As this page is being created in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems appropriate to share some thoughts on how the pandemic is really affecting small businesses and why it is SO IMPORTANT to support small businesses more now than ever.

Float District, while certainly not alone, is one of those unfortunate new venture small businesses that had the unfortunate timing of opening right as the Covid-19 pandemic found its way to our shores. There has been lots of news about the various financial relief bills and all they were doing to help support small businesses. What most of those reports don’t tell you is that small businesses that were just opening their doors in early 2020 had virtually no hope of getting any access to any of the government relief programs. The PPP loans wanted to look back at 2019 (we weren’t open in 2019), the EIDL loans wanted to see a profitable business from prior years (hard to be profitable when you aren’t open).

These new small businesses, including Float District, are now experiencing not only the financial pressure of getting no small business relief funding, but the pressure of consumers who are, understandably, consciously restricting their activities for a multitude of reasons. Many businesses in the personal services sector are seeing new customer counts through their doors down as much a 70% compared to pre-Covid. Those same businesses, in an effort to keep new customers coming in, need to dramatically increase their marketing spend at a time when they can least afford it.

This is truly a time where the phase “We are all in this together” rings true. One of the single most important things each of us can do is to support our neighbors and their small businesses in every way you can. One significant way to help is by actively sharing what you can about those businesses. Post reviews for those business, not just on your favorite review site, but multiple sites like google; yelp and Facebook. Like their Facebook and Instagram and other media pages. Actively follow them and share their posts with your friends. While these may seem like small gestures, they can have a huge impact on small businesses (particularly very new small businesses). Thank you for any and all support you can provide us and other small businesses. We certainly plan to be here taking care of you well after Covid is a distant memory, but we can’t do it without your help.