State of the business

[Mike Null]

I had been cruising along through the early part of this Covid crisis with my business actually running ahead of last year. But the slowdown has reared its ugly head. One of my major suppliers closed his business officially about 6 weeks ago and this week two of my customers declared bankruptcy. My second largest customer has seen his business slow to about half of last years volume. Another good customer has just implemented virtual sales seminars in an effort to maintain their business. I'm 50% off with them.

Since I'm a one-man home-based business I'm still in pretty good shape but things like Yeti's where I would do 100-200 a month have dried up.

I'm a couple of miles from one of the main east-west thoroughfares and the number of vacant stores is growing by the day. I'm afraid we're in for a long recovery period after this one.

[Bill George]

Mike its as simple as wearing a mask and social distancing. Folks across the street held a HS graduation party for their son, not one mask and maybe 30 people there at one time. There is a reason why we are the leaders in Covid cases among industrialized nations.... "nobody can tell me what to wear!!"" And It will go on and on, look at the states that opened early.

[Jebediah Eckert]

This......^^^^^^^^^^^^

Mike, I hope things pick back up for you sooner then later.

[Jim Becker]

Mike, if I needed income from my part time woodworking business to live, I'd be seriously concerned right now. My best customers are small makers, themselves, and their customers are tenuous, too. So the subcontract work is very slow for me. Fortunately, for me, this is about "mad money" to recoup investment in my shop but I'm very concerned about those who actually use their small businesses for income. In the meantime, I'm doing personal projects.

[David Takes]

Mike,

My June (-56.7%) was down more than May (-49.3%) on a year over year comparison. That wasn't the trend I was hoping to experience. I like how the second half of July is looking, but the month didn't start off with much momentum. July is historically my slowest month of the year so expectations weren't high. My household does depend on my business for income so we hope our regular business along with additional changes will get us back in the groove we have been in.

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

I am down more like 80-90%

[David Takes]

Paul,

Why was it that you didn't qualify for the federal Paycheck Protection Program Loan? It can't be funding since I know people who are still getting loans approved.

There are a large amount of smaller grants and loans available via the federal C.A.R.E.S. Act funding being distributed through municipal and county governments. The eligibility for these funds varies dramatically from one governing body to the next. I would expect that you would have to be a licensed business to be eligible. I know in our area the county has shown obvious favor to businesses that operate out of commercial spaces not home-based. They feel those companies are more at risk if they have debt on the real estate or pay monthly rent. I am sure there are home-based situations where this perspective could easily be challenged, such as those who have built a shop on their property in which to operate their business.

Look into this funding. In our area they expected 1,000's of applicants and ended up with about 70 at last report. I was able to get a $5,000 grant which will help bridge my business to a time closer to when the economy heals.

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

Added note. It is hard to be politically correct any more.
edited spelling

[Kev Williams]

My workload has gone sideways. My biggest customers, 2 ski lift mfr's and a mining truck mfr have been keeping as busy as ever. On the negative side, my truck company closed down last Monday for 2 weeks to disinfect as one of their employees got the covid. But the work isn't going away, just postponed. My #1 ski lift company, also my #1 company period, sold about 6 more lifts this year than last year. 4 lift builds have been postponed. They may lose one or two ultimately, but the net result this year is roughly the same work for me as last year. My #2 ski lift company has increased about 30%, no signs of slowing. Some of my customers, like yoga and health spas that resell water flasks I put their logo on, haven't ordered since February. But I've picked up several new (and a few old and forgotten) customers, ALL of them having "Electric" at the end of their company name. I'm thinking these companies lost their current vendors. And one thing that hasn't stopped around here is new great big buildings going up, Biofire, the new SLC Airport, another Amazon warehouse, plus new apartments are going up like crazy, and I've gotten the job to supply every electric junction and breaker box in all these big buildings with labels, and all the address labels for almost every power meter in the valley...

In the end I'm making just about the same money as the last 2 years all said and done. And as a bonus, it's taking me about 2 less hours per day to make it. CODB is about the same too.

NO complaints-- so far, knock on my head ;)

[Jim Becker]

Many small businesses that don't qualify for PPP have been eligible for the alternative disaster recovery program. My business has no employees, so PPP was out of the question. The other program was available and resulted in a non-repayable advance as well as a small, low-cost loan offer for additional funds to cover overhead and cash flow that's not due for starting repayment for a year. Both the advance and the loan offer came direct from SBA. I know of one other SMC'er who received the same.

[Ross Moshinsky]

It's industry dependent. If you're an industrial engraver, it's hit or miss on whether you're busy or not. As I said back in March/April, do not let your accounts payable get out of control and do not do work unless you've been recently authorized. Projects are going to go from Green to Red.

In the awards/event industry, it's awful. We've had a competitor that was literally down the road throw in the towel almost immediately and another large competitor close May/June. The local guy was always a pain siphoning off jobs by being cheaper than us. The big competitor was far enough away to make it more about logistics than anything, but I've been seeing some of his customers recently and the guy was off on his pricing, which is why he shut down. $15 for $25 trophies. Today is was $50 for a $65 trophy.

Our goal is to wait it out. With two competitors gone, it should make doing business easier once things clear up. My biggest concern is the fact people aren't behaving and schools won't reopen in September/October. If that doesn't happen, it means people won't be gathering in general. That means another missed season. Missing out on our busiest time of year was bad enough, but losing the fall season as well is going to be a tough pill to swallow.

[Keith Outten]

I am still receiving two to five requests for quotes each week for commercial sign work. The commercial building industry has not been affected by the pandemic at all.

[Kev Williams]

so my truck company buyer called today, they're back to work today, where's our stuff!??! I love it- ;)

one employee infected, is still hospitalized but is quickly recovering,
two employees that were in close proximity to the infected tested negative,
all other employees tested negative...
http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/thumbsup.gif

[Gordon Lytle]

I am actually up about 32% through the last 2 months. I was blessed to have picked additional business that gave us an additional $2k per month. But I do see the writing on the wall. Just waiting for everyone's extra $600 per week to dry up then I think we will see a major drop. Hope not but I think it is there to see. I wish all you laser engraving brothers the best and make sure you have plenty of food, water, guns, and ammo.

[Kev Williams]

I just updated my to-do list, and found out I'm about 2 steps above 'how am I going to get all this work done??' -- but it beats the alternative!

To this point this week I've accumulated jobs from 35 unique customers, so far I've completed 6 jobs and have about 7 jobs in various working stages.

My customers at this moment are ALL other businesses, and they're all my 'regulars'. No off-the-street 'personal' jobs right now...

--My current customer base breakdown:

4-- businesses needing name badges/desk plates
15- manufacturers
10- retailers
3-- electric contractors
2-- electric parts supply houses
1-- firearms dealer

Keith, you mention the commercial building industry hasn't been affected-- I can attest that's true!

It's sad the awards/recognition biz is so way down, but I'm making a prediction: When this pandemic is under control to the point people start getting back to work and school for real, the want for personalized "I survived the Covid!" trophies, plaques and trinkets is going to go right thru the roof, with kids being the vast majority of recipients. Trust me ;)

[Keith Outten]

Kev, I can't imagine how you can keep up with so many clients and such a variety of work.

This week I have been receiving at least two requests for quotes per day for signs for large commercial buildings. I wish I was young enough to bid some of the larger projects.

[John Lifer]

I had just shipped out a good initial order for an oil equipment supplier when the oil prices tanked. So that business is pretty dead, but I've picked up several really good orders from my other customers. I'm still quite small, and tend to take the one off retail items most of the time to fill in my time. Those died in March, and I've only just seen a relatively decent quantity of inquires start back up in July. I did get a decent for me initial order ($400) for some industrial outlet plate numbering from an electrical supplier near me. Hopefully this will start a repeat business for that sort of work.

Overall, I was way up in the first quarter from last year, but about even in second quarter. July has been good, we'll see what the rest of the year brings.

[Toby Fletcher]

I've been lurking here for a long time without contributing anything.
Since the start of lockdown in the UK we're up by 100% compared to a year ago. As most of our sales are online we picked up the footfall trade from physical stores as they all closed for 3 months and like other similar businesses we were encouraged to stay open by the govt. Bittersweet really considering the hardship faced by other companies, but we had to recruit more staff to keep up.
Starting to tail off now a bit with everywhere reopening but still busy.