My daughter has a photography studio that, after two years, is doing very well. So of course the corona virus happens. Doing very well is not the same as allowing her to make a fantastic income and we have been learning many things along the way in building this business, both good and bad.
I am not an economist and I need an expert or two to really explain to me what is going to happen here.
My gut says there will be a lot of people out of work, whether it is because they are laid off or the government moves to shut down all but essential businesses. Obviously photography is not an essential business in this sense. She has chatted with others in the field in an online group and most of them will still be doing sessions. I don’t know if this would involve studio and locations or not. Only one photographer is closing for two weeks and then will re-evaluate. Obviously my thoughts are that the sooner everyone hunkers down and stops going out the sooner this will all be over.
But what do small business owners like this do? I saw there will be relief from sales tax, if you apply, that is due March 31, so there is a little bit of help. Seems her 2 part time employees would have an easier time getting unemployment than normal? But in my lifetime I have never been as scared as I am now that we will have economic devastation, much worse than the recession, that will take us forever to dig out of. (And I am pissed that, while it couldn’t be totally avoided, the GOP fucked around so it will be much, much worse.) And even if she can hang in there, will there be clients afterwards or will it take years to get back up to speed because everyone is financially devastated. I will say her clientele is more high end so may not be as in bad of shape, but who knows.
And the estimates for the length of the shut down are not only varied (I have heard from 2 weeks to now orange toad says July), but if you read the things you should do to prevent the spreading of the virus, they seem very, very simple to do. A business can easily say, heck, I can wipe down my store and stay 6 feet from customers and not touch my face. (Yes, I know that’s ridiculous, but these are small business owners we are talking about and they are looking at no income for many months.) The city and its environs to the west of us has just announced it is on lockdown so that may be in the future.
Can anyone please tell me how this works? Is there any relief for small business owners? Especially those whose income comes solely from the business? Is it advisable to hang in there and hope you can pick up after what could be months? Do you throw in the towel now? If she can’t pay rent on the studio, that impacts her landlord not paying his mortgage, etc., etc. Will they provide any mortgage relief for anyone? Or are the airlines the only ones that will make it through this unscathed?
How will millions of people pay their bills? We can provide her family a place to live (and omg that would be interesting), but we’d have to give up the studio, which brings the landlord and HIS small business down because he’s not going to find a new tenant right away. What a crashing domino effect. And they aren’t going to stop it or fix it, are they?
I’m sure this is coming out as a mishmash of garbage, but I am stressed right now. And if you think I am naive about all of this, I accept that also. We just don’t know where to turn or what to think and definitely don’t know what to do. And I have a feeling many on this site are also scared and can’t figure out how to survive this financially. Or if they become sick, how to pay for that. Small business owner or employee, is your average American going to ever come out of this mess in one piece?
There’s a lot of bad words spinning in my head right now about that ass, but I won’t put them here. Use your imagination.
Any words of wisdom greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Update: Thank you to everyone who has made great suggestions and offered support. I didn’t want to come across as whining, but I hoped others who will be hurting could also benefit from any advice and support offered. This is DK at its best, when you can take people from all over and use each other’s experience and ideas to help each other. You guys are the best.
