A Business Dilemma in a Culture of Corruption

Businesses are often faced with moral dilemmas that leave good actors at a disadvantage. Such a dilemma came up when the federal government provided relief funds for small businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a myriad of programs, each more confusing than the other. There’s PPP (Pay Protection Program), which should be a called the Shape Shifter since they keep changing the rules on it.

When news broke about publicly traded companies taking advantage of the program surfaced, some like Shake Shack returned the funds. There are a lot of those programs, and unless you know where to look, you’d be lost. But that’s not an excuse, there’s a lot of money on the table. It’s just sitting there.

So here is the question, if you’re doing well, do you just leave that money sitting there? The little guys who can figure out how to get here, will get it. The little guys who are lost will lose out. regardless. Then there are a lot of guys.. a lot of guys with accountants and people who know how to weed through government regulations. The more know-how they have, the more money they’ll take.

Do you sit it out, because the spirit of the fund doesn’t qualify you? Or do you go after every available legal dollar, with the mindset, you snooze you lose?