San Francisco, ca, March 31, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  

• 37% of small businesses have one month or less in cash reserves
• Small businesses are owed $900 Billion in outstanding receivables for services and products already delivered 
• The fastest way to provide financial relief is to pay small businesses payables right away
• #paytoday program calls on enterprises and government agencies to take immediate action and sign our open letter
• #paytoday campaign calls on small businesses to amplify this message via social media
• Businesses supporting this coalition include Alignable, Fundbox, Womply, Homebase, Gusto, SmallBizDaily.com, Small Business Edge, Business.com and others

Today, a broad coalition of concerned businesses including Alignable, Fundbox, Gusto, Homebase, Womply, SmallBizDaily.com, Actual.Agency, Business.com and Small Business Edge have announced the #paytoday initiative, with the goal to relieve the immediate and acute cash flow needs of small businesses resulting from the coronavirus outbreak. 

#paytoday aims to give voice to the millions of small businesses that cannot wait to get paid for services they’ve already delivered to their customers - especially big enterprises and government agencies.   #paytoday also encourages bold leadership from enterprises and government agencies, asking for a commitment to pay their small business vendors as quickly as possible.

Running Out Of Cash And Time 

According to recent survey data from Alignable, 37% of SMB’s have 30 days or less of cash on hand and two-thirds of SMB’s have 60 days or less of cash on hand. A primary cause of this cash crunch is that SMBs have to wait on receivables. 

SMBs have always operated with little spare cash on hand, and now, with the rapid and devastating impact of the coronavirus outbreak and related remediation efforts such as quarantines, many of them are in a dire situation.  

#paytoday coalition partner Womply has created a dynamic dashboard designed to track the coronavirus impact to small businesses revenue across a spectrum of industries.   This data provides yet another inductor that for many small businesses time is running out as quickly as their revenue dwindles.  Separately, a PYMNT’s study from 2019 shows that the average SMB waits 28 days to get paid. In total, SMBs are owed over $900B at any given time. If we are to help SMBs, now is the time. 

And, even with the positive news of a new $2 trillion dollar stimulus package,  CNN speculates that the earliest businesses could have access to these relief funds will be May.  A recent MarketFinance survey also indicates that two-thirds of SMB’s believe that government coronavirus funds won’t reach them in time to save their businesses.

Lessons Learned From The 2008 Recession 

When the 2008 recession hit, small businesses were facing similar cash flow challenges that they are facing today.  To help stabilize small businesses, the SBA under the leadership of Karen G. Mills, developed the QuickPay program,  cutting the payment terms from 30 days down to 15 days. Accelerating payments to small businesses resulted in a net-positive impact including:

• Getting paid quickly helped small businesses hire more people than they would have otherwise. This was the SBA's objective with QuickPay (to combat the so-called "jobless recovery” after the Great Recession of 2007-2009).

While the news of the stimulus passing is positive, the reality is many small businesses will struggle to have enough cash reserves to make it until the relief funds are disbursed,” said Karen G. Mills.  “Right now a common-sense approach for getting money quickly into the hands of SMB’s is by speeding up the payment of outstanding receivables owed to small business owners right away. With $900 billion owed to small businesses for services already delivered, paying them now will help many to survive.”  

We need Action Now

The #paytoday program provides small businesses with content designed to raise awareness that the fastest way to provide small businesses with financial relief is for companies and agencies to pay their small business payables right away.    The awareness campaign is aimed at those large enterprises and government agencies that are holding on to small business payables for products and services already delivered.  These entities have the cash on hand to #paytoday. They just need to adjust some of their accounting practices to make it happen.

The #paytoday Club invites all concerned companies to join our initiative and to help small businesses by paying them today. 

Coalition Commentary 

"Every hour matters for small businesses that run on razor-thin margins. In addition to urgent government intervention, we need the private sector to come together in unprecedented solidarity,” said Toby Scammell, Founder, and CEO of Womply. “We fully support this initiative to get small businesses paid faster so they can survive longer."

“Small businesses are essential to our neighborhoods, our communities, and the U.S. economy. They need us now more than ever and we all have to get their backs,” said Lexi Reese, Gusto COO. “Every action, big and small, counts right now. This especially includes taking steps to help improve their capital position by making sure businesses are paid as quickly as possible." 

“Small business owners are doing everything possible to earn income, keep their lights on, and retain their employees, despite unbelievably daunting circumstances," said Alignable Co-Founder and CEO Eric Groves. "They need more help from their clients, their local communities, and from any partners who might owe them money. That's where our wholehearted support of #paytoday comes in — a campaign that will encourage big corporations to pay their vendors’ invoices today, instead of waiting 30 days or more. "

“As a short term relief effort it’s vital that we get money into the hands of our SMB suppliers quickly,” said Marten Abrahamsen, CFO for Fundbox. “We are prioritizing and committing to pay our small business suppliers first. Now, instead of processing payments bi-weekly, we are now going to process SMB supplier payments weekly.”

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About #paytoday

#paytoday was started by concerned tech companies that serve small businesses. We saw the data and realized that if we didn’t do something, many small businesses wouldn’t survive more than a month after the coronavirus quarantines began. So, we started this movement: if everyone just paid the money they owed small businesses right away, it would inject a huge amount of capital into the small business economy and give them a runway to outlast the virus. Our goal is to raise the visibility of the problem and mobilize enterprises and governments to get on board before it is too late.  To learn more about #paytoday, please visit: www.paytoday.club .

About Alignable

Alignable.com is the largest referral network for small business owners in North America, with over 4.5 million members across 30,000+ communities. Members use Alignable to make meaningful connections, generate customer referrals, promote events, find trusted vendors, and exchange expertise in a popular Advice Forum. The company also has established the Alignable Trust Index, which has over 70,000 ratings and reviews across 100 national small business brands, showcasing the brands most recommended from one small business to another. For more information about Alignable, visit alignable.com

About Fundbox

Fundbox is a leading financial technology company focused on disrupting the $21 trillion B2B commerce market by launching the world’s first B2B payments and credit network. With Fundbox, sellers (of all sizes) can quickly increase average order volumes (AOV) and improve close rates by offering more competitive net terms and payment plans to their SMB buyers. With heavy investments in machine learning and the ability to quickly analyze transactional data, Fundbox is reimagining B2B payments and credit products in new category-defining ways. For more information about Fundbox, visit fundbox.com.