At a time like this, $10,000 could make or break your business. When my company, Hello Alice, recently asked business owners how much money they would need for their business to survive the coronavirus pandemic, the top answer was $10,000, followed by $5,000 and then $25,000. 

There were two times in the history of my company when about $20,000 was the difference between the business living and dying. The first time, we maxed out a personal credit card in order to pay our bills. The second, we didn't pay our leadership team for two payroll cycles.

We are all in a place right now where we have to stretch our dollars. Our controller just went through an exercise where we cut every non-essential cost. This included not renewing services and contractors that are incredibly valuable to us, but we felt we needed to put a hold on spending money on them until the economy is back to normal. 

It is time for every business owner to think fiercely about their budget, as well as access every resource available to them. 

The Covid-19 Business Resource Center, from Alice, the free business advice platform where I'm president and chairwoman, has a list of resources from grants to government programs specifically for small businesses. Additionally, here are other avenues for getting money or cutting costs:

We are living in a time when every penny counts. Make as much time as possible to dig into your budget and apply for the financial programs now available to help keep your business afloat.

Even if you don't need the money today, we don't know how long the coronavirus pandemic will last or what the economy will be like once we get back to work, so figure out your finances before it's too late.