Some are adapting to holiday shopping during COVID-19, trying new ways to bring in business. Others say they are sticking to their tried-and-true business model and hoping loyal shoppers will still support them.

Now is the time of year when companies start their tax planning, but as with just about everything, the COVID-19 pandemic has created obstacles to normal tax-planning efforts.

To be sure a number of valuable Easton businesses are now closed for good or moved out of the downtown, but it’s not all bad news.

As the Lehigh Valley begins the yellow phase of the state’s COVID-19 reopening plan, merchants and restaurants in Bethlehem want people to know they’re open for business and safe to visit.

Requirements for small businesses to be forgiven for federal paycheck protection loans are at the center of lobbying efforts to revise the program’s guidelines by industry leaders who say the aid package fails to address sector-specific challenges of the coronavirus recession.

The City of Allentown’s Department of Community & Economic Development is implementing a $500,000 Small Business Stabilization Program using funds it received through the CARES Act.

More than $177,000 in emergency funds were distributed between 30 businesses in Easton, part of a joint effort of the Greater Easton Development Partnership, the city and Easton Area Industrial Land Development.

Many larger businesses and banks have sought to help smaller businesses during the COVID-19 crisis by pooling money to offer grants to mom-and-pop organizations in need. But now some small businesses in Carbon County have taken it upon themselves to help each other.

Western Pennsylvania-based Erie Insurance introduced gift card insurance so consumers who buy gift cards during the coronavirus shutdown, won’t have to risk losing that money should the business not survive the crisis.

Businesses within the City of Bethlehem may be eligible for grants from a $300,000 pool of Community Development Block Grant money the city is directing towards COVID-19 aid.