Lexington Commerce builds guide to help businesses reopen

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Lexington’s Chamber of Commerce is also offering help to businesses trying to safely reopen.

Opening a business isn’t easy. Re-opening now and safely is a whole new challenge and one Commerce Lexington says it’s here to help with.

So it created ‘An Introductory Guide to Reopening your Business in the era of COVID-19’.

“So many different recommendations across multiple outlets, CDC, governor’s website, you name it. Probably six or seven different things we reviewed and kind of distilled it down into a more understandable document,” explains chief communications officer, Mark Turner.

The guide touches on just about everything from managing the new normal to identifying all common touch points at your business like elevators and credit card machines.

“Assessing your workplace, making sure you got enough space for everybody in different parts of the building,” says Turner.

It’s a step-by-step guide the chamber hopes will help businesses during this crucial phase and to have all essential information right in one document.

“This is uncharted territory for everybody and that includes us so we’re trying to work through the process the best we can,” says Turner.

Turner says businesses have already shared concerns making them wait to re-open, to see how things progress for others, they may be worried about liability. wanting to be safe rather than sorry, and even some employees not wanting to come back and put themselves at risk when they’re making more through unemployment.

“Am I doing everything I can to provide that safe environment for both the employees and customers?” is what Turner says businesses should be asking.

There are a lot of questions like what is the business landscape going to look like after all this?

The chamber doesn’t have that answer but wants the community to know it’s there as a resource for all.

“There’s no one size fits all approach we just have to navigate this new normal the best we can,” says Turner.

The digital guide is below. To visit Commerce Lexington’s website for additional COVID-19 resources, click here.