PAY NOW

Hi, Corporations, Associations, and Big Organizations,

We know that these are completely uncertain times and that the immediate reaction has been to literally stop everything. We know that you and your shareholders and stakeholders are probably going to get hit hard due to coronavirus and it’s wide-ranging economic impact.

We do understand that you have had to cancel events and projects for the sake of public safety and that it is literally impossible to make any mid to long term plans right now.

And, even with all of that being true, we are still asking you to #buyfromsmallbusiness.

The size of your budgets is such that you could literally change the lives of a handful of small business owners and it would barely show up on your P&L. You could help 5 small business owners survive an extra month of expenses for the price of your next business class flight. That is how big a difference you could make in exchange for such minimal effort and impact on your organization.

We are asking every large organization to hire 5 small business owners and pay them each $10,000 to be used at a future date. Some ideas for that spend:

• Hire an event planner for a future event;
• Hire a caterer for a future corporate luncheon;
• Hire a small IT company for a future IT project;
• Hire a branding agency for a future product launch or project;
• Hire a video production company for a future marketing campaign;
• Hire a maker for the next time you send out corporate gifts;
• Pay a small restaurant for a holiday party or corporate event sure to happen in the future.

We know what you are thinking.

“What if it takes months before we need these services? This isn’t necessarily a smart investment.”

Your big organization will survive this. You will have events and luncheons and launches and holiday parties again.  But if we don’t keep spending money with small businesses right now they won’t make it.

We are guessing you are also thinking, “What if I pay these small businesses and they don’t make it through the crisis and I lose the $10,000? My boss won’t approve this spend because it is too risky.”

That is a possibility. But what would happen if you told your boss that you would be willing to sacrifice one business class flight in the future for every one of those $10,000 spends that don’t come to fruition? Best case you save 5 small businesses right now and you keep your business class flights. Worst case you give 5 small businesses a fighting chance and you have to fly economy a few times.

This is a moment where we need everyone to think as a collective. In 2008 we bailed out Wall Street and big corporations. In 2020 we need to bail out Main Street and we need every single person to do their part.

Please help and pay now.