Page 1 - GS190301

March 11, 2019 • Issue 19:03:01

Diversification, service mitigate

effects of negative events

uring the federal government's recent partial Steven Feldshuh
shutdown, an estimated 800,000 federal workers MCPS East LLC
were furloughed or forced to work without pay,
D and approximately 4 million contractors were It has been proven each time a government shutdown
temporarily out of work. Merchants serving government occurs that no one comes out a winner. Yes, some political
workers lost sales, many small businesses didn't receive points may be made by one party or the other, but in the
needed loans, federal courts ran out of money and private end, it's always the federal workers and businesses directly
companies delayed going public, for example. Seeking and indirectly tied into the federal government that suffer.
insight into how this event impacted the payments sphere,
we asked our Advisory Board the following: First-hand, my organizations saw a decline in business.
We service 12 large cafeteria locations within federal
government offices in Washington and Delaware.
1. How did your business fare during the shutdown? Processing volume dropped by more than 50 percent at
What negative effects did you experience, if any? If you those locations. In speaking with the management of these
weren't affected, why is that? businesses, I learned they took a large loss during the
2. Do you anticipate long-term impacts on your business shutdown.
and on merchants in your portfolio?
3. What steps, if any, did you take during the shutdown The locations were immediately forced to lay off workers
during the shutdown. They fell behind in paying vendors
to help ensure your business suffered as minimally as due to lost sales. The produce, milk, bread/cake, and meat
possible?
4. Have you made strategic plans to protect your
company from future government shutdowns or other
unforeseen negative events? Contributed articles inside by:
5. Do you have advice for payments businesses dealing
with events like this in the future? Steve Norell ............................................................................................32
Nicky Koopman .....................................................................................36
We appreciate the busy executives who replied. Their
answers follow. Brandes Elitch ........................................................................................38

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