You stand outside your house while it burns to the ground. Everything you’ve worked the last 20 years for is going up in flames. The fire department isn’t showing up and you have no homeowner’s insurance. There’s nothing you can do.
That’s what it feels like to be a small business owner right now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in America. Rob and I know that feeling. After a long month, we were given the green light for no-contact car sales (which was all we were asking for since the beginning). A little more than a week ago, the Governor of Pennsylvania finally did the right thing and ruled in favor of buying cars with no contact.
The weight of the world lifted off of our shoulders. We can finally breathe again for ourselves and the people we employ. Unfortunately, our friends and family haven’t been as lucky and are still fighting for their rights to work and run their businesses.
Business owners are accustomed to risk and the statistics prove it.
According to small business statistics, roughly 80% of small businesses survive the first year… However, from there the amount of how many small businesses fail increases sharply. Only about half of those businesses survive past the five-year mark, ranging from 45.4% to 51% depending on the year the business was started. Beyond that, only about one in three small businesses get to the 10-year mark and live to tell the tale.
Forbes
Every small business owner I know has beaten the odds of the 10-year survival rate. They “made it.” They put everything on the line because they knew they could make the American Dream a reality. They invested their life savings into this dream, and spent countless hours away from family and friends. They knew that the success or failure of their business depended on their commitment, hard work, ability to lead their employees, make sound business decisions and adapt to the ever-changing times. And they did it.
That is, until it was against the law during the coronavirus pandemic. Like Rob’s dad always said, “hard work pays off.” And it does, until the government steps in and says you’re not allowed to do the very work you need to do to run your business. Even when you can do that work while taking every safety measure possible.
Many local business owners tried to do what they have always done when times changed. They adapted. I know in our case we implemented a NO-contact way to sell cars within three days of the Governor mandating buying cars as “non-essential” (which is absolutely ridiculous where we live in rural Pennsylvania). We had to wait 27 more days for approval for customers to buy cars online and offer curbside car-pickup. This is something Best Buy (deemed “essential” from the same mandate,) has been able to do from the very beginning for a television.
When you adapt and are still forbidden from working, your hands are tied. Hard work doesn’t pay off when you’re barred from working under the threat of fines and revocation of your sales license issued by the state.
My friends and family, as well as many small businesses near me, still haven’t been given what I now perceive as the luxury of working. They’re still not allowed to work even when they can adapt and make what they do as safe as possible. My dad and brother-in-law’s copier company is shut down indefinitely. My neighbor that sells houses is not allowed to show homes (even an empty one?!) Our friends that are in construction or home builders have been forbidden to work even when almost all aspects of those jobs always had social distancing.
I have many friends that are hair stylists or provide one-on-one services (nail techs, lash techs, personal training services). These friends have been out of work for almost six weeks now. They’re all sole proprietors and under normal circumstances aren’t eligible for unemployment benefits. The state of Pennsylvania changed the eligibility requirements allowing them to apply for small business assistance, except the application for them just got put up a week ago and is so glitchy that many still can’t even apply, let alone receive payments. They’re flat broke, living off of credit cards and are about to lose their businesses that most have worked for their entire adult lives. Local businesses in PA have never been through something like this in recent memory.
There’s something that separates business owners from employees which makes these uncertain times very difficult for them. They started their businesses because they wanted to be in control of their financial fates. Employees help you get you there but ultimately you’re the “captain of the ship.” The success or failure of that business is theirs and they take it very seriously for themselves and the people they employ. They started their business so they wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else’s decisions that could impact them. They think differently. They don’t even want unemployment, they want to work (it goes without saying, but safely). They want to depend on themselves like they always have.
I won’t debate whether the timing is right to open small businesses, let alone open business in Pennsylvania. I believe it is. There are medical doctors, virologists and studies that support both sides of the argument at this point. People in this country were told almost six weeks ago to sacrifice for the greater good. Americans came together and proved they care for their fellow man and did just that. The government has returned the favor by keeping us in the dark about opening timelines and out right lying about COVID-19 deaths (read here and here) in the state of Pennsylvania.
We were told time and time again that this lockdown was not to eliminate the virus (which is impossible at this point without a vaccine or herd immunity) but to stop the hospitals from being overrun. We have very successfully achieved that according to administrators from our local hospitals. Penn Live, reports great news
“Of the 5500 beds in the UPMC hospital system, only 2% are occupied by COVID-19 patients, as are 8% percent of intensive care beds.”
The curve has been flattened. Period.
It’s time for the Governor of Pennsylvania to give small businesses the same privileges that every big box retailer like Target, Walmart, Joann’s Fabric, Costco, BJs, 5 Below and Staples have had. Along with what he deemed essential; all grocery stores, gas stations, banks, pharmacies and his former family company, Wolf Cabinet Supply. I guess the old adage, “it’s all in who you know,” even applies to Government affairs during a pandemic when thousands of companies have been forced to close and millions are out of work.
In the United States of America we have three branches of Government. The legislative branch, executive branch and judicial branch. This was created by our founding fathers to make sure no one group had absolute power. It is designed to keep checks and balances among the different branches. Governor Tom Wolf used his executive powers to declare a “State of Emergency” during the COVID-19 pandemic and made his “essential” and “non-essential” list with NO input from the legislative branch in Pennsylvania.
Since then the Senate and House of Representatives who are elected to represent the voice of the citizens in PA, have successfully passed several bills outlining safe openings of small businesses as well as small business help. They have been vetoed by the Governor. The Governor blatantly ignored the will of the people. Citizens are left with no recourse. Conveniently the judicial branch in PA was closed during the “State of Emergency”.
Our founding fathers adopted the Constitution for a very good reason. To protect the citizens of this great country. They knew that a government too powerful was a recipe for disaster for the citizens of this country, the Constitution makes these limits of power very clear.
This post is not an attack on medical professionals or a suggestion that we should carelessly go about our work at the risk of overwhelming our hospitals. The care they give to patients all the time is beyond measure. I’ve always thought very highly of those that serve people that are sick. This post is not downplaying the lives that have been lost during the coronavirus pandemic or the pain of those that loved them. It’s all tragic and very sad. Rob and I lost his father two years ago unexpectedly. I do not wish that pain and heartache on anyone.
These are things that have been and are still being said to me, my husband and the many people that I love and care for that own small businesses. This is after they say that some will have to sacrifice their entire life’s work and their businesses for others health. It’s cruel, mean and polarizing: it doesn’t have to be either/or.
We can keep people financially and emotionally stable while also taking special measures to protect the health of our loved ones, employees and communities. Some of these people will have to file bankruptcy after this. They’re carrying two sets of bills (personal and business) with no income, no end in sight and very little empathy from the community at large. The irony isn’t lost on me. Being alive and existing flat broke after working your entire life in a trade that you trained for and love is not as “noble” as some would have you believe.
I’ll leave you with a final thought about a meme I recently saw. It was someone sitting on a couch watching TV with something to the effect of, our parents and grandparents fought several wars and sacrificed their lives, you’re being asked to sit on your couch. Wrong. My grandfather fought in World War 2 for freedom from a government that is practicing overt overreach. He fought in that war so I, my children and my grandchildren weren’t forced to sit on the couch.
