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Small Business Survival: Brooklyn Navy Yard Manufacturers Step Up During the COVID-19 Crisis
In Best Of, Featured, Guest, Interview, Latest, News Stories, Technology, The World, Top News, videosBy Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Businesses at the Brooklyn Navy Yard industrial complex are revitalizing the country’s manufacturing amid the global pandemic.
David Ehrenberg is the President and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, which produces roughly $2.35 billion of annual economic output for New York City among more than 400 companies located there across various industries.
“These are not your old school manufacturers. These are very high-tech, very creative hardware companies,” Ehrenberg told WCBS 880’s Joe Connolly on this week’s WCBS Small Business Spotlight focusing on small business survival, sponsored by BNB Bank.
Brooklyn Navy Yard businesses employ more than 10,000 workers – many of whom have become essential workers as they produce vital medical equipment needed to treat the coronavirus.
“Our tenants have really been doing amazing, amazing things, producing everything from medical gowns to face shields, hand sanitizer and a series of other products,” said Ehrenberg, noting that this equipment is being shipped directly to hospitals.
Bednark Studio, Voodoo Manufacturing and Farmshelf – previous WCBS Small Business Spotlight subjects housed in the Brooklyn Navy Yard – are contributing to the broad COVID-19 fight. Bednark Studio is manufacturing face shields for frontline hospital workers in the City, 3-D-printing company Voodoo Manufacturing makes FDA-approved medical devices, and Farmshelf has been on the cutting edge of the changes in the U.S. food supply that has been accelerated by the coronavirus outbreak.
“A lot of people think that manufacturing is dead in New York and it’s not,” Ehrenberg said, adding that because of lower real estate prices in Brooklyn, growing technology companies that emphasize a high standard of craftsmanship and design can attract top talent the Big Apple has to offer.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. head told Connolly they started communicating with New York City officials and local hospitals about their needs before they contacted business owners to discover that they were ahead of the curve.
“We had companies who were ordering materials, who have relationships with factories in China, who were buying tens of thousands of gowns be shipped over here and donated,” he said.
Ehrenberg highlighted the “civic pride” of Brooklyn Navy Yard businesses, saying owners respond to his contacts by asking if there’s more they can do to contribute to the City’s response.
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“The supply chains have just eased up, both, because of the level of demand, but also, you have certain countries (that) are keeping supplies for themselves right now,” he said.
His tenants have been able to manufacture fully American made products in their factories even before President Donald J. Trump invoked the Korean War era Defense Production Act to mandate U.S. companies to make medical equipment. The President and other government officials, namely New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, have revealed they are relying on countries like China, where the coronavirus originated, to import life-saving equipment such as ventilators and N95 masks.
Listen to the WCBS Small Business Spotlight Podcast above to hear how businesses in the Brooklyn Navy Yard are revolutionizing American manufacturing in the time of dire need.
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Why Americans May Choose Safety Over Privacy In The Age Of Coronavirus
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Health experts are stressing the need to monitor COVID-19 patients to slow the pandemic, but Americans’ privacy is at stake.
“We’re looking for a quick solution, we’re not thinking about privacy issues, necessarily,” said Robert J. Strang, a former special agent with the FBI, Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration. He was named co-chair of the New York State anti-terrorism task force after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
“If you look back on the Patriot Act and some of the things that we decided we were going to do after 9/11 and then turn back the pages a little bit as time went on, I have a feeling that’s the same kind of situation that we’re in right now,” Strang told WCBS 880 producer Neil A. Carousso.
He is the Chief Executive Officer of Investigative Management Group where he specializes in personal and corporate security and investigations. He believes Americans support tracking in the name of national security.
“They want to be able to do whatever it takes to keep them safe, to keep their families safe, to keep their employees safe, their communities safe,” Strang said, adding, “If it means monitoring individuals who’ve had the coronavirus, if it means monitoring hospitals, I think people, at this point in time, are okay with it.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said smartphone tracking is under “aggressive evaluation.”
While the U.S. has not endorsed specific tracing technology, there are a few states looking to develop systems. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched the “Safe Paths” initiative to use anonymized GPS data and Bluetooth to track interactions and notify people if they’ve encountered someone who has been infected with COVID-19. Stanford University and Seattle-based CoEpi are working with the MIT team to develop an anonymous standard for contact tracing technology.
Apple and Alphabet’s Google announced last week it will help national, state and local governments launch contact tracing apps to monitor the whereabouts of people who contracted the coronavirus.
China has taken the most aggressive steps to monitor the original center of the outbreak. The Communist Party is tracing the identities of residents who left Wuhan through mobile phone numbers and location data.
South Korea investigators are utilizing smartphone data to find where people contracted the virus. They can make that determination within 10 minutes.
Western Australian lawmakers passed a bill to install home monitors for those under quarantine.
Moscow authorities said they are using facial recognition technology to target Chinese people who break quarantine in Russia.
When asked how he would advise the Trump Administration on implementing a contact tracing program, if he were asked, Strang said he would ask those who contracted COVID-19 for “consent.”
“I think most people would cooperate and would voluntarily agree to certain restrictions on their freedom,” Strang said but stipulated there had to be a set time frame to limit the possibility of government overreach.
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Small Business Survival: Hospitality Company Develops Way To Stay Alive Amid Crisis
In Best Of, Featured, Guest, Interview, Latest, News Stories, Technology, The World, Top News, videosBy Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – A New York City-based events company forced to shutter its operations temporarily after eight years in business due to the coronavirus pandemic has developed new revenue streams from adjacent services.
“Everything was great, 2020’s a huge year for us, could not wait,” William Petz, founder of Quiet Events, Inc. told WCBS 880 of the upward trajectory for his business heading into this year. He has 120,000 people on his e-mail list and hundreds attend each event nationwide.
That was the sentiment across the business community before the COVID-19 crisis forced the closure of businesses throughout the country. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index sunk 8.1 points in March to 96.4 – the largest monthly decline in the survey’s history – ending historic business confidence. The NFIB survey indicates business owners are bracing for further loss of revenue amid the rapid recession the global economy was thrust into with the fatal and highly contagious novel virus.
“You’ll have workplaces that will be filled with different types of reminders and postings designed to change behavior and to ingrain certain type(s) of safe approaches towards how you even navigate the office,” David Lewis, founder of human resources consulting firm OperationsInc, told WCBS 880 Business Reporter Joe Connolly.
Business owners are adapting and creating new services, some of which may be long-term offerings, as they struggle to stay afloat. That’s the topic on this week’s WCBS Small Business Spotlight focusing on small business survival, sponsored by BNB Bank.
Quiet Events hosts concert-like experiences with disc jockeys for people to enjoy their favorite genres of music in headphones designed by the company.
“You don’t have to fight about what club you’re going to tonight because all the clubs are in one,” Petz said.
If you enjoy pop music, but your friend likes country, for example, you can both enjoy each other’s company while listening to your music of choice from the DJ you prefer.
“You can enjoy having a meal or drinking with some friends or talking with them without hearing the loudness of the music behind you,” Petz said, adding, “But, then when you put the headphones on, you guys are just jamming out and you have your own personality.”
Petz said his company is called “Quiet Events” because it is a “fun night out” when you will only hear partiers singing along to the music in their ears, if you aren’t wearing headphones.
Hospitality businesses such as Quiet Events have been crushed by the coronavirus outbreak.
“We started to see the impacts already by getting the headphones manufactured in China,” Petz said.
He laid off 11 of his 13 employees and he stopped taking a paycheck three weeks ago.
Then, he developed proprietary software to host his Quiet Events virtually as people self-isolate.
“YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, it’s just one dimension. It’s basically, you’re watching content,” said Petz. “People’s attention needs to be engaged and you need to feel like you’re being social, so that’s what we created – a platform which is patent pending.”
The platform features a virtual “DJ battle” in which three DJs vie for attention and likes. Attendees can switch between the DJs and can see the percentage of people watching each performer. Petz said that creates the “FOMO” or “fear of missing out” that his company thrives on with its in-person events.
Quiet Events’ first promoted online shows were last weekend, but as Petz tweaked the virtual experience over the last three weeks, 500-1,000 people participated in each trial event. In the interim, the online events are free, but attendees are encouraged to tip the DJs.
“They don’t just play; they really do interact,” Petz said of the DJs. “They look at the chatroom. They do shout-outs.”
He hopes to re-hire his employees in the near future as he works on several adjacent services to bring in revenue while in-person events are banned to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“We did this for ourselves, initially for the DJs,” said Petz. “Dell, before we even broadcast it out, somehow, they found out [and they said>, ‘Look, we love what you’re doing and we’d love to create an experience for our employees.’”
He then saw there was a market for leasing his software to other businesses and organizations to create corporate events on both the Quiet Events website and other companies’ sites.
“We have a partnership with Crunch Fitness to do fitness events,” Petz said. “Quiet Events also used to do something called Quiet Comedy. It’s three comedians battling it out against each other. So, it’s really three of anything battling and we’re working on making that so it’s not just three but it’s more or less.”
A traveling nurse company reached out to Quiet Events looking to hire it for a morale-booster as its staff fights its own battle on the frontlines of the COVID-19 health crisis.
He has also received interest from a charitable organization looking to compensate the DJs for performing for their audience while providing a way for participants to donate to the non-profit’s cause.
“It’s what entrepreneurs do,” Petz said.
Hear how entrepreneurs like William Petz are developing solutions and adjacent services to stay afloat and re-hire workers on this week’s WCBS Small Business Spotlight Podcast available on the RADIO.COM app.
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Brooklyn Gym Owner And Real Estate Pro Paying Workers Over Rent
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – The franchisee owner of children’s gyms in Brooklyn, who is also a real estate attorney, is choosing to pay his employees over his rent.
“I can’t pay both my employees and my rent at the same time,” said James Wacht who owns two locations of the global franchise My Gym Children’s Fitness Center in Park Slope and Cobble Hill. “My decision was to pay my employees and not pay my rent.”
This was a difficult decision for Wacht, who runs the activity spaces for infants to 10 year old kids with his son Evan, while also serving as president of Lee & Associates NYC, thus being on both sides of the tenant-landlord predicament during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He hired highly skilled trainers over a two year period and concluded it would be more effective and smarter to retain his employees and hope for leniency from his two landlords during a global crisis.
“Given what’s happened in retail the last two years, the likelihood that landlords will be able to replace a retail tenant quickly at the same rent they’re currently getting, is really unlikely, so I think landlords are going to be really hard-pressed to work something out with their tenants, Wacht said, adding, “Some of them are just not going to be able to survive.”
He highlighted restaurants and other small businesses with low margins that may not be able to bounce back from a months-long closure, even with government relief programs, as it will take capital to jump-start business operations.
He told WCBS 880 he applied for the Payment Protection Payment (PPP) Loan and the New York City small businesses loan for both gyms and a few of his other businesses. The PPP loan is forgivable if a company maintains its workforce. It can be partially used for rent payments. If accepted through his Small Business Administration-approved bank, he would be able to pay part of his monthly payment.
“What I’m hoping to be able to do with my landlords is make a deal with them saying, ‘Listen, my business got hurt, what I’m willing to do is: I will pay you some of the rent, but I want some rent forgiveness for the period of time that I couldn’t operate,’” Wacht said.
He is developing online classes for children as non-essential businesses remain shuttered through at least April 29 and he has been upfront with his landlords that he and his son are working on new revenue streams to stay afloat.
“I look at this as sort of a collaboration between me and my landlord. It isn’t me against them,” Wacht said, adding his mantra through this challenge is, “How do we solve a problem together?”
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Hackers Deploy New Tactics During COVID-19 Crisis
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW JERSEY (WCBS 880) — Scammers are out in full force in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.
“The most stimulating part of the stimulus is the fact that the hackers are out there in droves,” Adam Levin, former director of consumer affairs in New Jersey, told WCBS 880’s Neil A. Carousso.
Levin, co-founder of the cybersecurity firm CyberScout, said scammers are deploying new tactics to take advantage of people relying on the stimulus checks that could be direct deposited as soon as Thursday.
“While we have day jobs, we are their day job, that’s never changed. The intensity, however, has increased dramatically as a result of this virus and the disaster is the unemployment, and frankly, the terror that people are going through on two levels: health and economics,” he said.
Another 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Nearly 17 million Americans have filed jobless claims since the coronavirus pandemic forced the shutdown of businesses nationwide.
Levin warns people to never click on links that appear to come from government agencies. Scammers are looking to take advantage by pretending to be the U.S. Government and preying on one’s financial stress by offering a way to receive the stimulus check faster and get more money.
“Ransomware, which is where they freeze your files, lock everything down and demand to be paid or else your files will be deleted or forever encrypted,” Levin said of one tactic. Another one is by turning one’s computer or smartphone into a “keystroke logger.” “Your log on credentials are being transmitted to the hacker,” Levin said.
He said scammers, looking to install malware, are promoting phony links for COVID-19 tracking. If one were to download it, a hacker would be able to access files and bank accounts.
“(Federal agencies) don’t send links, they don’t send attachments that you can open, they don’t call you on the phone and they don’t text,” Levin emphasized.
He encouraged people who are concerned or have questions to go on government agencies’ official .gov websites and initiate contact with their inquiry.
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