Small business owners

[outlook8]

I own an electrical contracting business here in Houston. Been slow for weeks, and phones are hardly ringing at this point. I’m thinking I will probably run out of work towards the end of this week and will have to shut it down, paying guys accrued vacation/sick time. Hopefully this passes quick and we can get back to it.

[TX03RUBI]

Oilfield tubulars. We haven’t been hit yet, but it’s coming. We’ve had budgeted work on the book for months, with several months of current back log. We’re not seeing the disposal work calling in that we were picking up constantly, but as far as our production line goes we’re busy for another 3-4 months. After that I’m not sure how this will play out.

I’m not an owner by any means. We’re a small local mom and pop shop. Not sure if we fit into your description or not, but thought I’d share what we’re seeing.

[bownut]

I do remodeling and it has pretty much shut down. Getting a lot of stuff done around the house. I’ve got jobs but need this to pass before I can get back into houses.

[TxSpinner]

This year hasn't been kind to us (wife & I) at all.

BS so far this year:

1. Wife fell off a ladder and broke her spine. She had to have surgery where they proceeded to inject a cement into her fracture to fix it. Luckily it worked and she is now pain free. Thank the Lord.

2. January this year my Archery shop/range caught fire, thanks to some seriously bad wiring, and it was a total loss. It happened just a few days after coming back from the Archery Trade Association show and ordering lots of stuff. Luckily all orders were canceled. Now we wait for our building to be restored.

3. I'm an Independent Adjuster and there are never a shortage of claims, though getting the insured to answer my calls and schedule a visit has been meh this month. Money is still coming in though.

4. We were also in the process of opening a new business. Now that the seriousness of the coronavirus has become an immediate threat to the US, the city isn't approving anything.

in short: PRAY

[SaltwaterSlick]

Like so many others, the CV-19 I can handle... the $10-20/bbl oil I can't handle for long... The economic forced shutdown has taken over 9,000,000/bpd of need out of the oil market... Won't nobody be punching many holes looking for it for long at today's prices when it's not needed! We have a little debt, but certainly not much. Since things started shutting down, our revenues have dropped off 70+%... That won't cover expenses, so I'm in a slow money bleed. Gonna keep my people as long as I can, but this one looks serious!

[KactusKiller]

I am in commercial construction specifically interior finish out of retail stores and fitness gyms. Since we do very little ground up builds our work can appear quickly and also disappear quickly. The brakes were hit about two weeks ago and most of our projects were out on hold until further notice. Going to be very thin to none after this week. Luckily we run a pretty tight ship on overhead but gonna have to start making decisions on salaries employees next week. We have some work lined up if this all clears up soon and city’s start issuing new permits but if this shutdown lingers who knows how fast it will open back up. It’s gonna be an unprecidented rough go for at least 1-2 months. I’m trying not to loose sleep or worry to much because there is really nothing any of us can do about it right now. Run a tight ship and make decisions that are the best for the company as a whole. Pray a lot!

[KactusKiller]

Like so many others, the CV-19 I can handle... the $10-20/bbl oil I can't handle for long... The economic forced shutdown has taken over 9,000,000/bpd of need out of the oil market... Won't nobody be punching many holes looking for it for long at today's prices when it's not needed! We have a little debt, but certainly not much. Since things started shutting down, our revenues have dropped off 70+%... That won't cover expenses, so I'm in a slow money bleed. Gonna keep my people as long as I can, but this one looks serious!

It’s a bad combination of untimely events for sure!

[mjhaverkamp]

Thank God I do not make a living with my restaurants, I would be suicidal, we opened a new the day before the shut down, talk about great timing. Its going to be tough if this thing last into the summer, lets hope and pray that does not happen, hang in there everybody, no matter what happens its going to be ok, gotta believe.

[Radar]

I did two days of work in one today, I do not like it but there is no choice at this time. I should be okay, my overhead and break even point is very low but I am still concerned.

[GoneSouth]

This year hasn't been kind to us (wife & I) at all.

BS so far this year:

1. Wife fell off a ladder and broke her spine. She had to have surgery where they proceeded to inject a cement into her fracture to fix it. Luckily it worked and she is now pain free. Thank the Lord.

2. January this year my Archery shop/range caught fire, thanks to some seriously bad wiring, and it was a total loss. It happened just a few days after coming back from the Archery Trade Association show and ordering lots of stuff. Luckily all orders were canceled. Now we wait for our building to be restored.

3. I'm an Independent Adjuster and there are never a shortage of claims, though getting the insured to answer my calls and schedule a visit has been meh this month. Money is still coming in though.

4. We were also in the process of opening a new business. Now that the seriousness of the coronavirus has become an immediate threat to the US, the city isn't approving anything.

in short: PRAY

The archery shop in Denison?

[miket]

Vast majority of my business is oil related. Already been slow since around Thanksgiving, been contemplating laying off my one employee for a while but been holding on hoping it would pick up. The game the Saudis and Russians are playing, along with Covid and the unbelievable drop in oil demand has things looking real bad. Will lay him off as soon as this bit of work plays out and go into survival mode.

Going to be real bad for a long while for us in oil related industry.

[CEO]

Equipment business. Our oilfield customers are asking for price breaks. Daily rentals are normal.

Wife is a home builder. They've closed 5 houses in the last three weeks. All in the $1.5-$2mil range. Not sure what will happen now.

[hoythunter]

We're doing ok in my business. We're considered essential being in residential construction, so we're still plugging along. I'm expecting a slow down with the production builders slowing down on specs and only building sold homes, but hopefully this virus wraps up its business sooner rather later for all our sake. We don't carry any debt, have substantial savings and still have revenues coming in, so we're blessed to be able to keep everybody in some work for now. I just pray our guys can all stay healthy and we can get through this unscathed - taking it 1 day at a time.

[RMW]

Hold tight, it’s coming. All our builders have put a stop to specs and only starting sold homes. They still have closings as of today but the lower end homes have a few contracts not wanting to close due possible job issues. Hope we can get through this fairly quickly and the low interest rates ramp things back up quickly.

Not what I wanted hear... hopefully this is all over sooner than later

[wes122984]

sba.gov/disaster
or cares act

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/26/821457551/whats-inside-the-senate-s-2-trillion-coronavirus-aid-package