June 11, 2020, Thursday. 730-830 a.m.
Joe Sky-Tucker, MSW, is President and CEO of Business Impact NW. Joe has over twenty years’ experience working in the nonprofit world in a variety of positions and organizations including direct experience working with at risk youth and families in crisis, fund development, and strategic planning. Business Impact NW is an asset building/community lender that specializes in supporting small and micro-businesses and helping them to achieve financial stability. Joe has also worked with “at-risk” youth in mental health settings including working with foster care youth, children in locked psychiatric settings, and group homes. Joe Sky-Tucker has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington. He lives in Seattle.
Joe Sky-Tucker and Business Impact NW are on the front lines of the economic misery that has been imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a non-profit bank, the mission of Business Impact NW is help build the community. They do that by lending to small businesses, hoping to support them until they “graduate” to commercial banks in Oregon and Washington. They make loans in amounts as small as $5,000 and up to $35,000. They are financed by both private and government funders.
In the pandemic thus far, they have made 65 loans totaling $3 million in the past few months. A normal year, Joe said, would see around 70 loans totaling $3.5 million.
Small businesses are hanging on “for dear life.” Many are open in name only now. Some analysts, said Joe, think fifty percent of small businesses will be gone in the 18-24 months that a recovery will require.
In retrospect, the ‘canary in the coal mine’ back in January were truckers. Imports from China began to drop that early, impacting small trucking businesses that sought help from Business Impact NW.
Over the long term, Joe forecast, transportation may change the most. Autonomous vehicles, plus transportation companies like Uber and Lyft are poised to continue to make huge changes in the way we transport goods and people. This will have a big impact on immigrants, he said, as they often take their first jobs in America this field.
Small businesses are very resilient, he said. Some businesses, such as restaurants, will come back strong. The biggest changes will be in retail, where online business was already doing great damage to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses.