YouSaid · the spoken record

Brendan Walsh

lines on the record: 24
first: 2021-10-12
most recent: 2021-10-12
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Late June, early July, and we're hopeful that the Biden administration and Congress will act on this issue. This has been, I would say, a priority for the Biden administration. So I think we're positive about the direction we're headed, but more work definitely needs to be done.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Minority small business owners across the board, veteran owned small businesses. What we have found as we dove deeper into this issue is that over the course of the last decade, there has been a 38% decline in the number of small businesses that are providing goods and services to the federal government. So the pool of small businesses in the procurement space is really shrinking. And if you look at the number of new entrants from the small business community into federal procurement dating back to 2005, there's been a 79% decrease. So we are trying to make meaningful reforms to the procurement space in order to make it more accessible for small businesses and also just level the playing field for small businesses so they get a fair shake at federal contracts. So this is an issue that we've been working very closely with the bipartisan policy center on. We co-authored a report with them back in”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of our policy agenda this year has been very much focused on access to capital. We think, obviously, as I mentioned before, the COVID idle program is a great short-term solution. But beyond that, I think we feel like it is necessary for the federal government to create a more durable long-term low interest rate fixed loan program that small businesses can apply for that will give them working capital and much like the COVID idle program does for the next couple of months. The other issue we've been very focused on is federal procurement reform for the small business community. So just by way of background, right now the SBA has a goal of awarding 23% of federal contracts to small businesses and then underneath that 23% goal, they have a variety of goals within segments of the small business community. So women small business owners.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it's dark. It was so depressing in addition to everything that was going on. And then you hear the news and, you know, it was just pretty dire. So obviously we're not at that right now. It's more along the lines of, okay, I have all the tools right now. financially we're okay right now being very conservative in our distributions of profit to my brother and i my partner so i've just been very conservative in that sense because i want to have reserves you never know what's going to come in the future obviously right so but i'm feeling optimistic that we have a better hold of this more people are getting vaccinated so it's just a matter of being able like i said to pivot and see what's going to go on but i have more tools right now in my arsenal so that makes me feel better”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm feeling optimistic, but I tend to be more on the optimistic side. Just because right now it feels more stable than it did at the beginning. With all the different funding options and grants that the government has rolled out, it's really been helpful just because I have friends and relatives from Mexico and there's been really that I know of any help for small businesses down there. I feel really lucky in that sense to be here and to have all this extra help because a year ago I couldn't even pay my mortgage. So it was that dire and it was all hands on deck. I mean literally we were all multitasking with just a very reduced number of employees. So that was very bleak, you know, and just even the atmosphere in the restaurant, all the lights were turned off, you know, it's a very lively restaurant. I mean, when you're in the restaurant, it's like people all the time talking, drinking, eating, all of a sudden it's all gone and it's”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As a business owner, I'm just preparing for a possible surge in the winter. I'm trying to have like, you know, tents and tables ready to rent in case we need to cut back on indoor dining and put the patio back in our parking lot. So I'm trying to prepare for those possible outcome, you know, what's going to happen in the future. I'm not sure. So all those things are in the back of my mind right now.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Definitely very concerned when we looked to historically last year during COVID how infection rates went up during the wintertime and we already operate in an industry that slows down during the wintertime specifically I'd say from about November to about February every year we see reduced sales we're very concerned because we just don't know what to expect so as a business I know we always try to retain earnings however in this case it's a little bit different because the uncertainty of COVID along with the winner it could be enough to take us under if a worst case scenario were to play out so we're trying to do as much as we can right now about finding efficiencies within the business and setting more aside as much as is possible that way in the worst case scenario hopefully we'll be okay but like a lot of other businesses I think it's a wait and see kind of thing restaurant industry is low profit margins historically so we're not really working with much we run a very lean business we're going to do all we can within our”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've heard the same exact thing time and time again, folks saying, hey, we're going out to get loans, we can't get loans, we can't access capital within our industry specifically. We have other mechanisms. So let's say, for instance, because we are restaurants, there's a different point of sale systems that do offer small amounts of working capital. So that kind of helps us out. But I can definitely see how other type of businesses within other industries could definitely be Stratford Capital, especially if they're black owned.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One of the topics I wanted to chat on is just the short views that people have. And I know I've seen that you read about it on airplanes or whatever. People are just fed up with the whole being in the pandemic, right? But at the same time, we're going through the same issues too as employees and as restaurant workers. But we can't just say, get the heck out of here, et cetera, et cetera, right? When they're being rude about not wanting to wear their masks or different things that we have no control over because we're now policing that, right? So we're the enforcers. So we're the back cops in this sense. So sometimes not everyone, obviously there's a subset who are like, who are you to tell me what to do or whatever, right? So and then one particular employee, she was worried about, you know, in the future, if they try to say,”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I know larger businesses have counselors on staff, like I know other large general contractors that say that they've had unprecedented demand for their on-staff counselors. We don't have those same resources. We have created an atmosphere where people feel very comfortable. Our offices naturally very conducive to social distancing. The policies and procedures that we put in place very much align with ocean CDC requirements and yet there was a comfort level with staff where they felt very comfortable being in the office. And so I think that created less of a disruption for our immediate team, but we see it with vendors. We see it with subcontractors. And it's not something that we have necessarily skills. The tools with which to navigate it most efficiently or effectively.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Many small business owners say they lack the necessary resources that larger companies have to address issues such as mental health in the workplace. Here is Rosemary Swork. Do you feel like you've had the resources to be able to address the toll this is taking on mental health?”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right now, we're okay, but we've had to adapt in the sense that we could use another cook at each restaurant because we're paying overtime to those who are with us right now just to cover all the shifts. And it's been a challenge trying to find experienced cooks who want to work because we've had issues where one would work a week and then never come back or we had one guy just work one day and then leave. So that's why we've had to pay overtime to some cooks just to cover our ships and keep them happy too. And we've had to increase hourly rates two to three to four. An hour compared to a year or two ago. So that impacts our body. So, like I said, especially in the kitchen, you know, dishwashers and cooks have been in short supplies.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so there's definitely wage inflation going on. And I think that the buzzword now is labor migration. I can definitely see a lot of people moving. There's a lot of moving parts. And that's challenging to navigate. I did have one team member who had worked years ago for another company and they offered him a substantial amount more than I was paying him. He was very happy with what he was being paid by direct, but he said it was just too good that he couldn't pass it up. That was a 40% increase over what I was paying him. And I don't think that that situation is unique to me. The wage inflation is not just 5%, it's not 10%. It is substantial.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It all stems back to staffing. So whether it's our ability to get our products from our vendors, they have staffing issues. So they have issues with getting us our products when we need it. We spend a lot of time interviewing every day. And one thing we found is some team members, they understand there's a severe shortage. So on one hand, we have some team members who will hop to a new job because they get paid more, you know, the economics of a small business don't allow us to pay but so much. And there's other team members who understand that there's a huge need for workers within the workforce and they don't always do the best performance wise. Pre-pandemic, I would say we probably spend on average about 30, 40 minutes a day with staffing. I would say now during the pandemic, no less than two and a half to three hours a day on average we spend either first round interviewing folks or second”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Beyond the supply chain delays, staffing shortages are continuing to hamper the recovery for small businesses. Cari Parker of Connie's Chicken and Waffles says he spends up to three hours a day interviewing people or dealing with staffing issues.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“From a fellow business owner that may have cups, so that limited our efficiency. But the fact that the price of chicken has increased, I would say that's put a tremendous impact on our business because you can run out of plastic cups and you just may not have the opportunity to serve drinks for an hour or two. But if you run out of chicken and your Connie's chicken and waffles, you become Connie's waffles. And it just doesn't have the same ring to it.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We've run into a lot of supply chain issues, and when we go to our distributors and say, hey, how come you're unable to get the products that we need? We have driver shortages and we're unable to get it. So what happens is the price goes up because the demand is increasing through the roof, the supplies lower. So of course the price goes up. So to give you one specific example, plastic cups and chicken. For some reason, plastic cups and chicken have been two of the hardest things for us to get at pre-pandemic pricing. The price of chicken has rose, I'd say probably twofold, and it's just so difficult because on one hand, as business owners, you know, we never want to raise the prices when our customers, unless we absolutely have to. That's one way we provide value by having affordable prices that are somewhat consistent. So not being able to access plastic cups has also hurt us tremendously because there's times we had to drive out farther to find somewhere that we may have.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Cases because that's what happens. Sometimes you have employee issues or customer issues because we see the range of people of community in our restaurants. So we're used to being able to pivot and kind of adapt to different things. But now it's like, oh my gosh, I'm only on one toe because I'm trying to balance everything on my hands, on my leg, you know, it just makes it a little crazier to run. It's more challenging.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mad abys level. I mean, yes, like I said, avocados sometimes go through these crazy fluctuations in price, tomatoes if there's something going on, weather related or etc, but not all at the same time. We haven't had issues with like the avocados being so expensive and then shortage of to-go containers and labor shortages. It's just everything's been stacked upon the other at the same time. So that's been the challenge because we're used to pivoting and being flexible in”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is at this moment, but it went from $40 a case for avocados to $85 in a matter of two or three weeks. It's gone down to $60. I mean, it's still higher than our $40 a case. And that impacts our bottom line because we order 10 to 12 cases a week per restaurant because we serve avocado with everything pretty much, right? And we can't raise the prices. We can't say market rate or depending on what our food distributed charges we're going to charge you for that amount, right? We just can't do that. So that's been a challenge.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure, food items lately, crab meat has been scarce, so we generally have food distributors come to deliver to our businesses because it's really hard for me. I wouldn't be able to either hire someone or myself run around to the LA vegetable markets or each individual place. So we have a food distributor that comes and delivers to us. Well, we had to run around and find crab meat at Restaurant Depot, at different stores taking time away from our employees. And labor's already high enough for us. So that's been a challenge, a recent challenge. And just overall, we've had, you know, sometimes the ribeye is gone. It's not an item we sell a lot of, but then we do have it as an option on our menu. And like you said, not only shortage, but it's also because of that.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I'll give you an example just from today. I was talking to an employee and he was saying, Oh, now we're having issues with our half pints containers for our to-go orders. And we had to order this other weird amount and then we're also having problems with our soup containers and we had to order another kind that's more expensive. So we've run into those issues. And because our to-go orders and deliveries have been so much higher because of the pandemic, we really need access to those materials. And sometimes they don't have them or they don't have the lids. They only have the containers or vice versa. So it's very challenging because we really need access to those because people are going to say, oh yes, just give me in the bag or bring your own Tupperware or whatever. It's our tools for our business. And when we don't have them, it really challenges us.”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We spoke with Ruby Bugarine, a small business owner who runs two Mexican restaurants in the LA area. Her restaurants are back to in-person dining, but she's spending most of her time scrambling to find key ingredients and other products necessary in her business. What are the biggest pain points that you're personally experiencing with your restaurants?”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But of those hiring, 87% say they are finding it difficult to recruit qualified candidates and 80% are saying that the difficulty with hiring is having a real impact on their bottom line. And we also asked a question like vis-a-vis pre-COVID, have your workforce challenges gotten better? Have they gotten worse? Have they kind of stayed the same? And two-thirds, 64% say that their workforce challenges have worsened during the pandemic, which is not surprising, you know, given the data that we're seeing. And I would say the final issue, which we'll talk about a little bit later, I think that's also a significant burden for small businesses right now is access to capital. We found that only 31% of small business owners are very confident that they would be able to access capital if they need to. And 44% of small businesses say that they have less than three months of cash reserves in the case of whether it's an emergency or”
2021-10-12 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · The Small Business Perspective: How Owners Are Dealing With Worker Shortages, Inflation and Supply Chain Delays · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT