In a forum talking about the Economic Impact of the coronavirus on Small Businesses. This event is hosted by x euros. Good afternoon and welcome to this axials Virtual Event. Its one of the biggest topics facing our nation which is Small Business in the path to recovery. We like to think into it for making these conversations possible and think the event team which is on the second half of todays doubleheader so thank you for these Virtual Events. We love for you to follow along at axios events. Can follow us on twitter at at axios. Our first guest today started a Small Business, sophia dickens, will be with us for my home state, orange county, california. Sophia created eQ Entertainment and she founded that in the brand to wander and this is a curriculum, among other things that helps people learn at home which suddenly has been in more demand. Sophia dickens, thank you for joining axios. Thank you for having me, mike. How is california . I wish i were there. California looks sunny but it is outside the window so not quite enjoying it as i use to. Sophia, you got the idea for eQ Entertainment and you got the idea and a College Class which i think a lot of Small Businesses start with just a germ of an idea. Tell us about Q Entertainment. I remember being blown away as a student at harvard by 40 years of data that social and Emotional Learning and not academic was the number one correlation to life success rate that became real to me when i became a parent for the first time. There really wasnt anything out there that made it fun and easy for people, teachers or kids. I took that data and translated it and built the queue one show that had celebrity guests on it and its a full online curriculum and School Curriculum and then we have an app for athome use. You promised you would not quiz me but what are the skills you teach is problemsolving. Whats an example of how Q Entertainment thank you wonder what attack a problem based on this research as opposed to how we might have been taught back in the day . In a lot of ways through our Education System we teach kids exactly what to think as opposed to how to think. Its important because there is so much insecurity about what the future job markets will look like for them that we teach them problemsolving skills like mindset, teach them to focus on the process as opposed to the results and that will keep them from having a low feeling and help them to grow it much further and iterate and take more risks. Kids need to be comfortable [inaudible conversations] whats a quick example of that . A problem and how you might attack it. Well, for example one problem that a lot of kids deal with is delaying gratification. They want something right in front of them and they want an outfit we are the same as adults but if you dont solve the problem its the difference between prison and lifelong success. With impulse control you can practice it by using distraction techniques. That is something we teach and q wonder. We have a fun episode with michael straight hand where he and [inaudible] are having a Cookie Contest and straight hand wins big time because hes learned to distract himself so these are things we can teach kids on a regular basis. When youre working with parents who suddenly suddenly become involuntary homeschoolers in many cases but what is going on in Homes Across America and the world right now and as people learn at home and what in this moment has your learning Small Business person taught you that might be helpful to parents who suddenly have become educators . Weve all become educators. Yes, institutional inertia doesnt allow or our system to evolve with the time. This crisis has done something politicians have never been able to do and that is put a decadesold format of how we teach our kids. You think thats good . I think its an opportunity here for millions of parents will have a blank sheet of paper to customize their kids education and that might be a very scary thought to some but might be inspiring to others. Either way education will never be the same and the quicker we acknowledge that the fact that the better off we will be. There are jobs the bone come back and many will be replaced by automation and because we dont have disability into that future job market what we do know is we need to teach our kids innovation and emotional intelligence. Ive heard that recently from [inaudible] to ray and these are the two Critical Skills you got to teach our kids and q wonder is a quick to help kids master those skills. Sophia dickens, you are in the same vote so many entrepreneurs and you tried to get a ppp loan and tell us your experience and tell us what happened . Well, i think the u. S. Economy is made up of almost half of the economy is made up of businesses that are small and under ten employees and hundreds of thousands got stuck in the kubrick we were at with one of the larger banks waiting for our ppe loan and it got stuck and sounds like the online total wasnt working properly or was off line for a good portion of that week and i heard this happened with another major bank as well and so now we have gone with the smaller spa bank read on the process and it does feel like were subject to a lottery system here. That must be very frustrating and for other entrepreneurs who are watching what are some of your survivor skills, coping skills, warnings from the experience that might serve that . I think its a matter of the same thing that we are talking to our kids about witches growth mindset and being innovative. We have to shed any idea of who we thought we were as a company or a Small Business before this happened and we have to adjust and start innovating and think what are the needs out there now and how can we add value to a world that has completely reset. Sophia, we have a viewer question from you and this comes from washington. As you talk to your friends and fellow businesses how many weeks or months do you think the businesses have to stay afloat given the current stayathome order across so many states. I dont have an optimistic answer there. The government has been patting themselves on the back for filling a onemonth hole in the economy and taking two months to do it. In the next 30, 60 days we will see a lot of Small Businesses fail. It will be tough. It will not be a matter of week or month long recovery but a several year process and we will have to start reinventing ourselves and looking to see how we can help each other. Its a sobering message. Thank you for sharing your story and at the end of axials newsletters we finish with one fun thing. Sophia, what is one fun thing for you . You use to ski longer than i skied in my life. Yes, i did a 56mile ski trip in sweden and followed my dads footsteps like a 500 year tradition to rally friends to go at it and do it again in the upcoming year. This was how many miles and how long did it take . It was 56 miles and took about 10. 5 hours. This was in sweden . That was the workout . Spirit yes, it was a workout. Sophia dickens, thank you for telling us and q wonder and we appreciate it very much and best of luck to your business. Thank you. Thank you, sophia. Now we will hear a view from the top with axios ceo. Thank you, mike. Im doing here by alex whose evp of gm and Intuit Quickbooks. Alex, how are you doing . Great, jim. Thank you for having me. You have an amazing lens into the economy and into this moment and your role in you touch a lot, a huge chunk of the selfstarter Small Businesses in the country. Why would me as a Small Business owner come to you and what do you do for them . You are right, we serve over 6 million Small Businesses in the u. S. Through our payroll products. We pay one in 12 americans so we and the beauty of quickbooks is we are the source of truth for your business but we can see your cash flow and money in and money out in your payroll and everything is in one place but if you are a Small Business or self employed at right now desperate trying to figure out how much time you have left and what your cash flow is looking like or how you will pay your employees we are able to consolidate that information and give you the insight you need and that is critical for being a part of this program coming up because so much of it is about to gathering the right data and been able to have the data or forgiveness if youre able to get it. What is your advice to Small Business owners who are trying to become of the program and they just put more money into it through the federal government and obviously, some companies have been able to get it and others have really struggled to so what have you learned by watching people navigate it and helping people navigate it . You, first of all, the amazing thing about Small Businesses as they are incredibly resilient. We heard in the earlier segment sophia is a great example. I talked to Small Businesses every day and they are pivoting and trying to figure out how to be a part of an online world or sell their goods in a virtual environment that we have to help them basically by time right now. They are scrambling and trying to figure out how to make their cash flow extends but we know from our Small Businesses many of them dont have more than a month or two of cash flow available and so without these kind of helping hands through Something Like a loan or ppe program they will go out. My advice would be continued to prevent and do what you naturally do which is figure out how to keep your business running but then look for help as well. I think we are about to see round two of this Program Launch and there will have to be more even beyond that so dont be afraid or feel like it is out of reach for you and there are folks out there like Intuit Quickbooks who will help you get up and running and apply for one of these loans. How many more rounds do you think the federal government will have to do these loan guarantees for Small Businesses or through two of them and we more than 600 billion allocated for the program and given that you have this insight into what companies are facing how much more do think the federal government will have to put forward . Yeah, im not sure how much for more they will need but i do think we will have to reconsider how the program is structured. Right now as you saw in the first round and even with the carveouts in the second round folks that are getting the loans in the larger Small Businesses. The average loan size in the last round was 239,000. We are seeing our customers coming in and applying for what they need to cover their payroll which is 40000 but thats a massive difference but were talking businesses that have 2050 employees getting loans and the vast majority of our Small Businesses are less than ten or less than five employees. Those are the ones that structurally need it. The system isnt set up for that right now and thanks arent there to cover the smallest and that sorry we started the quickbooks capitals business to start with because they were underserved and they were not the ones the banks would cover. It will not just be about putting more money into ppp but it will be as we move forward thinking about how will we work with syntax and players like quickbooks they have the data and the algorithms to be able to approve and serve the smallest Small Businesses out there in the truly underserved and to make sure that those dollars are flowing to Small Businesses. What else should or could the federal government do to help Small Businesses, every politician says they love Small Businesses and im a Small Business owner and i love Small Businesses but what can government do above and beyond the ppp program to help the Small Business you were talking about, someone who might only have five, ten, 1520 employees. I think the government is doing an amazing job and i think the program and the money flowing in was exactly what they need but i think they need to think about the structure. I would ask exclusively for them to think about how do they leverage folks like us who have data that is above and beyond what banks cannot rely on and again credit models that allow us to approve and lend to the smallest businesses and really work with us and work handinhand so we can get those dollars to use. I just think throwing dollars into a system that was already set up to help the larger businesses isnt going to get the job done. You are an entrepreneurial guard yourself and as we depart here, what have you learned about the course of your career that you could pass on to maybe a Small Business owner who is looking for wisdom as they try to navigate the Tumultuous Times we live in . Yeah, before quickbooks i was an entrepreneur and i remember the darkest day in my startup was the day i wasnt sure i would be able to next make the next payroll grade you lose sleep and you are insides are nine at two and but again, you know you are scrappy and it is on your shoulders and so my advice to these Small Businesses is that there are folks out there willing to help you. In quickbooks we have 5000 folks that live and breathe every morning we wake up trying to figure out how to help you so give us a ring and we will figure it out and dont be afraid to ask for help. Alex chris, very smart. Thank you for an insightful conversation. We will turn it back over to mike allen. Thank you, jim and alex. Thanks to intuit for making this axios Virtual Event on Small Businesses on the path to recovery, possible. Welcome back to my home in arlington, virginia. The Company People this is my home office and we appreciate you joining us earlier today and i caught up with suzanne my president of the u. S. Chamber of commerce and here is suzanne clark. Suzanne has been in the trenches and i first got to know her when she was running her First Company as president and coo and she is a ba and mba from georgetown. Madam president , welcome to axios. Thank you. Suzanne, the Congress Just replenished the money that is in the Payment Protection Fund to help Small Businesses stay in money. Is round to going to be enough . Well, good question, mike. We hear from Small Businesses across the country every day and some are in tears for they cant get over the impact on their family and on their community and on their customers. We are Glad Congress got this done but no, it wont be enough. They cant start working on the next round fast enough. You spend all day talking to businesses of all sizes. What is the most common thing is you talk to Small Businesses, what is the most common worry that they can invite to you . I think first of all it is staying afloat. They know firsthand what a job means to a family and what a job means to a community and what a job means to help. They are concerned and worried about their support in the community, their Little League teams, their philanthropy and its a very concerned about staying safe and keeping their employees safe and frankly, just staying afloat. They are worried about how they reopen in a way that is safe and sustainable. Suzanne, in these two rounds werent enough what is needed . Say congress were to get started right away, how much would be enough . First of all, i think they will have to do at least another 250 billion but what is really going to be enough is we will have to reopen. We are Free Enterprise people. We all think this will be government aid and assistance forever. We got to help people who are in real pain right now and then we have to sensibly and faithfully reopen so that americans have access to their paychecks again. Do you feel like america is on that road or you worry about the road we are on at the moment . Well, it is hard as a human not to be worried. If you look at the scale of the Public Health crisis in the scale of the economic crisis, it is tragic for it of course, we are all worried but i think as Business Owners in the Business Community when youre worried you get to work. That is what makes the worry better. Getting to work means how do you stay in a gradual reopening based on geographies that are safe or industries that are safer following the right guidelines so that you can really help. We know this fell off a cliff very quickly when it closed down. As you reopen more slowly we know the demand comes back relatively quickly. This is when businesses want to be there to meet it. I hear you are saying you are members and friends of business are pushing to reopen and are anxious to reopen. I think anxious