EP# 171 - Empowering Businesses in Crisis: Strategies for Resilience

Ever wondered how businesses can bounce back from the brink after a natural disaster? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Chase Anderson, the president and co-founder of the Economic Recovery Center. Discover how Chase turned an unexpected career twist into a mission to help businesses thrive amidst chaos, drawing from his firsthand experiences with Hurricane Ian's aftermath. You'll gain insights into the untapped resources his team has unearthed, and how their expertise is making a significant impact on local economies by easing the complex and time-consuming process of navigating financial recovery programs.

In another fascinating segment, we bust some common myths and misconceptions about government financial programs for disaster recovery. Learn why due diligence is crucial in identifying legitimate opportunities amidst a sea of predatory practices, and understand the importance of being prepared as natural disasters become more frequent. We also clarify the enduring relevance of the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program beyond the COVID era. Stay tuned as we underline the necessity of continuous education and being informed to better equip businesses for future challenges. This episode promises not only to inform but also to inspire proactive recovery and resilience in the face of adversity.

Economic Recovery Center
Chase Henderson
385-376-2372
support@economicrecoverycenter.com
WEBSITE

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.

Speaker 2: 0:11

Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 171 of the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Chase Henderson from Economic Recovery Center. Chase, welcome.

Speaker 3: 0:21

Thank you for having me, Mr Schaller. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2: 0:24

I am doing awesome Pleasure to meet you and I'm looking forward to learn a little bit more about what you do. So let's jump right in, and why don't you share a little bit about what you do?

Speaker 3: 0:35

Sure thing. Well, yeah, like I said, thank you for having me on. I am Chase Anderson, the president and co-founder of Economic Recovery Center. And Economic Recovery Center. We specialize in helping businesses navigate through the complexities of financial programs following natural disasters, so we work very closely with business owners to help them secure necessary resources and funds and support so that they can ultimately rebuild and recover effectively after declared disasters.

Speaker 2: 1:06

Absolutely. That's you know, especially down here in Southwest Florida, what's happened recently. It's very important, absolutely. So how did you get involved in this industry?

Speaker 3: 1:17

Well, because of the recent disasters down here, Right, right right.

Speaker 3: 1:36

My background has nothing to do with disaster recovery, even finance to right Floridian and kind of dabbled again with fitness, I got into a couple of different industries. And then the hurricane hit right, hurricane Ian the big one. And it was so weird because I mean, I remember growing up I used to play outside during the hurricanes. I was one of those crazy kids and it was just, and it's fine, it's whatever, like we can stick around, no big deal. This one changed my mind. This one was a big one. It changed all of our minds. It was such a massive travesty and luckily I had friends that were up over towards the airport, so I was more inland, so I was able to stay safe. I still had power and water, which was incredible. I couldn't believe that.

Speaker 3: 2:18

And for the next few days after the impact, myself and a few family friends went out into the community and we just were appalled by the devastation. So we decided to get together, raise some money nothing too crazy, maybe three or $4,000 to get as much food and water and supplies as we could for a lot of these lower income communities that had just been demolished, definitely over in East. Fort Myers was hit very hard. Harlem Heights was hit very hard. Obviously, everything towards the beach, regardless of community, was hit very hard. So anywhere we could go to help to give food, water and supplies, we did.

Speaker 3: 2:54

But through this process we noticed that there was a gap, and it wasn't that there was a specific demographic. Well, there was one specific demographic that wasn't getting help and it wasn't based off of race or gender or socioeconomic class. It was none of that. It was businesses. And it wasn't that the businesses weren't getting help, it's that businesses didn't know where to go. Right, I mean you just you spent the last few decades of your life building something for yourself, your family, a lot of family businesses down here. You built something to create a legacy and then all of a sudden it's gone. What are you supposed to do at that point? I mean, you've put so much blood, sweat and tears into this thing that you kind of get shell-shocked a little bit where you don't know where to go, you don't know what to do. Do I go to the government? Do I go to the bank? Who do I talk to for this?

Speaker 3: 3:42

And we noticed that at the time there was no help. There was no help for businesses. So myself and actually my father he's a longtime entrepreneur of the area had a company called findwhatcom down here, a big building over off of Boy Scout, and we both came together. We realized this need and we decided to start researching, like, okay, is there actually any help available for businesses? And what we found was, oh my goodness, yes, there is. There is a ton of help available for businesses, whether it's government programs or private funding. There's a ton was there. And if we spent the time, you know hours and hours, days and days, months and months we're at a year and a half now.

Speaker 3: 4:29

If it's taken us that much time to figure out how much help is there, imagine the average business owner. You got to continue to run your shop, whether it's a little pizza shop or you got a nail salon studio or whatever. You don't have time to be going to look up all this stuff that we've spent our entire lives for the past year and a half looking up. So that's where we come in, right, economic Recovery Center. We've done a lot of the work on the back end of researching what is available, what is out there, and for the things that are out there for your business to be able to help get back on their feet. How do you go about navigating these programs? Because a lot of them are insanely complex. Not that it takes a rocket scientist to ultimately figure it out at the end of the day, but I hope you like reading hundreds of pages.

Speaker 2: 5:08

It's just sifting through all that information and deciding which way you got to go. A lot of people don't know that, and that's the thing. What was the biggest I want to say challenge in doing that for yourself, I mean, it's challenging for everybody, but somebody who's specifically looking into it. What was your biggest challenge?

Speaker 3: 5:28

Biggest challenge is you know, I think, with anything when you start off in a new industry, you don't know the lingo, you don't know the terminology, you don't know how it all works. So, at least for me, it was a lot of learning how these industries work. How does disaster recovery work? What does resilience look like? What's the difference between these two words, recovery and resilience? Are they the same word or are they different? I mean so there's a lot of confusion when it comes to the terminology and how things are portrayed within these industries that a lot of business owners may be very confused by. So the biggest challenge is really just learning as much as you can about how these industries work and where you can fit yourself in so you can actually get the help that you need. That's really the biggest challenge for anybody.

Speaker 2: 6:10

So talking along those lines, I mean, what's the biggest myth or misconception surrounding what you're doing that most businesses run into?

Speaker 3: 6:20

I would say it's tough because there's the biggest thing is just a lack of awareness and a lack of knowledge. I mean, really it's hard to come up with a misconception or a myth if you don't have any basis for it. But on top of that, once you do learn, once you do go down this path, you start educating yourself about the help that is available out there, One of the big ones, because we mostly work with government financial programs. Everybody has their opinion on the government and how it works, how it functions, if they can rely on the government for help, whether or not the programs that they put out there are legitimate, Right. So there's a because you, for the companies that do find these programs.

Speaker 3: 7:02

There are a lot of marketing firms that really try to take advantage of them and try to try to take a percentage off the top here, a little point over there, just so we can cash in on big programs. I know you've probably seen tons of commercials for the employee retention tax credit or the PPP loan, so these being disaster related since it was the pandemic. So there's a lot of predatory marketing out there that a lot of businesses get very turned off by and they think, oh, these programs are a scam or they're just trying to push something so that they can get all my info? Well, there is going to be that kind of level of marketing in any industry. You're going to find that everywhere Fitness, disaster recovery, finance, whatever.

Speaker 3: 7:40

The biggest thing is making sure that you do your due diligence and actually look at the programs on the IRS website, the SBA website. These are legitimate programs. It's just a matter of being able to filter out the noise of individuals saying you qualify for this, you qualify for that? Probably not, but we want to make sure we give as much info as we can to let you know these programs are legitimate. They are very complex. This is not easy. This is hard. That's where we come in. So I guess the thing is really just the lack of awareness and knowledge at the start. That's the biggest hurdle to really get over.

Speaker 2: 8:14

Absolutely and it's, you know, it's, it's. It takes that knowledge and, like you said, a lot of people are just trying to survive day to day and run their business and get money coming back in that they don't have the time, they don't have the resources and, like you said, you've got all this other noise going on out there where people are kind of like you know, I kind of compare to contractors coming in after the disaster. You know they're from out of state, they don't know all the rules or guidelines here, but they're here to take everybody's money, you know, and do they do the best job probably not.

Speaker 2: 8:42

Yeah, so um. So, do you see anything I'm going? To say maybe trending with what you're doing or changing recently that we can help educate our listeners about I mean the biggest.

Speaker 3: 8:57

Well, if we want to look at a trend, a very impactful trend is that disasters are on the rise, right? Whether you believe in climate change or not, you know. Politics aside, like, the fact of the matter is, the data is showing. Disaster occurrences are happening more and more frequently, with this year being one. Then, knowing what your options are after a disaster are no longer a luxury item on your to-do list. It's a requirement, like you have to make sure you understand what you're going to do beforehand, during and after. It's not a luxury you need to know. So the big trend is get ready.

Speaker 2: 9:41

Yeah, yeah, be prepared, the biggest key. So you mentioned your fourth generation, southwest Floridian. I'm sure you're a busy man. You seem like a very busy man. What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Speaker 3: 9:56

So in this phase of my life. So I'm a young dude. I don't know if you can tell from my face I'm a younger guy. I'm in my late twenties, so I see myself in a phase of life where I'm in a phase of learning, right. So a lot of my time I'm not. I'm not the typical 20 year old. Oh, let's go party over here, let's go travel over here, let's go do this, let's go do that, let's have. I spend a lot of my time reading. I spent a lot of my time learning. I spent a lot of my time working. So I'm not the most important.

Speaker 2: 10:25

But the learning you know you're, you're contributing to your future and your growth You've. If you're not learning, you're not growing. You know, and I'm a big proponent of that, so I love that. So is there one thing that you wish our listeners knew about what you do that maybe they they wouldn't be aware of?

Speaker 3: 10:43

That we're here. We're here to help, we're always here. We're always here to help. One big thing to kind of tying back into like a lot of the marketing you may see for different programs Maybe it's the ERTC, or one of the ones that we help with is the EIDL Right.

Speaker 3: 10:59

So the EIDL program Economic Injury and Disaster Loan is a loan offered through the SBA and it's it's it's specifically for businesses that have been affected by declared disasters Right, specifically for businesses that have been affected by declared disasters Right. And so this program actual misconception there the misconception is this was a COVID era program because there was a COVID EIDL to help businesses. No, this program has been around for decades and so, you know, one of the big things that we want to make sure we help people understand and that they know is that these options are available. They are out there, and one of the things that we pride ourselves on is that we are not it sounds weird, we're not actively trying to qualify businesses for different programs, which sounds odd, but with the amount of compliance that we drive the engine of our business with and the amount, the lack of compliance that you may see on the industry when it comes to finance, especially around disasters. It's very easy to be predatory in those realms.

Speaker 3: 11:53

We are actively trying to disqualify individuals because we want to make sure the people who actually need the help get the help right. So we're not just telling everybody and everybody, anybody and everybody, hey, you can do this, hey, you can do that. We're going to give you as much information as we can. But if something doesn't work, it doesn't work. But that doesn't mean we're not going to try to continue to find other ways to be able to help you. So we're very different.

Speaker 2: 12:17

It's a very different message than you might hear. I love that. I love it. So how would our listeners go about contacting you if they had questions or concerns?

Speaker 3: 12:23

Sure, so you can visit us at our website, wwweconomicrecoverycentercom. It's a mouthful, so I'll say it again wwweconomicrecoverycenter. com. It's a mouthful, so I'll say it again. . Um, you can go there. You can visit our LinkedIn page. We have a LinkedIn page and you can also call us at three, eight, five, three, seven, six, two, three, seven, two. That's three, eight, five, three, seven, six, two, three, seven, two.

Speaker 2: 12:51

Perfect, perfect, chase, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Any last words for our listeners.

Speaker 3: 12:58

Last words for our listeners Get ready, get prepared, know what your plan is before, during and after, and continue to listen to the Good Neighbor podcast. There's a lot of amazing knowledge. I've listened to quite a few episodes myself. You have a great show, so for everybody listening, keep listening.

Speaker 2: 13:15

I appreciate that. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and what you do for the local businesses in the community as well. It's very much appreciated. So pleasure getting to know you and I hope to see you on the community soon.

Speaker 3: 13:27

Likewise Take care.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. Likewise, take care. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast E Astero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPEstero. com. That's GNPEstero. com, or call 239-296-2621. Thank you.