The coronavirus has taken its toll on business owners this year. Thanks to medical advancements in the COVID-19 vaccine, they are now hopeful for the future.
In order to follow precautionary measures from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention along with government orders, many local businesses in the Tampa Bay Area were forced to shut down.
City Bike Tampa was one of the many businesses that had to adjust during the pandemic. However, owner Kevin Craft said since Florida entered its reopening stage on May 4, 2020, businesses were on the rise.
“We actually had somewhat of a backward experience to a lot of businesses. March, April, and May were huge for us. We were fortunate to get a bump initially,” said Craft.
Many people turned to outdoor activities to pass time during quarantine but employees like Sarah Myhre at City Bike Tampa still ensured that they were keeping customers safe.
“Work looks different new policies, masks, and things like that. We ask that everyone that comes in wear a mask and we have a sign on the door. We offer hand sanitizer. We do sanitize the bikes after we touch them and before we touch them, sanitize the credit card machines, all of these regular things that fit in pretty easily to the new routine,” said Myhre.
Luckily some businesses like City Bike Tampa, located in the heart of downtown, managed to stay afloat in the midst of a pandemic while others struggled to make way.
These businesses are starting to regain their hope as vaccinations are making their way to the United States. The United Kingdom is the first country to prepare to give a COVID-19 vaccination, and the world is watching. Michael Snipes, a professor at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, said this can positively affect the future of our economy.
“We might be able to have 120 million people vaccinated by mid-January. That is going to have an extraordinary impact on the future for the economy,” said Snipes.
This will help combat the economic downturn that we have seen in the Tampa Bay area since the spread of COVID-19. As our economy rises the emphasis on supporting local businesses is still apparent. The U.S. Small Business Administration implemented the Paycheck Protection Program to assist businesses such as City Bike Tampa, among other up-and-coming industries. This program gave loans to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the Coronavirus crisis.
Craft said the help did not always find its way to the people who most needed it..
“The Paycheck Protection Program was absolutely beneficial to the people that got it, but unfortunately that number was not high enough. There were enough loopholes and enough snags in the system and probably enough factors that prevented it from helping enough of the right people,” Craft said.
With the future in mind, Senior Vice President Steve Morey of the Economic Development Council lauded the potential for businesses in Tampa.
“Tampa is a place that doesn’t even know what its ceiling is, if it even has a ceiling, because it’s a growing, booming place,” Morey said. “Look we’ve got Water Street, Midtown, The Heights is up and running, we’ve got the new office project that is going in at the airport, Sky Center One. These things they’ve gone from an idea to things on paper, to now they are coming up out of the ground and that’s really exciting.”
