The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Business owners contend with threat, reality of coronavirus
NEW YORK » Rachel Sklar planned to go to the big South by Southwest film, media and music gathering in Austin, Texas, this month, but changed her mind as cases of coronavirus started appearing in the U.S. She was scheduled to speak at the annual event and expected to recruit new members for her businesswomen’s organization, TheLi.st.
“I’m less worried about getting sick than I am about getting stuck in Austin,
either by quarantine or, God forbid, things snowball and there is some sort of air travel freeze,” Sklar says. She’s concerned that either turn of events would prevent her from returning home to her nearly 5-yearold daughter in New York. Some hotels overseas went on lockdown after guests tested positive for the virus, and flights to some cities have been suspended because of widespread outbreaks.
Small businesses in the U.S. and other countries are dealing with the fallout or even just the possibility of the coronavirus. Owners are canceling or changing plans, arranging for staffers to work from home, even asking employees who have traveled to places with widespread outbreaks to stay home for as long as a month. Some manufacturers are stockpiling raw materials and components, and companies that depend on in-person interactions with customers are exploring Plan B — getting their work done via video.
Sklar is aware that at this point, there isn’t a widespread U.S. outbreak but “it’s not unreasonable to think that there are these possibilities.” She’ll try to attend sessions on video when South by Southwest begins, but she’ll lose out on chances to network.
Many owners whose companies’ work is done on computers and the internet are setting employees up to work from home. In New York, the 17 staffers at Lunchbox now must take their laptops and chargers home every night to ensure that they can continue working if there is a widespread outbreak in the city. CEO Nabeel Alamgir is