COVID-19 news changes quickly — day to day, if not hour to hour.

This has made it difficult for local businesses to keep track of what resources are currently available to them, like grants, loans, and more, while they’re also trying to plan for the future and successfully weather this pandemic.

Luckily, the Green River College’s Small Business Center is hosting a free webinar on current resources and successful planning strategies for local businesses on April 28, starting at 9 a.m. The webinar is in partnership with both the city of Enumclaw and the Enumclaw Chamber of Commerce.

“Planning, resources available and having the GRC team available to assist [you] in answering questions is part of this free webinar,” said Mayor Jan Molinaro in an email. “It is hoped that any business, small, medium and large will find this webinar helpful in guiding them in sustaining their business during this slow time as well as when the economy begins to ramp up again.”

To sign up for the webinar, you must email Enumclawcampus@greenriver.edu to receive the Zoom link to join the meeting. The host will be Kevin Grossman, MBA, who is one of the college’s small business advisers. Grossman has already done three other webinars for other nearby cities.

When not faced with a world-wide viral outbreak, Grossman said, the Small Business Center works to help small business with everything from start-ups that are writing their business plan and to succession and transition strategies for existing businesses.

“My background happens to be more in facilities and finance. If you want a loan, I’m really good at helping you get that,” Grossman said. “If you want to know the ins and outs of SEO (search engine optimization) and social media, I’m not your guy, but I can connect you to someone in your network that’s really, really good at that.”

Funding for the program comes from both the Small Business Administration, the national Small Business Development Centers, and local cities like Enumclaw, Kent, Maple Valley, and Covington, so that it’s always free for businesses.

At the beginning of this pandemic, the Small Business Center helped businesses figure out things like economic injury and payroll protection loans.

“Now that both of those programs are at least temporarily maxed out funding-wise, we’re back to basics, which is cash flow management and forecasts,” he continued.

Grossman also plans to talk about how keep your current customer base engaged so you don’t lose that financial support once the COVID-19 curve flattens and the quarantine lifts.

“The question is, when the curve flattens and people start shopping normally again — or whatever normal looks like at the end of this — what have you done to prepare and make sure that you’re in touch with your customers and you incentivize them to reconnect with you?” Grossman said.

The session will end with questions and answers, and although the session is aiming to end at 10 a.m., “if the Q&A is going hot and heavy, it’ll extend out a little bit,” Grossman said.

More information about the Green River College’s Small Business Center can be found at https://www.greenriver.edu/students/academics/continuing-community-education/small-business-center/grow/; Grossman can be contacted directly at kgrossman@greenriver.edu or his office line at 253-520-6263.