April 20, 2020
Well, another week has come and gone in quarantine. Every day is blending into one another. Here’s some updates from last weeks blog. If you haven’t seen that yet, give it a read (https://borsellinocarpentry.com/2020/04/14/covid-19-shutdown-thoughts-after-1-month/). A lot of what I’m going to talk about will touch on that post. If you like hearing about my business and the what’s happenings with Borsellino Carpentry, consider subscribing to the blog at the bottom of this page.
Here’s some bullet points of what today’s blog post includes:
-Stimulus check
-Measures to secure federal funding update
-Lowering business and personal expenses update
-Fears
-Remembering the aftermath of the 2008 crash
-Gratitude
-Moving forward
I’m going to start off with something positive. I received the $1200 stimulus payment by direct deposit this week! Ironically, it hit my bank account on April 15th, which is the tax deadline. What is even more ironic is that a few days prior I had just sent out my quarterly estimated tax payment to the IRS, so when that check clears, they will essentially be taking the stimulus check right back from me. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate any help the government is willing to give. In fact, I believe it is their responsibility to help the American People when we are in need. That is why we pay taxes in the first place. What bothers me is they make this out to be a gift, when the reality is, they are just giving us our own tax money back. Unless of course you’re one of the “lucky” ones who doesn’t pay taxes but received a stimulus check and a tax refund without having to pay into the system. I’m not complaining about that, I just want people to see it for what it is. It’s not a free handout. It will not be used to stimulate the economy. It will be used to pay the bills while my income has dropped to zero. I know many other people are feeling the same way about it.
Last week I talked about all the measures I took to attempt to secure federal funding with the Payment Protection Program, Emergency Injury Disaster Loan and NYS Unemployment. The PPP and EIDL were part of the CARES Act, and unfortunately the money was exhausted before anyone I know with a small business could get any of it. While some big corporations who profit in the millions or billions every year got tens of millions of dollars through some loopholes. I have heard through the grapevine that some small local businesses did get it, just nobody that I personally know who applied. There is talk of another stimulus bill to add more funds to it but nothing in writing yet. I have all my applications in, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. For unemployment, I just happened to see a Facebook discussion about it with other self-employed people and someone told me that once I was approved for UI that I had to then apply for PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) within the unemployment website. This was news to me! On April 14th, I went to labor.ny.gov to see for myself. Much to my surprise when I logged in to unemployment, there was now a new option for me to apply for PUA, so I did. I have not heard anything back about that yet.
In the previous post I talked about how I was going about lowering my expenses. I was ahead on payments for my work truck so that has been put on hold. State farm is swamped, so even though my vehicles were put into “withdrawn from use” state, I was still charged full price this month. They got back to me this morning to let me know that I will be credited for the error once they catch up with their administrative work. I had my gym membership put on hold. They charged me a $25 fee for that, which is how much it costs per month, which doesn’t seem right, but I understand they have a business to run too. Unfortunately, there’s not much else I have been able to cut. My business insurance is paid up and expires at the end of May. At which point if things don’t look like they will be reopening soon, I will have no choice but to let the policy lapse, which I really don’t want to do. It scares me to think that to save money I might have to eliminate my business insurance. Hopefully the PUA or PPP or EIDL pulls through before then so I don’t have to continue slashing costs wherever possible. I did sit down yesterday and come up with an adjusted monthly budget on Excel to see just where my money was going and the possibilities of what could still be adjusted. Looks as though I have already done about as good of a job as possible without cutting “essentials”.
These are frightening times for a small business owner. I feel fortunate to not have more overhead than I do. No rent to pay for a shop and no employees. No large equipment with payments that need to be made. I have friends who are working even though they shouldn’t be, because they are incredibly worried about money. This is forcing people to make some hard decisions and roll the dice. COVID-19 and the stay at home orders are affecting everyone in some way, some more than others. It causes a lot of mental anguish for a lot of people, including myself. When you are a small business owner you have a lot on the line. It’s not like if you’re an employee and you lose your job; you collect unemployment and start looking for another job. When you are the business owner there is no unemployment under normal circumstances and there is still no guarantee of that as of now. You can’t just walk away from a business (at least not easily). It has taken me 10 years to get my business to where it is today, and I will continue to push forward through this disaster and come out on the other side. I might be bloody and bruised but I will persevere. I know a lot of New Yorkers, Americans and people around the world are prepared for the same battle.
This brings to mind the crash of 2008 when I lost everything. I was living and working in Massachusetts at the time. Work dried up, and the custom cabinetry company I was working for folded. I scrambled for work and managed to find enough to scrape by somehow until I eventually was forced to move back home in 2009. This is when my current business started materializing. Back in Cazenovia, where I had grown up, I knew more people and work just seemed to fall into my lap and it has never stopped. I always kept in the back of my head the economic hardship that I went through after 2008. I vowed to start paying off my debts and start saving so that not if, but when, another crash happened, I would be prepared. This wasn’t out of paranoia, but a healthy fear of the unknown.
Fast forward a decade. Though the support of my clients, I was blessed to do just that. Paid off my debts and worked towards getting out of the red. I have a small cushion that will help soften the blow. I am extremely grateful that over the years people close to me have helped me realize my potential. My family and friends have been supportive of me, even when I couldn’t see the light. I have incredible clients and many of them have become my extended family. I know that when this is all over there is work waiting for me. Over the years, I have built my business around quality and trust. My clients trust me in their homes and with their hard-earned money to beautify those precious homes. So I am blessed to know that when this is all over, something will at least be there. Some people are not as fortunate as me, and I feel for them. I hope to be able to help anyone I can, if I have the means.
I haven’t been through a pandemic before, but I’ve been through a recession, and I know most of you have as well. I have faith that we can get through this. It won’t be easy, but it is doable. The future won’t look the same. It can’t look the same. Things must change. I have started thinking about how my life will be different after this. For many years I have had a wonderful problem. Too much work and not enough time. That’s why I started the YouTube channel. That’s why I started this blog. I feel like my purpose is bigger than just “swinging a hammer”. I need to share my knowledge and skills with the world and I just can’t get to everyone on my work list. It’s not that I don’t want to do construction anymore, but I need to diversify. I’ve had all my eggs in one basket for a long time. As I get older, my body takes a lot of abuse with the work I do. While continuing to do construction, I want to pivot into some other avenues as well. But I’ll save that for another day so stay tuned…
If you made it this far and enjoyed hearing what I’ve shared, please subscribe to my blog by entering your email below. I am not sure the direction this will lead as this is only the second post, but once this fog lifts I have many ideas that I want to share with you. Let me know what you think. I can be reached easily through my contact page on this site, through email, facebook, text, etc. I love hearing feedback. Thanks for your time.
Stay safe,
Nick