Think about what skills you might offer to businesses on a volunteer basis. Are you a web designer? Finance whiz? You may be able to put those skills to use for good.
According to Jackie Minchillo, who co-owns Joy of Cleaning and Pineapple Development, "Reach out and offer free advice to small business owners you're connected with who could use help … This is a great time to focus on things like strategy, content marketing, email marketing, social media strategy, and internal processes. So if you're someone who has expertise in any of these areas, reach out to brick-and-mortar small-business owners and offer guidance. Investment in these areas during downtime will certainly help them boost their bottom line and hit the ground running when operations start to return to normal."
And a few smaller suggestions: For restaurants, order takeout or delivery rather than foregoing the meal altogether. If you have to pay in person rather than online, consider paying with a credit card over cash — with chip readers, this significantly limits germ exposure for you and the hourly staff. And, if you're one of those dreaded hand-sanitizer hoarders, consider donating your loot to local businesses
And lastly, according to Luke Pittaway, O'Bleness professor of entrepreneurship in the college of business at Ohio University, we cannot ignore the mental and emotional toll these circumstances will take on business owners.
"If you know somebody who owns a small business, check in on them and make sure they are okay," said Pittaway. "It is a stressful time for everybody, but add the potential economic impacts and it could be truly awful for some people in our communities, so any support they might get psychologically and practically could be important at this moment."