Not Business As Usual

We need to get back to work.

It’s a phrase that’s been on everyone’s lips lately. With each passing day, and each lost dollar, people’s resolve is tested. When will this long, lonely nightmare be over? When will things get back to normal? When will our patience be rewarded with a dinner out, a stroll along Main Street, a leisurely ramble browsing our favorite retail shop? And, for business owners, when will money begin to flow again like before?

Unfortunately, the answer is blunt: “Not anytime soon.”

Industry experts and public officials attending an online Express News Group Sessions forum on Thursday, May 7, all agreed that recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic on the South Fork will move at glacial speed — and those businesses hoping to survive must find new innovations, work together to formulate a regional model for success, and continue to be patient.

As Governor Andrew Cuomo’s PAUSE order is set to expire on May 15, many business owners and consumers may be expecting an immediate return to normalcy, like a light switch going on and all businesses throwing open their doors, and customers flowing back in like an unleashed tide.

The reality, however, especially on Long Island and the downstate region in general, is that it will take time to meet the criteria set by the governor for the various stages of reopening — and, even then, some cultural shifts, both social and economic, may become permanent.

“What concerns me is the tone-deaf nature of what’s going on out there right now,” attorney Joe Campolo, the managing partner of Campolo, Middleton & McCormick LLP, said at the virtual Express/Press Sessions forum, “particularly on social media, where everyone’s, like, ‘Rah, rah, it’s all okay, we’re going to open on May 15 and we’re going to be fine.’ We’re not. We’ve got to be smart. We’ve got to stick together. And we’ve got to bring value to a new ecosystem that we don’t even know what it looks like yet.”

Mr. Campolo, as well as the other panelists — private wealth advisor Rocco A. Carriero, Kevin O’Connor of BNB Bank, and John Tortorella of The Tortorella Group — all urged businesses to adapt to a new economic landscape, to be able to pivot in a changing marketplace, and to transform how they will serve customers and clients.

A special section in this week’s newspapers focuses on businesses working hard to survive an existential crisis. That spirit of entrepreneurship that the panelists discussed is evident. Restaurants are converting to takeout and food trucks. Attorneys like family law mediator Barbara Rasmussen are turning to technology, specifically Zoom videoconferencing to meet new clients. Advantage Title’s staff is signing documents in parking lots, instead of around conference tables. Real estate brokerages are selling homes utilizing cellphone video tours.

Necessity breeds invention. And businesses that are going to survive must learn to pivot.

The panelists on Thursday noted that most people were taken by surprise when the pandemic hit. Quickly, the sole focus turned to the federal Paycheck Protection Program to survive. It was a godsend for many local leaders of industry. But what happens in a month when that money runs out? Businesses must be nimble, must be ready to evolve to survive a post-COVID-19 economy.

Doing so will take true leadership. Not just on the part of local lawmakers, although their help will be needed and most welcome, but on the part of the entrepreneurs, business owners, restaurateurs, retailers, bankers and financial advisors strong enough to push though the storm and come out the other side intact.

Mr. Campolo noted that great leaders are made, not born. “They’re made by the times that they exist in and how they rise to the occasion,” he said, noting that leaders have to face facts and deal with facts. True leaders, he said, will be able to find value in the new economy being created by the crisis.

It’s important to be optimistic as the South Fork and the nation moves forward into a new reality. Some will make it. Sadly, some will fail. But all must try. And try hard.

The final piece of the puzzle, of course is the community, the consumer, who must, however and whenever possible, shop local, eat local, and patronize local businesses of all kinds.

The hard work that society has put in to save the lives of their friends and neighbors over the past two months is inspiring and patriotic. But the work — and that spirit — must continue, even after the valve is opened and the economy starts rousing from its slumber.

It then becomes time to rally for our friends and neighbors in another way: by supporting the South Fork economy and breathing life back into the main streets and communities cherished by all who live here. This summer, the threat of COVID-19 might, with luck, subside — but the crisis, and the struggle, will just be beginning.