Worcester Business Journal

May 11, 2020

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wbjournal.com | May 11, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 3 Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is published bi-weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special issues in May, September, October, and December by New England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester, MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Worcester Business Journal, PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894. Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for $54.95. For more information, please email wbjournal@ cambeywest.com or contact our circulation department at 845-267-3008. Fax: 845.267.3478 Advertising: For advertising information, please call Mark Murray at 508-755-8004 ext. 227. Fax: 508-755-8860. Worcester Business Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does not return them to the sender. Worcester Business Journal 172 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604 508-755-8004 tel. • 508-755-8860 fax www.wbjournal.com Worcester Business Journal WBJ Editor, Brad Kane, bkane@wbjournal.com News Editor, Grant Welker, gwelker@wbjournal.com (Higher education, health care) Staff Writer, Monica Busch, mbusch@wbjournal.com (Manufacturing) Editorial Interns Micah Wingell, Riley Garand Contributors Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon, Sarah Connell Lead Researcher, Timothy Doyle, tdoyle@nebusinessmedia.com Research Assistant, Heide Martin, hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com Production Director, Kira Beaudoin, kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com Art Director, Mitchell Hayes, mhayes@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Senior Special Accounts Manager Mary Lynn Bosiak, mlbosiak@wbjournal.com Marketing & Events Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com Distribution and Database Coordinator A Guide to STUFF, a publication of New England Business Media Patty Harris, pharris@nebusinessmedia.com COO, Mary Rogers, mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Manager, Sabrina Mondor, smondor@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers, rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel, rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com Human Resources, Jill Coran, jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com Director of Audience Development, Valerie Clark, vclark@nebusinessmedia.com Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Associate Publisher, Mark Murray mmurray@wbjournal.com President, Joseph Zwiebel jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com A s the coronavirus pandemic drags on, two things are becoming abundantly clear: 1) It is still growing; and 2) People are becoming more impatient with a closed-down economy, or at least, the voices of those pushing for an economic reopening have gotten louder. About a month ago, when we all settled into the social distancing regulations and the economic shutdown, the overwhelm- ing consensus was this was a necessary step to fighting a deadly outbreak. e longer-term worry, though, was people and businesses might get impatient and push for the economy to reopen too early, when the data was still calling for social distancing. at appears to be what is hap- pening, as about 20,000 new coronavirus cases are discovered each day in the U.S. e federal government and some indi- vidual states are making decisions based on politics, deciding to reopen and then adjusting the expected death toll upward. Gov. Charlie Baker, to his credit, seems to be relying more on the scientific data in guiding his decisions on how Massachu- setts can move forward safely. e shutdown still sucks, though. Nearly 800,000 Massachusetts residents and more than 33 million Americans have filed for unemployment since the pan- demic began, and the economic pain will only worsen – particularly for the most vulnerable – the longer this all drags on. But when I worry too much about the economic fallout, I think back to a conver- sation I had for the WBJ Podcast with Worcester businesswoman Amy Lynn Chase, whose five businesses are operating at less than 20% of their typical revenue. Amy cried when she was asked about laying off members of her staff, which was the first time she ever had to do that. Still, when asked about how badly she wanted the economy to reopen, Amy thought of the community. Her businesses have wo- ven themselves into the fabric of Worces- ter, and she didn't want to see the health of her loved ones or members of the community suffer all for the sake of her businesses returning to their pre-pandem- ic levels. She would find a way to operate and survive, while abiding by whatever measures are forced upon her businesses, in order to keep the coronavirus impact to I N T H I S I S S U E a minimum. When the pandemic started, we all said we were in this together. Let's not lose heart now. It's going to be tough, but it needs to be. – Brad Kane, editor We should all keep taking this seriously NEWS & ANALYSIS 4 Central Mass. In Brief 14 Focus on The Digital Future 18 The List: Top IT service providers 21 Column: Outside the box 22 Know How 23 Movers & Shakers 24 Photo Finish 25 Opinion 26 Shop Talk: Linda Cammuso, EPLO 10 Short- and long-term consequences The real estate industry is adjusting to the fallout from the coronavirus, as fingers are crossed about the long-term impact. 22 COVD-19's impact on business owners of color Know How advice columnist Jasmine J. Ortiz discusses ways professionals can help business owners of color navigate their particular challenges. W Intelligent BUSINESS Solutions We Believe in a Be er Approach. ICCreditUnion.org Bruce Mathieu Senior Vice President Business Development Officer Federally Insured by NCUA See us for YOUR BUSINESS LOANS For info, email: businessbanking@iccreditunion.com or call: 978.353.1331 Commercial Real Estate Loan Term Loan or Business Line of Credit DEPARTMENTS A division of:

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