Large Georgia businesses working together to help smaller ones recover from coronavirus shutdown

ATLANTA — A lot of people want to know how Georgia businesses will rebound after the coronavirus shutdown.

A special task is working on a plan with some of the area's largest companies on it.

For almost a decade Georgia was known as a place to do business.

State leaders told Channel 2’s Dave Huddleston that they want to make sure it stays that way. So do the owners of some of the state’s most prominent companies.

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"At minimum, we've almost doubled each year," said Garrett Lash.

Lash and his wife Ceata own a hair grooming and accessories company called Puff Cuff. They had a big contact with a beauty supply store and then COVID-19 hit.

"COVID has really effected them, so it's really affected us, where they would usually be placing big orders right now they haven't,” Lash said.

The Lashes were forced to make some adjustments, including direct online sales and having their 8-year-old son with them at the office, but they are making it.

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The Georgia Chamber wants Puff Cuff to not only make it but thrive.

"The common thought right now is we might open for a while and if COVID-19 comes back, we might have to close again and businesses are going to have to develop new business plans, new health care plans and we want to make sure they have the best practices to do that," said Chris Clark, president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber.

Tuesday, Clark and almost 50 of the state’s biggest business executives created a task force to share best practices to recover from COVID-19 and become resilient to any future problems.

"This is going to be a long-term effort, this is not something that will last three or four weeks, or three or four months. We see this going to the end of the year or 2021,” Clark told Huddleston.

Clark said the task force will also lobby lawmakers to make sure Georgia companies have the proper equipment to keep their workers safe from COVID-19.

The Lashes also told Huddleston they were able to pivot and do online sales for people stuck at home forced to do video meetings without being able to get their hair done.

?This is uncharted territory.? Gov. Kemp answers questions about reopening Georgia businesses Governor Brian Kemp discussed what he called a difficult decision to reopen some businesses in Georgia during a news conference Monday.

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