Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Well, a survey done in April
Speaker 1: of eighty six thousand business owners and employees by Facebook.
Speaker 1: It was done with the Small Business Roundtable. Well, it
Speaker 1: found that one third of US small businesses have stopped operating,
Speaker 1: while another eleven percent expect to fail in the next
Speaker 1: three months if COVID nineteen conditions persist. These are devastating statistics.
Speaker 1: We want to talk about it about the survey with
Speaker 1: Facebook Chief operating Officer Cheryl Sandberg. She joins us on
Speaker 1: the phone from Menlo Park, California, and also with us
Speaker 1: a small business owner, in fact, the owner of Echo.
Speaker 1: And forgive me, I didn't hear the name Um, and
Speaker 1: I just want to check with see me at a bajo.
Speaker 1: She is the owner of Echo and she doesn't sewn
Speaker 1: the phone in San Francisco. My apologies. I just want
Speaker 1: to make sure I had it clearly. Cheryl, let's start
Speaker 1: with you tell us a little bit about this survey.
Speaker 1: So you're right that this survey is quite devastating. You know,
Speaker 1: we started working on this actually before were coronavirus. With
Speaker 1: the Small Business Round people, and we thought we'd put
Speaker 1: a survey out, you know, the state of small business
Speaker 1: and it would be very very positive, right, unemployment historically
Speaker 1: low levels, entrepreneurship driving, and then coronavirus hit and the
Speaker 1: picture we got back was sobering. But I think even
Speaker 1: more important, more than a third of small businesses have
Speaker 1: stopped operating entirely expects to fail if things don't change
Speaker 1: within the next few months. And the stat that really
Speaker 1: hit me was more than half of small business owners
Speaker 1: don't think they're going to be able to rehire their employees.
Speaker 1: So yeah, absolutely, so, see me, you had this exact experience,
Speaker 1: so help us understand exactly what happened. I mean, your
Speaker 1: story has something of a happy ending, But that devastation
Speaker 1: that that Cheryl talked about, I mean you experienced it
Speaker 1: firsthand right off the bat. Um. Yeah, so I experienced
Speaker 1: the first time because one this whole thing hit, I
Speaker 1: had to let both my whole team and shut down
Speaker 1: my business for the first three to four weeks. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's not just me, I guess all restaurant owners
Speaker 1: and small businesses in San Francisco, especially because of the
Speaker 1: overhead that comes with being a business in the city. UM,
Speaker 1: once you have one week two weeks without customers or
Speaker 1: your usual stream of revenue, you are hemorrhaging funds. UM.
Speaker 1: And I saw very quickly. My restaurant is located in
Speaker 1: the so my neighborhood. UM. Once my business closed, I
Speaker 1: started to see all the other restaurants and corner stores
Speaker 1: around starting to take the same lead. UM. Fortunately for me,
Speaker 1: I connected to an organization that's a nonprofit that's feeding
Speaker 1: the homeless and the elderly and generally vulnerable populations in
Speaker 1: the city right now. So I was able to within
Speaker 1: the past two weeks rehire my cord team. UM. And
Speaker 1: you know, that's a positive story. But UM, that's not
Speaker 1: going to be the case for many small businesses UM,
Speaker 1: who are just not going to be able to rehire
Speaker 1: their course stop another issue, or maybe it's not an issue,
Speaker 1: but UM. One main problem that small business owners are
Speaker 1: having getting their teams back lies within the fact that
Speaker 1: the employees are sometimes making more unemployment than they would
Speaker 1: be making coming to work, especially now, which California is
Speaker 1: a different all six entertainment UM, there's really no incentive
Speaker 1: for them to go back to work. So it's a
Speaker 1: tough time all around. The small businesses right now. So, Cheryl,
Speaker 1: when you see the results of the Facebook survey, and
Speaker 1: we've been talking often a lot about, you know, what
Speaker 1: needs to be done, especially for small business We just
Speaker 1: came off a conversation you know about you know, our
Speaker 1: backbone is small businesses and it's going to be tough
Speaker 1: for them to resist going back. So what do you
Speaker 1: see as kind of the necessary components to protecting our
Speaker 1: small business community, making them safe so that they can
Speaker 1: come back safely when the environment changes. So look, you know,
Speaker 1: part of it is bridging until we get there. So
Speaker 1: obviously the government loans matter. We put a hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars to work and just gramps to small businesses all
Speaker 1: around the world. We hearmarked forty million of that for
Speaker 1: the United States and half of that for women, minority
Speaker 1: and veteran owned businesses. Because we all know that when
Speaker 1: crisis hits, the most vulnerable get hit the hardest, and
Speaker 1: so we all need to do everything we can to bridge.
Speaker 1: We're working on more products that helps small businesses go
Speaker 1: online if they weren't online before to the extent they can.
Speaker 1: They need to do more online, were reaching customers online,
Speaker 1: were providing services online and then once they come back
Speaker 1: to work, how do we do that safely? We see
Speaker 1: curb side checkouts, we see people doing art classes online.
Speaker 1: There's an amazing story of a bookstore that um located
Speaker 1: in University City, Missouri. They're called I See Me and
Speaker 1: they're really for black children to discu over role models
Speaker 1: and learn about African American history. But it's very much
Speaker 1: a community based thing where everyone went there in person.
Speaker 1: They're now doing those same storylines online. Local businesses are
Speaker 1: going to have to be able to morph to do
Speaker 1: more things online, and that's what we're seeing. So, Cheryl,
Speaker 1: I wonder what you make Especially given your background you
Speaker 1: worked at the Triasury Department. You understand the inner workings
Speaker 1: of government really well, the balance between the public and
Speaker 1: the private. What does the government need to do in
Speaker 1: the short and mid term to ensure that private efforts
Speaker 1: like the one that you just described can be successful
Speaker 1: in the long term. What do we need from the
Speaker 1: government at this point? Well, when you ask that question,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's really all hands on, Jack. When
Speaker 1: you lead local government, state government, national government to be
Speaker 1: helping bridge for companies, which they are, but also helping
Speaker 1: us keep safe. You know, as we open up, how
Speaker 1: do we do it to protect everyone, Make sure our
Speaker 1: hospitals don't don't get overrun, make sure that information is
Speaker 1: clear and flowing. I think, you know, we've been through
Speaker 1: a lot, but there is a lot ahead of us,
Speaker 1: and it has to again be everyone doing their part.
Speaker 1: You know, we just have time. I think for one
Speaker 1: last question, and I do think about what's interesting. Is
Speaker 1: this is a time, as you know, I feel like
Speaker 1: the tech industry was largely on everyone's radar, a lot
Speaker 1: of scrutinyous happening. Do you see this time, you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about the things that you guys are doing
Speaker 1: to help bridge the gaps for small businesses? Is this
Speaker 1: a time to kind of potentially, you know, improve your image.
Speaker 1: You know, the government has been looking and and you know, politicians,
Speaker 1: I'm just curious how you see that. So we've been
Speaker 1: trying to do the right thing all along, and when
Speaker 1: we've made mistakes, were hard to correct them and prevent
Speaker 1: them next time. You know, right now, we're just rolling
Speaker 1: up our sleeves and doing everything we can to help
Speaker 1: small businesses get through it. Roll up products that can
Speaker 1: help them, you know, things like fundraisers for small business
Speaker 1: you know, we have fundraisers for nonprofits. We had fundraisers
Speaker 1: for you know people, but we never would have rolled
Speaker 1: up fundraisers for small business until this crisis. We are
Speaker 1: just focused on putting our efforts to what can help,
Speaker 1: and we believe that we do the right thing. People
Speaker 1: will figure that out and believe that we are over time.
Speaker 1: Share all signs of hope there in the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: At this point, you guys been locked down for a
Speaker 1: long time. What's it like right now? I mean, I
Speaker 1: haven't left my house like a lot of people, but
Speaker 1: so I don't know. But I know that I'm lucky, right,
Speaker 1: I'm lucky that I can do my job from home.
Speaker 1: My siblings, both my brother and my sister, and my
Speaker 1: sister in law, and my fiance's brother and his and
Speaker 1: his wife. They're all frontline health workers. They're all doctors
Speaker 1: and frontline health workers. Right. I've been fortunate I could
Speaker 1: stay home, and I've had a responsibility to do that
Speaker 1: to make it safe for for others. You know, if
Speaker 1: we look at this report, which isn't just the local
Speaker 1: area of California, but more nationally, fifty of small businesses
Speaker 1: say they're still optimistic about the future of their business,
Speaker 1: even in the face of all of this, people people
Speaker 1: with PAM and I think I think that is something
Speaker 1: that we can feel really good about. Yeah. Absolutely, it
Speaker 1: is nice to see that optimism considering all that certainly
Speaker 1: small businesses have had to endure. Caryl, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for your time. We really appreciate it. Facebook Chief
Speaker 1: operating Officer Cheryl Sandberg on the phone from Menlo Park, California,
Speaker 1: along with Simi Ada Bajo, owner of Ico. She joined
Speaker 1: us on the phone from San Francisco. A small business owner,
Speaker 1: as she said, with a partnership and being able to
Speaker 1: bring back workers. That's a big deal, right, well, a
Speaker 1: big deal. And also, as we talked about at the top,
Speaker 1: I mean having gone through what so many have gone through,
Speaker 1: which is just getting us effectively wiped out. Some really
Speaker 1: interesting statistics there