Juno News - Small business owners speak out

00:00:00.000 On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared the coronavirus crisis a

00:00:13.120 global pandemic. Within the next couple weeks, Canada's provincial governments began to order

00:00:18.400 the shutdown of non-essential businesses in order to promote social distancing and avoid

00:00:23.840 overburdening our healthcare system. In general, only grocery stores, pharmacies, liquor stores,

00:00:29.520 and restaurants with takeout service are allowed to operate. Some businesses have closed voluntarily

00:00:34.880 because they're hemorrhaging money and they need to cut their losses. Many businesses across Canada

00:00:39.760 have already closed permanently. If they had small profit margins in the first place, or if they were

00:00:45.040 already going through tough times, a couple weeks without any customers at all was enough to take

00:00:50.160 them out. According to a survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 40% of businesses

00:00:56.720 have seen their revenues drop by 70% or more. And many have questions about how the nature of their

00:01:02.720 business might be changed forever. I'm hoping it doesn't last too much longer. We've been fortunate

00:01:09.840 in that we've got enough kind of in the pipeline to last us for a while. The problem I have is I have

00:01:18.800 nothing coming in the other end though. So even if this is over in June, I am not looking forward to

00:01:27.440 July and August right now because we may have nothing to do. Me, now that we're shut down,

00:01:35.120 there's a calmness and I can deal with it. I've worked on mitigating my losses as much as possible,

00:01:42.800 working on getting the loan to cover some, to have some working capital to get me through.

00:01:48.880 Uh, it's, it's another month or two, even if we were, if we're into July, it's not going to cripple us.

00:01:57.040 What it's going to do is it's going to change the culture, um, and how people shop and how people

00:02:04.720 acquire their, their goods and services. I wonder, um, how we're going to roll it out.

00:02:12.480 Is the, is the business going to be able to, uh, be busy enough? Uh, everybody jokes about how

00:02:21.040 salons are going to get hit, um, big time that everybody needs their roots done and their pedicures.

00:02:26.000 Uh, but, but then will they be able to, um, be willing to come in at, at midnight because we can't

00:02:35.760 service everybody all day long. Will I have service providers coming in, um, at all hours of the day

00:02:42.320 in order to service customers? Because maybe we were only allowed to have five or six customers

00:02:47.040 at a time. So a lot of unknowns, um, with regards to that, I don't think the shutdown

00:02:54.560 is going to, if it's prolonged for another weeks or months, that's not going to be the issue. It's

00:03:01.920 going to be what is the business model going to be like once we reopen, um, can we have a sustainable

00:03:09.120 model at that time? Since in many cases, the government ordered the shutdown of these businesses,

00:03:14.800 what are the governments in turn doing to help these businesses survive?

00:03:18.720 The federal government has introduced three main programs. The first is the Canada Emergency

00:03:24.800 Business Account. The Canada Emergency Business Account offers an interest-free loan to cover

00:03:30.800 business operating expenses up to $40,000 and $10,000 of that loan is forgivable if it is repaid

00:03:38.560 within two years. The second program is the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. This is a direct subsidy that can

00:03:45.520 help an employer cover up to 75% of an employee's wages in order to discourage layoffs and encourage

00:03:53.440 the employer to keep people on staff and keep employing people. The most recent program announced

00:03:58.960 by the government is the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program. This commercial rent assistance

00:04:05.280 program supports small businesses with their rent payments. Well, you know, there's, there's financial

00:04:10.720 aid for, I suppose, a certain type of business. I don't know who these people are, but I mean,

00:04:16.240 I'm sure there's businesses that can get some, you know, help from loans. I don't like to work off a

00:04:21.200 debt. I don't like to work off a loan. It's a small enough business as is, and I just, I need it to run

00:04:26.560 smooth, smooth or, or not at all. And, um, yeah, so the loans, I would be useful for somebody to get out of a

00:04:36.160 tight position, I suppose, but a lot of them were based on wages. And I don't have any employees.

00:04:41.600 It's just myself. And, um, and that's the case for a lot of businesses, their mom and pop operations.

00:04:46.800 So there's, there's just themselves, they don't pay anyone else. So that loan was useless. And I did go

00:04:53.200 through the full list of all the different, you know, avenues and things that they had to help

00:04:57.680 for small businesses. And there was nothing for me. And I thought, you know what, you're just going to

00:05:02.000 have to figure this out on your own. You're going to have to, you know, make your own plans of how to

00:05:06.160 save yourself on this. I think there's a lot of confusion around some of these things they keep

00:05:11.840 bringing out. Um, I mean, they've offered the wage subsidy, and then they put all these

00:05:18.480 requirements in about what you had to do and what you had to experience. But at the same time,

00:05:25.120 you know, you turn around and yesterday they're, they're giving $9 billion away to students. Well,

00:05:30.480 okay, um, great. You see them offer a hundred percent wage subsidy for a student. Well,

00:05:38.880 I'm not going to lay one of my guys off and then go hire a student. I mean, nobody's going to do that.

00:05:45.920 Like what, that's a terrible message to send to your employees. I mean, these people have families

00:05:51.840 they're supporting. And I mean, I take that very seriously. So, you know, it's fine and well to do that

00:05:59.520 kind of dressing stuff that plays well as a soundbite, but it does not help business owners

00:06:05.760 at all, especially ones that want to keep their employees. I mean, it's critical for me and us to

00:06:11.920 keep our core. You know, those are the people that really, they're there for you and they make your

00:06:17.680 business what it is. However, these programs are not free for alls and many businesses are not eligible.

00:06:24.800 For example, 37% of business owners say that the Canada emergency wage benefit will not help them.

00:06:32.160 It's pretty darn good for the big companies, but for the little guy who's, um, not even open. I mean,

00:06:39.440 rest, you know, some restaurants are able to operate through takeout. Um, I, I'm shut down completely.

00:06:47.920 So there's, you know, where's the benefit there? Um, it's, it's good for

00:06:55.040 those companies that could take advantage of it. But if you're, um, not an essential worker,

00:07:01.920 uh, then there, where's the benefit? So it's, it's, to me, something that's going to keep the

00:07:08.800 larger companies, um, having a break, but the smaller companies being able to take advantage of

00:07:17.920 that benefit. Um, it would be good if they were able to say, Hey, this, this 75% wage, as we, as we

00:07:24.880 roll you in, uh, and reopen the economy, we're going to continue on for say six months, um, or three months.

00:07:32.800 Uh, but during the, the, this pandemic, when we're being forced to be shut down, it's zero benefits.

00:07:39.520 The coronavirus crisis is far from over, and now we've got an economic crisis looming over us.

00:07:44.960 Large corporations have only been thriving during this pandemic, but small businesses have gotten

00:07:50.080 the short end of the stick, and it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon.

00:07:54.880 I was thinking about that the other day, um, because it could go on and there, you know,

00:08:00.160 could be a second wave and I can see all these restrictions coming back again.

00:08:04.480 And it's, it's the uncertainty and, and how the government at all levels, and you know,

00:08:11.760 us as a population too, we don't really have a plan in place for these sorts of things.

00:08:17.520 Um, we, we expect somebody to take care of us and we expect the government to, but they obviously

00:08:24.880 didn't have a plan. They, you know, even when it was in front of them, they seem to be like,

00:08:28.960 you know, giving their masks to China and it's like, well, hold on, you know, 0.72

00:08:33.200 you have a situation back here at home that you need to, to, um, figure out, but, um,

00:08:40.480 you know, will it affect me? Yeah. I mean, it would, because if you have to keep on,

00:08:46.160 you know, having sales, having reductions in your, your product and not knowing how much to,

00:08:51.600 how much product to make or not, because it's usually pretty predictable for me, but now it's

00:08:56.080 not so much. Um, how do you plan the next year? Do you go ahead and plan for these sales or do you

00:09:03.600 just go, you know, play by ear? Um, customer wise, you know, if it's a recession that comes out of it,

00:09:10.480 that's a problem too. You know, that's something else that you, you have in the back of your mind.

00:09:15.680 I think I'm in an okay position. I have some control over my

00:09:19.200 destination and with the business to a certain extent. Um, but, uh, I know a lot of businesses

00:09:26.800 don't. And I feel for the people that are like hairdressers or, um, you know, like the karate

00:09:31.680 instructor, those types that they don't have another option and they really can't do anything.

00:09:35.840 Yeah. You know, for most people, if you think outside the box, you might be able to make it work.

00:09:41.200 Um, as long as you don't rely on the government for everything, because,

00:09:45.200 you know, once you're in that trap, there's no getting out. Um, but I, you know, I, I hope that

00:09:52.640 people are creative and, and, and try to fight for themselves on this. And, and not only that,

00:09:58.880 but I see a lot of people that are kind of giving in. They, um, you know, oh, the government says,

00:10:05.440 you know, I, I have to close down and then they immediately close down. They take that as

00:10:09.520 I have to obey. It's like, well, no, there might be flexibility. You should,

00:10:13.360 you know, open up, you know, the government is, they need to get to work. Um, they need to

00:10:20.320 stop pussyfooting around, uh, in, in parliament and, um, they need to sit down, debate and pass these

00:10:30.000 laws so that we can get taken care of. Um, and I, and I really feel like there's a lot of foot dragging

00:10:36.800 and a lot of, uh, um, avoidance going on. And I don't know why. Um, it's very discouraging

00:10:46.000 as a business owner to see our leaders, um, not coming to the plate when they should have been.

00:10:54.160 A lot of these issues should have been dealt with weeks ago. Um, put their minds together to work 24

00:11:01.440 7. Um, having one o'clock, uh, uh, conferences every day is great, but what's being done between

00:11:11.280 two and noon, uh, the other 22 hours, let's, uh, let's, you know, put your nose to the grindstone

00:11:19.120 and, and get some things accomplished.

Juno News - June 29, 2020

Small business owners speak out

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