©2020 Saratoga Photographer.com
By Andrea Harwood Palmer
In response to the mandated shutting down of all non-essential businesses, six Saratoga organizations have collaborated to form a task force.
The group is comprised of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, the Saratoga Economic Development Corp. (SEDC), the Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership, Discover Saratoga, Saratoga Springs City Center and the Saratoga Springs Downtown Business Association.
“The first thing we did on March 13, as it was becoming crystal clear that the world was about to change, was start a collaborative conversation. All of us have formed a partnership to get Saratoga County through this,” said Todd Shimkus, Chamber president.
“We agreed on a division of labor and a variety of programs we would each undertake. The underlying message we wanted to get out was that if you called any one of the six organizations, we were all coming to help,” said Shimkus.
In the first few weeks of working together, the task force did a survey of businesses for the purpose of having an economic impact assessment.
“It gave us a snapshot of the immediate impact of the shutdown of all non-essential businesses,” said Shimkus.
“The second thing we did was partner with Star Radio. We did a three-hour community broadcast with local educators, healthcare folks, local officials and all of our organizations, to answer people’s questions and let them know what we could do to help,” he said.
The chamber started sending daily update emails to every business and nonprofit within their database, regardless of membership. Over 10,000 recipients are on the list. They are sent information on the latest developments and recommendations for additional resources, loans, unemployment information, HR and legal issues.
“All of our groups agreed that we didn’t care if you were a member or not, an investor or not. If your business or nonprofit was in Saratoga County, we were going to help. A piece of that was communicating with everybody,” said Shimkus.
“We also created a Saratoga County take-out program, to promote the 130 or so businesses and restaurants that are doing take-out across Saratoga County. Our website page for takeout alone had 31,000 unique views in the first two weeks. Our social media pages have had tens of thousands of unique views for that promotion,” said Shimkus.
In late March, the chamber created a Saratoga County online gift card platform at www.saratoga.org. Nearly 100 businesses are linked on the page, offering gift cards online.
“We’ve offered to host Zoom meet-ups for different groups. We did a meet-up with Elise Stefanik a week ago. We did one for businesses in Ballston Spa, Schuylerville, Malta, Burnt Hills and Ballston Lake. One for our Veterans Council. A bunch more,” said Shimkus.
Collectively, the task force has identified companies that are hiring. Over two dozen companies are hiring in Saratoga County. The chamber has been promoting those job opportunities with instructions on how to apply, since people are unable to drop in in-person.
Additionally, the Chamber reached out to nonprofits in the community, and created a page to list what those organizations needed.
“We’ve worked with Saratoga County and Saratoga Hospital to encourage our members to make donations of gloves, masks, robes, and if they can, to transition their manufacturing into producing those items as well as hand sanitizer. We’ve had quite a bit of luck to get local companies to make those transformations to serve our local community,” he said.
“We understand that firms that are most at-risk for not being able to reopen, or succeed in the long term, are the small, locally owned businesses. We’re in the process of identifying every potential resource we can to help them and their employees get back up and running as soon as they’re allowed to reopen,” said Shimkus.
“The Chamber serves as Saratoga County’s tourism promotion agency. Our job is to promote Saratoga County as a great place to visit,” he said. “Discover Saratoga promotes Saratoga County as a great place for meetings, weddings, conferences and other groups. Our teams are now re-imagining our entire marketing approach now. It will focus not only on how much fun it is to come to Saratoga, but how it’s fun and safe and healthy to do so.
“It’s one of those times when we need to rethink how we promote ourselves. If we can get the hotels back open and attract people to stay here, they’re also going to dine here and shop here. That will help everyone.”
Allyssa Wanser, SEDC investment development director, has been working with people one-on-one.
“At the SEDC, we are contacting our members and investors individually. Everyone has a different situation,” she said. “We’re connecting them with other members and investors who can help them with a free service or consultation—whatever we have to do help people get in the right mindset, to keep them from panicking. We want to help them make good decisions in the moment.”
She said a lot of businesses are benefiting from putting together a 13-week cash flow statement, “to help them take a realistic look at what the next few months look like for them, and what the best decisions are for them to make. We have businesses helping them do that, as a free service,” said Wanser.
Shelby Schneider, president of the Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership, said, “We are here to ensure that people who are making public policy decisions know what is going on on Main Street USA. Our businesses need to understand what tools and resources are out there, how they work, and how long it will take for support to come home to those who need it most.”
She said the agency partnership “ensures we are speaking with one voice, in collaboration, to ensure our business community has the most current, accurate information and resources to navigate through this uncertain and difficult time. Society may be on pause but we are planning for economic recovery now and we are all in this together.”
“The number-one message is that you can call any one of us, if you have any need or any idea. We all collectively have the capacity to get things done,” said Shimkus. “I can’t wait for us to move into a recovery plan with all six of us working together.”