services as we work our way through recovery. I urged the Mayor, City Council, and County Board of Supervisors—regardless of political party affiliation and the various segments of our community that they represent—to be visibly united in ensuring that our economic recovery remains focused on the individuals, businesses, communities, and sectors of our economy that have been hardest hit.

I closed my memo by indicating that San Diego Regional EDC remains fully committed to ensuring that all of our resources, energy, and programs are focused on the unique challenges and opportunities of the economic recovery that lie ahead of us. I want to restate that commitment to all of you as well. We have to get this right.

A Record-Setting Jobs Report

Incoming data confirmed what most of us already knew: The U.S. economy lost a record number of jobs in April. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the economy shed 20.5 million payroll jobs, lifting the unemployment rate to 14.7%, a rate unseen since the Great Depression. Job losses were spread across every industry, but cuts were especially severe in leisure & hospitality, which gave up some 7.7 million positions.

The BLS data are roughly consistent with payroll processor ADP’s employment report that shows 20.2 million job losses at private companies last month. Similar to the BLS, ADP reported that cuts were heavily concentrated in leisure & hospitality. ADP also measured employment changes across different firm sizes, and showed that companies employing fewer than 50 workers let go of 6 million workers in April.

What The U.S. Numbers Could Mean Locally

The crater in small business employment across the U.S. last month could portend an especially bad jobs report locally. Businesses with fewer than 50 workers employ 45% of San Diegans, compared with just 29% nationally. Job losses on the scale of the national figure would imply roughly 120,000 fewer payrolls at San Diego small businesses in April alone, roughly the same number of jobs lost across businesses of all sizes between December 2007 and January 2010 during the last recession.

Cutting the data across industries is equally disarming. Accommodation & food service companies employ about one in every 10 local workers. Both the BLS and ADP reports show that hospitality businesses essentially halved their staffs last month; a similar contraction in San Diego would translate to about 85,000 to 90,000 lost jobs. However, San Diego hospitality employment has historically been more sensitive to downturns than nationally, meaning as many as 120,000, or nearly two in three, hospitality workers may have potentially been put out of work.

Retail employment is also touchier to fluctuations in the local economy than it is nationally. San Diego retailers may have eliminated more than 25,000 payrolls based on the 2.1 million jobs cut across the U.S. last month.

The damage doesn’t end with hospitality and retail, although losses in other industries are not nearly on the same scale. The BLS reported 980,000 public sector job cuts, and local government, which employs public school teachers, accounted for 801,000 of those. Another industry with a large local footprint—professional and technical services—gave up 520,700 positions nationally. Together, an additional loss of around 15,000 local payrolls from these two sectors could be reasonably estimated based on historical relationships between local and national employment changes.

All in, San Diego is looking at a potential loss of about 230,000 jobs in April if history serves. This would be nearly double the losses suffered during the 2008-2009 crisis and could potentially bring the unemployment rate up to a range as high as 18% to 20%. The official April jobs numbers for San Diego will be reported on Friday, May 22.

Several points bear mentioning: First, the above discussion is only meant to provide a sense of scale around local job market impacts if similar dynamics seen in the national employment report were to play out here. Second, no sector or cluster is immune to downturns. So, while government and professional services haven’t yet experienced losses on the scale of accommodation & food services, there’s always a chance that the effects of COVID-19 could ripple out into these industries. Finally, while it may be encouraging that higher-paying professional and government positions haven’t given as much ground as lower-paying ones, the disproportionate pain experienced by the most vulnerable workers should give us pause.

The coming recovery presents an opportunity to establish career development programs designed to connect lower-paid workers with jobs in industries that are struggling to attract talent. EDC’s Advancing San Diego program – which is currently recruiting local educational providers that develop skilled engineering talent – is helping San Diego inch closer to its goal of producing 20k additional skilled workers per year.  Programs like this are a win-win situation that promises a brighter future for thousands of San Diegans and a more resilient economy that could better weather future downturns.

COVID-19 RECOVERY RESOURCES

As a partner of the local San Diego and Imperial Small Business Development Center, EDC is working directly with small businesses  – free of charge – to counsel them on accessing COVID-19 recovery resources.

Request EDC assistance

For general COVID-19 recovery resources and information, please view this page.

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3 resources for San Diego businesses  – May 7, 2020

By Heather Dewis,

Our team has compiled COVID-19 resources to provide guidance and support for San Diego businesses and residents. Here are three financing programs you should know about. 

1. Main St. Matters Grant

Better Business Bureau Serving the Pacific Southwest is offering grants to businesses that have not received any other emergency funding. Businesses must be in good standing with BBB, upholding their standards for trust, and be located in the Pacific Southwest Region. Watch this short video for more information.

2. Women’s Empowerment Loan Fund (WELF)

San Diego Grantmakers and the International Rescue Committee have created a loan that provides low cost financing to women-owned businesses in San Diego. In addition to the loans, which will range from $5,000 – $25,000, the program includes resources such as expert coaching and assistance from the International Rescue Committee.

3. Salesforce Care Small Business Grants

Salesforce and Ureeka are offering $10,000 grants to 300 small businesses. Businesses must be for-profit companies, have between 2 and 50 employees, have been in business for 2 full years, have an annual revenue of between $250K and $2 million, and have experience challenges as a result of COVID-19.

For more COVID-19 recovery resources and information, please visit this page.

Regardless of how this all plays out, EDC is here to help. You can use the button below to request our assistance with finding information, applying to relief programs, and more.

Request EDC assistance

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3 resources for San Diego businesses – April 30, 2020

By Heather Dewis,

Our team has compiled COVID-19 resources to provide guidance and support for San Diego businesses and residents. Here are three programs providing small businesses relief in the form of loans and grants. 

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

Part of the recently passed stimulus package, the $349 billion U.S. Small Business Administration program will provide partially forgivable, low-interest loans to businesses with 500 employees or fewer. Loans can be used to offset operating costs including payroll, retirement benefits, mortgage/rent, and utilities. If used for allowable costs only, and if the company maintains the same number of employees, 8 weeks of operating costs can be forgiven. Companies are encouraged to apply through their existing SBA Lender. Please reference this guide and checklist for more information.

Loan Program for Unincorporated Areas

The County of San Diego is developing a loan program for small businesses in unincorporated areas that have suffered financially as a result of COVID-19. The program will give $5 million in loans and will be overseen by the San Diego Foundation. Applications for the loan are not yet open, please check back for updates.

LISC and US Bank Foundation Business Improvement Grants

San Diego is one of five cities nationwide to benefit from a $500,000 donation from U.S. Bank to our local LISC. The money is to be distributed to small businesses in underserved communities facing financial pressure due to COVID-19 in the form of $5,000 grants.

For more COVID-19 recovery resources and information, please visit this page.

Regardless of how this all plays out, EDC is here to help. You can use the button below to request our assistance with finding information, applying to relief programs, and more.

Request EDC assistance

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Mark Cafferty, Jerry Sanders: Recovery and Resiliency (Not Reopening)

By Mark Cafferty, Jerry Sanders,

Originally published on April 19 in the San Diego Business Journal, this excerpt is from the latest of EDC President and CEO Mark Cafferty’s weekly columns:

As we all settle in to the unfamiliar business and personal routines that have filled our days over the last several weeks, there is a lot of talk about “reopening” the economy. At the Chamber & EDC, our time is still being spent in daylong conversations with businesses—large and small—who are still in survival mode, trying to get money in the bank from various federal programs to help them keep their doors open, keep their team members employed, and bridge a gap from now until whenever some level of normalcy returns to their lives. If economic recovery was as simple as reopening something, we all would have (re)opened it by now.

The level of thoughtfulness, informed critical thinking, and step-by-step collaboration with public health officials that will need to go into the decision-making processes in front of us will be like nothing we have ever been a part of. Reopening businesses and generating near-term and long-term economic redevelopment strategies will be difficult and complex, and the level of urgency surrounding all of this could not be higher.

However, the unprecedented collaboration that is currently going into communicating with our political and healthcare leaders, sharing data and information across business groups and associations, and providing direct services to thousands of impacted businesses will position us well to generate the plans, steps, processes and communications strategies that will guide our businesses and economy into long-term recovery. This work and these relationships must ensure that as we work our way through this recovery, we create an economy that is more resilient and that works for more of our residents.

In the weeks ahead, we will share information on new task forces and working groups that will help in this ongoing and fluid process. Much of that work will be based on the information we have gathered from our ongoing business surveys with our partners, which we have shared with you below.

COVID-19 Impact Survey

Revenue impacts continue, but most firms favor temporary shutdowns over permanent closures.

In order to assess immediate economic impacts and understand the evolving business sentiment surrounding COVID-19, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and San Diego Regional EDC, in partnership with San Diego and Imperial Small Business Development Center, Downtown San Diego Partnership and National City Chamber of Commerce, developed a survey.

Three trends stood out based on what employers told us during the first four weeks of surveying. These findings are based on responses from 692 companies across the San Diego region.

Temporary Shutdowns Increasing

Only about 1% of survey respondents have permanently closed their business, but 42% have temporarily shut down operations. This is encouraging, since the number of local business closures could have a direct bearing on the pace of recovery once the COVID crisis subsides. Businesses that have permanently closed their doors are in a range of industries, including biotech and pharmaceuticals, cleantech, food and beverage, manufacturing, professional services, and retail.

Expect Revenue Impacts to Continue

The industries in San Diego most vulnerable to the effects of policies aimed at containing the spread of the virus include arts and entertainment, food and beverage, retail, and tourism. Compared to when the survey began in mid-March, more firms in these industries increasingly expect revenue impacts to occur over the next 1-3 months, rather than immediately. The perception by business owners that the economic and financial pain of the crisis could last longer than initially expected will likely be reflected as an effective moratorium on business investment and hiring in the near term.

Financial Assistance and Access to Capital

Compared to earlier survey results, more businesses are expressing interest in financing and capital to cope with the massive revenue shortfalls associated with COVID-19.

For an interactive visualization of survey responses, please visit: https://www.sandiegobusiness.org/research/covid-19-survey-results/

‘Still Hiring’ list connects local job seekers to new opportunities

By Heather Dewis,

Over the past few weeks, it’s fair to say that our world (and community) have been turned upside down. Given the current circumstances, we know there are many San Diego job seekers on the market. And while things are changing rapidly, we are still getting calls from companies that are hiring and VCs that are still looking to invest.

The solution:

Over the last week, EDC’s San Diego: Life. Changing. program partnered with Startup San Diego and Connect to help our local job seekers connect with all of the San Diego tech and life sciences companies that are still hiring.

The result: a growing, “live” list of more than 25 companies that are still looking for innovative San Diegans to fill open positions. The list is updated almost daily with new companies and to ensure the most current news, company representatives themselves submit hiring information. With open opportunities at tech giants like Qualcomm, life sciences teams like BD, and even nonprofits and startups, we’re hopeful our community will quickly find exciting new positions working on homegrown innovations.

Click here or scroll down to see the live list of San Diego companies that are hiring. And if your company is still hiring, we encourage your team to use this form to provide our San Diego community with additional details. It takes under a minute to pay it forward – and help someone in our community find their next opportunity.

We’re in this together, San Diego. #SDtogether

Hiring in San Diego:

 

 

Mark Cafferty: How EDC is helping local companies connect and pivot

By Heather Dewis,

Originally published on April 12 in the San Diego Business Journal, this excerpt is from the latest of EDC President and CEO Mark Cafferty’s weekly columns:

Our team has responded to more than 360 companies in the last three weeks, and we have been actively working to connect them to the right services and resources and to help them better understand the various programs that are being expanded, created and updated on a daily basis. As a comparison, in a typical year, the EDC team works on about 150-180 business projects. As you can see, we have doubled that number in just a few weeks and are only working with a fraction of the businesses in need of support at this time.

While recent events have forced us to think and work differently, I truly believe that when the programs we are delivering to the community are important and valuable, we need to find more creative ways to keep them going. One program that exemplifies this kind of pivot for EDC is Advancing San Diego. Thanks to a grant from JP Morgan Chase, EDC and regional partners have launched a program that drives economic inclusion by addressing talent shortages. We had always thought that a critical part of this program would be creating a series of new paid STEM internships within our small businesses. So our team has flipped the traditional workforce development model on its head: employers tell us the skills they need, we identify the educational programs – Preferred Providers – that do the best job providing the identified skills, and then we use Advancing San Diego funds to create pathways for San Diegans into quality jobs in the companies that need them most. And the companies that need talent the most right now are our small businesses.

Read the full column on San Diego Business Journal’s website.

San Diego Regional EDC: Message from Mark Cafferty – April 5

By Mark Cafferty,

Originally published on April 5 in the San Diego Business Journal, this is the latest of EDC President and CEO Mark Cafferty’s weekly columns:

Once again, I hope this message finds all of you healthy and safe. With each passing day, our team at San Diego Regional EDC is adjusting and repurposing our work to address the new normals (short-term and long-term) that our businesses are trying to deal with. While we are all facing significant challenges, it has been both amazing and inspiring to see how local companies have mobilized, adapted and pivoted to play critical roles in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and response.

As some of you know, I have been asked to write a weekly column to provide resources and information to the business community as things continue to move and change around us. As an important supporter and investor in our work, I wanted to make sure you had a preview of this information. You will begin to get updates from me every Thursday and see a similar version of these updates in the San Diego Business Journal the following Monday.

Stepping Up and Doubling-Down

In the City of San Diego, Mayor Faulconer has urged companies to pivot and expand their operations to support the COVID-19 response efforts. Other city leaders, from Chula Vista to San Marcos, have followed suit.

From their unique local, national and global perspectives, here are just a few of the ways in which San Diego companies are stepping up and pivoting operations to respond:

• ResMed – ResMed is best known for creating medical technology to address sleep apnea and other breathing/respiratory illnesses. The company also produces and manufactures respirators and ventilators for hospital and home use. ResMed is now looking to pivot some of its production capacity away from sleep apnea devices to the much-needed ventilators, which will triple the number of ventilators that the company produces.

• Cutwater Spirits – Cutwater Spirits, which was originally started by the team at Ballast Point, has already begun retooling operations to make badly-needed hand sanitizer. Other local distilleries, including Misadventure Vodka and Seven Caves, are also retooling to help provide this essential resource for medical facilities and homes.

• Orucase – Orucase, a San Diego manufacturer of cycling travel bags and accessories, has started adapting its production lines to manufacture face masks. The company has the capacity to make 500,000 a week and plans to begin shipping immediately. Additionally, Orucase is in the process of securing materials to make medical-grade masks for healthcare workers.

• Cubic – Cubic is leveraging technology through its Cubic Mission Solutions division to create a prototype ventilator. The San Diego-based company is partnering with the University of Alabama’s Nursing program to test and refine this ventilator.

• Flexsystems – El Cajon-based manufacturer Flexsystems has also changed its operations to focus on manufacturing fabric masks and splash guards.

As I mentioned in last week’s column, we are continuing to see many local life sciences companies explore and uncover potential solutions, vaccines and cures. In addition to Thermo Fisher Scientific and others, this past week has brought announcements of other local companies that are stepping up in a big way–many of them are startups and small businesses themselves. San Diego-based startup Cue Health has won a $13 million federal contract to speed up the development of testing. LunaDNA, a local startup that allows individuals to share and control their health and genomic data, is already thinking long term. The company is collecting real-world information by asking individuals to anonymously report how they are either living with or living in the times of COVID-19. This information will help scientists and researchers better understand long-term health impacts, and potentially, even lead to a cure.

A San Diego Marketplace

While many companies are stepping up to help, there are several healthcare organizations on the front lines of this effort that still desperately need resources and supplies. To that end, EDC is supporting the efforts of our partners at Biocom (San Diego and California’s largest biotech and life sciences industry association) to create an online marketplace for critical items. If your company is producing something in the COVID-19 supply chain and is looking for a buyer, or if you are looking to pivot operations and needs crucial materials to do so, this new online marketplace can be accessed at www.biocom.org/coronavirus/partnering-opportunities/

How Business Are Really Doing

Along with our partners at San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce & San Diego and Imperial Small Business Development Center, we have deployed a survey to assess immediate economic impacts and understand the evolving business sentiment. We plan to keep this open for the foreseeable future and chart how responses change over time.

The first two weeks of data we analyzed is from 642 employers, representing 87,824 jobs. More than 86 percent of businesses that have responded expect to see revenue losses, and not surprisingly, our small businesses are expecting higher losses than the larger business respondents.

We have seen that many businesses have already had to lay off workers and most survey respondents sighted access to financing/capital as one of their most pressing business concerns.

In the weeks ahead, EDC and our partners will continue to share a weekly analysis of what we are learning and seeing through the business survey and designing new strategies and programs to address the changing and evolving business needs.

For up-to-date analysis and interactive dashboard of the data, please visit www.sandiegobusiness.org/research/covid-19-survey-results/

If you have not yet taken the survey, you can find it here: www.sandiegobusiness.org/blog/we-need-your-help-understanding-the-impact-of-covid-19-in-san-diego/

We will also continuously update our resource guide online (www.sandiegobusiness.org/coronavirus/) to provide the most timely information on where businesses can access reliable resources and support at this time.

The weeks and months ahead are going to continue to be challenging, uncharted, and in many cases, heartbreaking. Be patient with and supportive of your business partners, colleagues, contractors and associates. We are all in this together and we are all trying to figure things out together. Our team will continue to share with you everything that we believe can be valuable and helpful during these times and we will work hard to pass along everything new that we are analyzing and learning along the way.

Communication, connectedness, collaboration and generosity are hallmarks of our business community. They aren’t just pleasant words and aspirations. They are the core values that make us resilient and strong. None of that changes during times of social distancing and crisis.

Stay healthy, stay safe, (stay home), and stay strong.