Pete Snyder & Chap Petersen: Time to get back to business, Virginia

We don’t often turn to Barstool Sports for guidance on important policy matters, but a rant posted last week by Barstool “El Presidente” and successful entrepreneur Dave Portnoy captured the frustration of small business owners and millions of struggling moms and dads across the country.

Portnoy’s complaint is that American businesses cannot exist in an indefinite limbo, unsure of when they will be allowed to get back to work — or whether their businesses will even exist when that day comes. His words succinctly, albeit profanely, crystallizes what so many Americans are thinking right now.

Virginia’s leaders must also recognize the economic anxiety felt by small business owners and their families throughout the commonwealth. Unlike the Wal-Marts and Home Depots whose sales have risen, small businesses have been devastated by the “shut down” economy of the past two months.

This pain cannot be healed by mere words of solace. What is needed is a defined plan for reopening Virginia’s small business economy, one that gets healthy workers back on the job, while still protecting the vulnerable from the spread of COVID-19.

In just more than four weeks, we have funded more than 200 struggling small businesses across the commonwealth. Due to the prolonged nature of “shut down” orders, which disproportionately impact small and minority-owned businesses, the need for the Virginia 30 Day Fund keeps growing — as does the desperation of the small-business owners. What was meant to be a 30-day job has now become indefinite.

Weeks back, the Virginia 30 Day Fund provided financial assistance to Lawless Welding in Henry County. Chris Lawless, the company’s owner, has poured 11 years of his life into building his business. He wants to keep his 10 employees working and on the payroll. To do that, our economy must reopen.

“I just need to be open and keep my guys on the job,” Lawless said. “If I can’t, they will go on unemployment and because it’s so bad around here, I fear once they go on, I will never get them off.”

Another example is Chicho’s Pizza on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, also receiving support from the Virginia 30 Day Fund. Without freedom to safely open, Matt Potter and his co-owners cannot be properly staffed, supplied and prepared to serve customers.

Small-business owners such as Lawless, Potter and others cannot remain inside their homes for months, strangling the economy until a cure is found for COVID-19. That was not what Virginians signed up for when they followed orders in March to temporarily close businesses and schools.

If our leaders are waiting for a risk-free moment to re-open Virginia, they will not find one. No such moment has ever existed. But killing our small businesses will not bring about a cure for COVID-19 any sooner.

It is time to reopen our small business economy. This virus may be deadly. But indecision and uncertainty are equally as deadly in business. In order to prevent more casualties, we must reopen Virginia for small businesses.