Salt Lake City groups give businesses tools for economic recovery

Health remains at the forefront of conversations as the continually undulating stats on COVID-19 and its effects remain dominating in news cycles. While physical health is still a concern for many, economic health is also looming as something to watch over closely as the pandemic continues. To that end, leaders of the Salt Lake Chamber are sharing statistics and giving businesses an online resource to track the effects of what is taking place. Their Road to Recovery dashboard collects leading economic indicators for the Beehive State, truly showing the positives and negatives of what is taking place.

An extensive recent article in the Deseret News explains this dashboard, as well as collects some of the recent stats that show Utah doing the best in the nation in some respects, but sorely lacking in others. Still, other groups such as the city’s Downtown Alliance are also starting to find a better footing in businesses with their own efforts to safely bring in more customers by increasing interest in shopping and socializing. For your business, one thing that could help with economic stability is to better manage your own treasury. First Utah Bank can offer that help with its own tools on the internet that give insight to your revenue.

The good with the bad

Among the positives that are showing on the Road to Recovery dashboard are a close-to-leading low employment rate, a booming construction industry and taxable retail sales stats are that actually ahead of last year. Certain sectors, however, are not doing as well, including the hospitality industry (down 17% from 2019) and the near-complete stall of travel and tourism efforts, which would normally account for 1 in every 11 jobs in the state. Plus, as with most areas of the country, smaller retail and service industries are still feeling the pinch, even more so as federal relief efforts have ended with no new programs in sight.

Even with this mixed prognosis, Chamber leaders believe that arming yourself with the knowledge of these realities will be an important step to your own business recovery. “Salt Lake Chamber’s primary objective with the new Roadmap to Recovery is to empower the private sector to create jobs and opportunity for individuals and families throughout Utah,” writes Derek Miller, the Chamber’s President and CEO. “In that effort, we are just beginning. We need to see beyond the horizon to view opportunities as they are manifest, so our businesses can make decisions accordingly.”

How things are looking in Salt Lake City’s core

Among those making business adjustments are those in Salt Lake City’s downtown area. With less commuters working in its offices, less tourists making visits to the city and zero cultural or sports events at its core, the numbers for all businesses in the locale have been down dramatically. There are ways, though, that these smaller businesses are helping to cope with the losses. Dee Brewer, Executive Director of the Downtown Alliance, told Deseret News that there are silver linings. Chief among them is an increase of 69% in reopened bars and restaurants since May, and retail businesses reporting that there may be fewer shoppers but there are also more who visit actually purchasing items than in previous years.

There’s also a new offering that the Downtown Alliance began to assist in this revival. A event called Open Streets took place in the downtown core during which roads were closed to cars in the early evening from Thursday to Saturday. This gave off an open market atmosphere and even promoted some entertainment types. There were musicians playing every half-block and most businesses set aside outdoor areas for people to browse their wares or grab a bite to eat or a drink during the event. Brewer said the Alliance is still tallying how the overall effort went, but in general it sounds like it was a good plan to execute.

“It appears to have been a huge success,” Brewer said. “The Salt Lake Arts Council brought in some of their Living Traditions performers to Exchange Place, and we had buskers performing up and down Main Street. One restaurant reported their sales were up 30%.”

Treasury Management program helps small Utah businesses

There’s an offering from First Utah Bank that can help small businesses with a few of the day-to-day financial details that take place as recovery efforts continue. With our Treasury Management program, you can use our real-time business internet banking tools to manage company cash. As part of it, you’ll be able to see transactions through the requirement of dual control for account and wire transfers, ACH transactions, and remote deposits. You can also initiate outgoing wire transfer and use ACH Origination Services for services such as accounts receivable, payroll and vendor payments. ACH Origination also can help you make transfers between your own accounts at different financial institutions. Among the other parts of Treasury Management are:

• Export transactions into Quickbooks Direct Connect, Quicken or other programs
• Protect against check fraud with Positive Pay
• 
Make deposits remotely using Remote Deposit Capture
• Grant controlled access of the business accounts to your employees

Consider our services to help you run your small business securely and efficiently, no matter what the future brings. To learn more about what we have to offer, go to our website or call First Utah Bank at 801-308-2265.