The impact of covid-19 on businesses and the livelihoods of many is unprecedented.

In some cases, it is forcing permanent closures as businesses cannot make ends

meet. 

Assignment 1 | Project Proposal

Community Engagement and Volunteering (S1)
By Haziq B. Hamzah. Section 1 students (B21301121)

1) Introduction
The reach of COVID-19 is vast, and its economic impact is dire. It’s
up to us to do whatever we can to help small businesses impacted by
COVID-19. Since Covid-19 has become a full blown pandemic,
unemployment rates have skyrocketed as business are forced to
shutter their doors for the sake of public health. It is certainly a
stressful time, especially for small business owners who have much
smaller coffers to sustain them. If you’ve checked your email
recently, you may have noticed all the businesses sending out
notifications letting their consumers know how they are trying to help.
It is admirable to see individuals and organizations coming together to
offer assistance to those in need
 2) Developing appropriate goals and objectives

-Volunteer on behalf of your company to do the out-and-about like

shopping or picking up prescriptions for at risk individuals in your
neighbourhood. Post on a community Facebook group or if you live
in an apartment building, help your direct neighbours by putting a
notice in the lobby. If you’re not able to brave the outdoors, but you
have a sewing machine, you can join the ranks of people making
homemade non-medical masks. They are easy to make, and a growing
number of hospitals are requesting them to help extend the life of
their N95 masks, which are in desperately limited supply.

-Take to social media & amplify messages.

Instead of spending your days listlessly scrolling, make an active
effort to follow and share the posts of companies you want to support.
Make a twitter list so that you can make this an ongoing effort.
Amplify messages from email business with minimal effort and
provide them with the most valuable advertising there is-word of–
mouth. If they’re running an awesome promotion to boost their sales,
retweet it to your followers. If you have loyal following, your social
media boosts can also add credibility to the company you’re vouching
for.

-Choose credits over refunds.

If covid-19 prevents a company from providing the product or
service you ordered, wherever possible, choose a credit rather than a
refund. With the economic hit of the pandemic on small business
owners and entrepreneurs, the distinction might be the difference
between them making rent this month or not
-Order (more) take out & delivery.
You may finally have time in quarantine to cook your own meals, but
don’t forget to consider the dire situations of your favourite
restaurants. Usually, restaurants only make a small amount of money
from take-out orders. However, with dine-in temporarily restricted in
most cities and towns, take-out and delivery have become most
restaurants’ sole sources of income. Order online and you can keep a
small business (sme) employed as well. Just make sure that you’re
tipping well. These people are working on the front lines of dealing
with a dangerous disease.

Promotional tool

-Use your expertise to help struggling business.

If you have the time and ability, consider using your skills to build an
ecommerce website for a brick-and-mortar business to move their
sales online. Or, if you’re an expert in enterprise and have strategies
that can help small businesses bounce back from the economic
upheaval of COVID-19, you’re in a unique position to offer tangibly
useful information to the companies that need it. For example, Ahrefs
is currently offering premium content for free – their
popular blogging for business course. If you don’t have a course
already built, put together a webinar filled with detailed, helpful
content that you’re uniquely qualified to teach. You can combine your
audience with someone who works in an adjacent position to make a
presentation that goes further.And if hosting a complete webinar on a
brand new topic is more than you can commit to right now, trying
making things simpler.
-Organize your expert friends to share knowledge

If you’re especially well-connected in your industry, you can go

beyond a webinar and organize a virtual summit. Gather experts and
offer free access to their presentations for 24 hours. After that, you
can host the content and charge a small fee that will not only add
value, but also help recoup any costs. Give your experts an affiliate
link so that they are incentivized to share it with their followers.
Whether you decide to organize a virtual summit stick to a simple
webinar, remember that the goal here is to serve, rather than profit.

-Offer free office hours

If you’re a business that is geared toward helping other businesses,

you can offer free consultations to small businesses that have been
impacted by the COVID-19. First, take the time to listen so that you
understand the current state of affairs and problems they’re
facing.Then, use your expertise to tell them how to generate more
leads, market their business on social media, or whatever your
company is best positioned to offer

-Research & recommending funding options

There are resources available for small businesses that are being hit
hard by the effects of COVID-19. You can do the leg work of
researching some of these options and sending whatever seems like a
good fit to relevant small businesses that you care about. Businesses
focused on the arts have quite a few relief fund set-up nationally and
locally. The Federal Reserve has also lowered interest rates and many
small businesses can take out loans to stay afloat. Then, there’s
the CARES Act, which can provide some relief for paying salaries,
rent, and other related expenses in the form of forgivable loans. On a
related note, if you have any experience in applying for loans, you can
directly help a small business owner do just that.
-Create a coronavirus resource centre

On the other side of the coin, small businesses should also do what
they can to efficiently help communicate the current state of affairs
with customers. Put together a page on your website that updates
users on the details of your business (adjusted hours or pricing) and
how you are helping (don’t forget to note covid-19 schedule
changes on Google My Business, as well). You can include articles
and resources that may be useful, including any grants or funding
opportunities you’ve found that are relevant to your audience. Make
sure the page is easy to find, and focused on being helpful. You can
also start a hashtag to direct users back to this page, like GoDaddy has
done with Open We Stand.

-Encourage your employees to buy from small business

If you are still fully operational, find ways to encourage your

employees to make purchases that support small businesses. Set up a
program that covers the cost of virtual classes for fitness or job
training. Mark Cuban (of Shark Tank) set up an employee rewards
fund that reimburses his employees when they make coffee or lunch
purchases from local, independent businesses. The key here is to
focus on getting dollars flowing to small businesses, rather than large
corporations that are better positioned to absorb the impact of the
pandemic economy.

-Adjust your method of support

Prior to COVID-19, most of us could easily support small businesses

by shopping local. But when “local” has come to mean your
apartment or house, you need to adjust. Instead of walking into a
store, get in contact online or by phone and see if you can arrange for
delivery or curbside pick-up.Rather than going straight to the
convenience of Amazon, consider what local businesses you can
contact for the same products
Conclusion

Small businesses are hurting the most. It’s up to us as a community to

do whatever we can to help our neighbours. Whether it’s with
monetary support, volunteering our talents, or even just ordering some
Chinese food from a local establishment, every bit counts. If we work
together, we can keep our bodies and our businesses healthy.