Scott Duffy On What To Do When You Don't Know What To DO, Episode 30

Good morning, everybody, and welcome. Welcome to what now with Scott Duffy. It is good to have you here and good Monday to all of you and thank you for joining again. This is Scott Duffy and the show is what Now. And I want to thank all of you for joining today.

We have a big week ahead and there's a lot of news from the weekend and so much to get into. Today is going to be a really big show and if this is the first time that you have ever dropped in, make sure to leave your name in the comments, leave your name, the industry you're in and what is the biggest question that you have today or thing that's going on in your business. So I can use that information to shape this show. We are coming to you live on Facebook and YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and Periscope and you can also listen nationwide on Dash Radio throughout the day or download the podcast. We're gonna wait just a couple of minutes for this stream to propagate. We go live in one minute and I just want to say hello and welcome to all of you. If you watch this show in the past and you've gotten value, if you wouldn't mind, please shoot this out, go ahead and stream it to your friends and your families and other small business owners that could use this information again. I'm so happy to see you here. Patrick Carney. Hello. Will Watson. Hello. And good morning. Happy Monday to you guys. What a weekend. What a weekend and what a week we have ahead. What a week we have ahead.

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Good morning. My name is Scott Duffy and this is WHAT now with Scott Duffy. I want to welcome you from wherever you're listening. You can tune in each day at 10:00am Pacific Time to watch the live broadcast on YouTube and Facebook, listen nationwide on Dash Radio throughout the day or download the podcast. Now, this show is for entrepreneurs, small businesses and those thinking about starting their own company. It's for people affected by this economy. Maybe they lost their job, they lost their business, they were furloughed or they saw their consulting contracts canceled. And for many people, it happened just like that. It's for people asking, what do I do now and how do I come out of this even stronger? And I'll tell you, we have a lot to share today. It was a big news weekend. We have a big week ahead. And I'll tell you, our focus today is going to be on this simple question. What do you do when you don't know what to do? Because if there was one thing I took away from the weekend, it was uncertainty and mixed messages from the media, from the press, from the mayors, from businesses, from everybody. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? A quick update on the news this Monday morning. The US now has 761,000 cases confirmed of coronavirus and is reporting 41,379 deaths. Some good news, approximately 20 states have begun the process of easing stay at home restrictions. And big cities like Las Vegas are starting the process of reopening. Las Vegas is hoping to begin reopening as soon as Memorial Day. Now, there has been a ton of pushback to reopening because of a lack of testing that's available. So this is testing to show if someone's sick. It's testing to show if someone's immune. But there's a problem. People need to get back to work. And we got to start to earn money so that people can pay their rent, their groceries and their employees. And the challenge that we have is that the testing, even though we keep hearing from the federal government that it's coming and it's awesome and all that kind of stuff, it's not anywhere close to where it needs to be. We've done roughly 5 million tests in the U.S. we have about 400 million people in this country. And so we're gonna need to wait for these tests that have been created, whether they're to determine if you have coronavirus or to determine if you have coronavirus antibodies and potential immunity. We have to wait for these things to be manufactured, distributed, and to get to us. And because a lot of people don't feel like we have that time, we may end up going to work and reopening a bit early, maybe too early. But a lot of people would say we don't really have a choice. And don't forget, there's a lot of people right now that are working from home. But most people in the US cannot work from home because their jobs require them to be hands on and somewhere else. And it's not just people. It's not just people. And this is really important to understand that cities need the economy to get moving so they can generate taxes as well, tax revenue. So this is, this is a trip. I want you guys to grok this, okay? I'm here in Los Angeles, so let's take LA as an example. The city of LA has really been, I think, a case for leadership in this crisis. The nation in large part has followed LA's lead. And I want to give a huge shout out to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, because I think he's done a great job. I mean, I really think he's been top shelf. He's been in office for seven years here in la. During that time, he's doubled the city's cash reserve fund, done a lot to improve infrastructure and social programs. But I think what's really important today is to talk about how he has handled, how he has handled this crisis. So as it relates to Covid.

LA was the first place in the United States with a stay at home order. Most people think it was New York. It was actually the city of LA was the first to issue a stay at home order. And then later that day, Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, issued one. And then the following day, New York did. LA was the first place in the United States to ask all of its citizens to wear a mask. You know, in this case, it was a cloth mask. And then it was after that in California and New York and the rest of the country.

And maybe this is one of the reasons that LA has done better than expected, is that it has been so proactive in terms of, you know, just kind of being out front. But last night.

Last night, Eric Garcetti, the Mayor of Los Angeles, delivered the State of the city. So every year he's required to deliver a State of the City address before he releases the new budget. Louisiana is on a July through June.

Fiscal year. So today he's got to unveil the new budget for beginning in July.

And what he talked about was pretty dire. And I got to tell you, it really caught me a little bit off guard. And let me share some of what we learned yesterday, just about Los Angeles.

Because of a loss of tax revenue, sales tax revenue, over the past five weeks, it appears the city may be as much as a half a billion dollars short. A half a billion dollars short for next year, which is just mind boggling in some perspective on the city during the Great Recession. In 2008, 2009 LA saw a 13 point percent unemployment rate. A 13 point percent unemployment rate. But check this out. Late yesterday afternoon, Loyola Marymount University here in Los Angeles came out with a new study, the most recent data that shows that 55% of workers in Los Angeles are now unemployed or furloughed. That is crazy. That number 55% of workers in Los Angeles are now unemployed or furloughed. That's according to Loyola Marymount University. Came out late yesterday afternoon. And let me give you an example of how a particular industry is affecting the economy.

After 9 11, LA lost 1/3. This is pretty interesting. So I was in the travel business.