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comment by cgod
cgod  ·  1348 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Small Business Blues

I've always assumed I'm one yelp review controversy away from going out of business. It might not be yelp but no one knows what tomorrow holds and I've never figured that the ground I was standing on was solid.

With that perspective I'm kind of surprised at how shocked an dismayed some people are that things have taken a rough turn. It could have been a hurricane or an earthquake, it could have been any of a hundred different things but revenue tomorrow and the next day was never guaranteed.

Most of the people I know who own businesses aren't shocked at all and that's both people I know who are making it work and those who are going to or already fell. Most business owners aren't starry eyed for long, if you've been doing it for any amount of time you've faced down at least one potential business ending out of no where event and lived to tell the tale.

I'm very lucky. Sales are down about 20-30%. Putting my competition out of business a year ago vaulted sales up about 40% before Covid. In the end I'm up a bit from where I started. I think coffee and take out oriented businesses are going to glide through this just fine.

I know a few bar and restaurant owners who aren't going to make it and there is no amount of reinvention that is going to save them. Show halls in particular seem to be absolutely fucked. All the richy rich stores downtown within the five block or so riot zone are double fucked, I don't know that I pity them, but times are tough.