It’s been about two months now since the WHO officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic and the economic fallout cascaded through the U.S. economy. As businesses deal with this crisis, company operations have been shut down, workers laid off or furloughed, and — needless to say — location and expansion plans put on hold or outright canceled.

Companies’ first priority has been worker safety and keeping their businesses financially afloat. In doing so, they need to look at their incentives agreements that stipulated certain job-creation and investment thresholds to determine if they can be renegotiated to deal with the impact of the COVID crisis. Companies are better off trying to negotiate with local taxing authorities upfront rather than waiting until the end of the year to issue a “negative” report.

There are also growth opportunities to consider when “things go back to normal.” Once that happens, many businesses will experience a surge in demand for their goods so they need to prepare to ramp up production and return to normal workforce levels.

Companies also need to address longer-term issues. What will happen to those location and expansion plans now put on hold? The current pandemic and geographical “hot spots” will now factor into this planning process, with prudent businesses looking at a lot of “what-if” scenarios. And the location process itself may change, with alternative methods further explored for gathering location information without the need for mass travel.