Casey Askar discussed the new reality of business in a post-COVID world
NAPLES, FL, USA, February 17, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — In early 2020, South Florida business mogul Casey Askar was speaking with representatives of several Fortune 500 companies interested in buying an office tower, a building his company owns in downtown Hartford, Connecticut.
But by March 2020, the COVID pandemic was dampening interest in office space all over the country. Companies previously looking to expand were not only no longer in the market for more space, but were also seeking ways to rapidly reduce their footprint.
As President and CEO of the Commerce Township, Michigan-based Askar Brands, as well as owner of quick-service restaurants across the country, Askar commented: "We will have to hold on to our Hartford asset until there is a new normal in the wake of the COVID pandemic."
But what will be the new normal for American businesses?
"For many businesses, the new normal has turned out to be a kind of hybrid where you go in to work at the office some of the time and you work from home some of the time," Casey Askar says. "You will be able to accomplish the cyclical day to day duties of your job from home. The time for going to the office will primarily be for different types of research and development, and for team meetings."
But for brick-and-mortar small businesses, which remain the backbone of the American economy, the new normal has become dealing with debt, scrambling to rehire staff, and facing the reality that earnings opportunities lost will never come back.
Revenues of in-person dining and retail businesses dropped 14 to 47 percent in 2020. Restaurants tried creative cost-saving measures, such as using services like DoorDash and Uber Eats to replace their delivery services. Some restaurants closed and some managed to tread water, but Askar found the resources not to lay off any employees.
"If we were a small business, "we would have gone under,” says Casey Askar. But because we have always seen our job as finding ways to create dining opportunities at scale, we were able to find the resources to keep going and prepare for future growth."
For Askar, finding resources involves an element of faith. The 52-year-old father of seven says his family and faith sustain him through the uncertainties of the COVID era.
“At the end of the day, it’s just about doing the right thing,” says Askar. “It’s doing for others what you would hope others would do for you. But again, we’re fortunate enough to be in a position to do that.”
Caroline Hunter
Web Presence, LLC
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