2020 Year in Review: COVID-19 & Small Business

Continuing our journey through 2020, it's impossible to talk about the year without talking about COVID-19 and the changes it has brought in every aspect of our lives.  Today we will take a look at the ways that we responded in Community and highlight some of the content and resources that are still being used.  

I vividly remember the day in early March that we were notified that Intuit had made the decision to transition all employees to work from home effective immediately.  It happened late on a Thursday afternoon and I remember everyone slowly packing up their desks and wandering around a little bit in shock just talking to each other about the news and what it might mean.   

As a company, we rallied quickly and began pivoting to make sure that we were able to be here for our members and offer as many resources as possible in regards to the quickly shifting business landscape.  Our first efforts included a custom forum to share resources and give small business owners a place to connect to each other - the COVID-19 Connection forum.  

There were also sites created to address the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for QuickBooks users, and the creation of the Intuit Aid Assist site which had calculators,  estimators,  and workflows designed to help you understand which relief programs would be the best for you and your business.  

As the PPP began funding, we created a dedicated Q&A forum to answer questions about loan applications, stimulus payments, and deadline changes.   

But the true magic in all of this was the way that community members jumped in to share their learnings and help each other out.   These samples from a discussion around recording an Economic Injury Disaster Grant payment in QuickBooks are an excellent example of the power of community showcasing the collective knowledge of our members:

And as businesses were forced to adapt as lockdowns and social distancing became more common, we made sure to offer resources and guidance on how to navigate the constant change.   One of our earliest videos was a live Q&A session with Rod Kurtz, Entrepreneur in Residence at UCLA Anderson School of Management.  

That wraps up today's lookback, next week we will take a dive into some of the new content series we have launched this year and check back the week after that for a look at the stats and top posts of the year.    Look forward to seeing you there!