The last decade has been good to small businesses, but that's rapidly changing. It's true that this recession could be worse than 2008. In 2008, spending slowed, but it didn't come to a complete screeching halt like it has now. This is uncharted territory from an economic standpoint.
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| Fuzzy things: making serious blog posts better since the dawn of time |
Your local restaurants, bars, and yes, tack shops are going to be hit hardest by this. Without foot traffic (please #staythefuckhome, as the kids say these days), sales are going to dwindle. First it'll be hard to pay their employees, and next they will outright close. This outbreak WILL end, at some point, and I personally don't want to come out on the other side of it without my favorite restaurants and tack shops.
(And yes, you need to worry about YOU first. Make sure to cut back unnecessary spending and beef up your emergency fund right now, but if you do find yourself with a few extra dollars to spare, the rest of this post is for you).
What to do: VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLAR!
- If you live in Indiana, Grand Champion Tack and Saddlery in Indy will deliver for free within 15 miles of its store, or if you're outside that radius but still in Indiana, they will do free shipping with no minimum. They have a great selection, and can order anything you might get from SmartPak, Dover or Riding Warehouse (except house brands, probably). Also, they're offering 20% off through Tuesday for St. Patrick's Day
- If you don't live in Indiana, check with your local tack store for delivery and shipping options
- Don't need anything right now? Consider buying a gift card to help give your favorite local tack store/restaurant/other small business a cash infusion. Call it "pre-paying for essentials" or "buying a slightly delayed shopping spree"
- Is your gym closing? Many will suspend or pro-rate memberships right now, but if you can, consider continuing to pay your membership during this time - especially if you go to a local outfit like most CrossFit gyms that generally don't have large cash reserves like a corporate mega-gym will.
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| This picture courtesy of my momma. Which one of these is not like the other one, which one of these just doesn't belong... |
- If it gets to the point that your trainer stops teaching lessons, consider continuing to pay for lessons. Pre-pay for lessons, or take video lessons. I've had some very valuable lessons in front of a laptop, analyzing previous lessons or trainer rides with my trainer. Trainers do not get paid sick time and stand to lose a lot of income if lessons have to stop.
Bottom line, you do have to take care of your own family first, but please take care of each other too.
I am thankful tackstore delivers feed to barns incase something happens that we can't. Though I still bought feed anyway because you never know. Hilariously normally people once they found out our tack store sold cleaning supplies MADE AN ABSOLUTE RUN ON IT. So no cleaning supplies to be had there if you needed them.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how quickly those little pockets of cleaning supplies and TP are discovered, shared on social media and cleaned out!
DeleteThis is a really excellent post! My gym announced that they were shutting down at least until April 1st but still paying front desk employees and routesetters. I was literally about to put my membership on hold (which saves me $75/mo) until I saw they were continuing to pay their employees. I decided to keep paying it in full and sent them a message telling them my plan and why. I'm definitely picking and choosing where my money goes during this time and companies that are making good choices, as well as local businesses, are getting my business. I'll definitely get some gift cards, I have some people in my life who have birthdays coming up, kill two birds with one stone!
ReplyDeleteSo far myself and all the horse trainers in the area (that I know of) are continuing to work because of the individual nature of the sport, but that may change at the drop of a hat. I'm trying to work out how I can help/entertain my clients if that were to happen (zoom meetings about the training scale/judge info/training theory??). We'll see! I'm really hoping I can continue teaching though, I may have a full time job too, but I still depend heavily on my teaching income.
I'm so glad you feel the same way about the gyms. My CrossFit gym has a wealthy backer, but you can't count on that, and I'd be devastated if anything happened to it. I figure, it's already in my budget, and I'm lucky enough to have an almost fully kitted out CrossFit gym in my garage so I'm not paying anything extra, they can keep on getting my money they usually get.
DeleteFingers crossed that teaching doesn't dry up. Horses seem like a safe place, but who knows. For myself, it's still the one place I'm continuing to go even though I've quit going everywhere else.
yep I also did a shout out today for small businesses!! For sure they need all our help esp if you are employed by them. Here is to hoping all stay afloat.....
ReplyDeleteAnd a great idea about trainers, to keep paying them (whether it is fitness or riding)....
and I see the African Grey Parrot. OMG love him so cute, we had one years ago and he was amazing....they are quite the characters!!
and always love a fuzzy or not fuzzy Connor...Remus is STILL NOT SHEDDING but is cold as F here so I get it :)
Connor is shedding late too! Normally he's well on his way by now. Not sure what that says. Greys are awesome, my mom and I both have one. Hers likes to ride the big Percheron draft Breyer on the far right of that photo!
DeleteThanks for this post.
ReplyDeleteThe early closure of Global Dressage Festival is uh, very bad for us here at The Horse of Course- a significant portion of our annual revenue is derived from sales over the winter season. Smaller local shows have also been canceled, which means even more revenue loss. Some of our European suppliers have stopped shipping orders, so we don't know when spring/summer seasonal stuff or certain special custom orders will arrive. It is a stressful time for all small businesses!
Ugh, I thought about you as I was writing this. Do you have any kind of shipping or delivery promotion I can add to this post?
DeleteNothing outside the ordinary right now; we ship for free on orders over $75, which is our usual policy. We're kicking around other ideas, but nothing has been firmed up yet. Our mobile unit in Florida is making deliveries in the Wellington area. The last we heard from the facility was that we'll be permitted to stay until the end of April.
DeleteThere may be some difficult decisions ahead- not just for us, but for all small businesses. :(
As soon as I saw that my gym is continuing to pay employees, I told my husband we'll keep paying for it. My yoga studio, on the other hand, is trying to come up with a sketchy work-around despite the mandate to close, so they have lost my dollars.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good way to handle it.
DeleteThis is a great reminder! I currently work at a small health food business that isn't in a place where we need to close or anything, but we are seeing the economic impact of people not coming in as much as normal. It creates real fears for those of us who work for little businesses like this! I'm trying to remind myself to still continue spending a bit of money despite the uncertainty of our world right now.
ReplyDeleteMy work is being pretty sketchy with this whole thing - we're being told by gov't no gatherings over 50 people, please stay home if you can, please self isolate if you've traveled - and my work (office of 200 people who all directly deal with the public) is like 'just a reminder we are open, we don't support work from home without prior approval, we won't pay you if you're not sick as per a doctor, and self isolation after travel is only voluntary, not necessary' So irresponsible as we live in a retirement community full of vulnerable people and the cases and deaths in this area are now multiplying rapidly.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking at other companies this morning and bookmarking the ones I'll continue to support (and apply for jobs with too!)
Fwded to trainer. 10q.
ReplyDeleteAll gyms are shut down here too. I am worried about our small businesses and how they will get by.
ReplyDelete