Coronavirus - effects on business

[bimmridder]

Shifting gears here. Although we have an "Emergency Action Plan" in place, we sure weren't ready for this. We made it through a devastating flood in '08 and thought we learned a lot. While we have documentation on responsibility of certain people in certain areas, we clearly weren't ready for this. And honestly I don't know how this will play out for us. I've made time over the last few days updating our plan and making sure all procedures are in place for both short term and long term shut down. Others are taking care of documenting the same things in other areas of the building. I did drop an email to M&R to verify what I need to do with my ST in either case. Although it's in the manual, I wanted to make sure I was completely clear on it. Everything is in a document on a shared drive here, and also hard copies updated and now in the EAP. I never imagined things like this could happen. Naive I guess? But now we are updated and I'm thinking about anything I may have missed.  When they shut down bars (nooooo) restaurants etc here, those businesses had TWO hours to be secured and locked up. That's not a lot of time. I'm still not in panic mode, but I want to make sure if things continue like this, we are as ready as we can be. Just some thoughts from a survivor of a different  kind.

I truly hope you all stay safe and make it through this. A lot of businesses won't. There are a lot of great people here. Hate to lose any of ya.

Dave

[CBCB]

Small team here. Laid off 2/3 of my guys today.
Last guy is my main customer service person, he is going to be able to work from home but I still see how work slowing down over the next week or two.
We’ve got some work in the pipeline still so I’ll be running production solo for a bit.

Loans are super cheap right now so I applied a few days ago.

I don’t want to use it to stay afloat though. I think our cash reserves can keep us open for several months if the payroll is reduced.

I’m staying optimistic. It’s not the end of the world so when this all blows over we’ll be busy as hell. Just need to get through it.

Excited to test some different white inks and play with my new eco frames without client deadlines looming.

Best wishes to everyone.


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[Doug S]

When we finish this last job, there is nothing on the books.  I guess I'll fix a few things and run the rocket launcher on dummy screens with the hope I'll use it for something real in the future.  I've never in my lifetime experienced anything like this so trying to deal is a challenge along with many others.  My brother-n-law is a farmer so when everything dries up I'll ask him if he has anything I can do to make money to survive on.  I have some put back but not near enough.  We were thinking of buying a 6 head barudan before the end of last year.  I'm so glad we decided to hold off.  I hope the best for everyone.

[mk162]

Nobody was ready for this...I mean who saw this one coming. And I swear to god if someone pulls out a Nostradamus quote that vaguely predicted this I will break any travel ban to come break your kneecaps.

On a serious note...no one was ready.  We've never seen anything like this in modern times.  It seems like ages ago we were all laughing at how bad the Iowa caucus was...and was a winner ever declared?

I am also not sure any state has declared an economic disaster yet.  I think they are still in the state of emergency territory.  I imagine it will happen quickly though with all of the restaurants and schools closing.

[Sbrem]

It seems we are all in a precarious state. I appreciate the wisdom flying about here, as we may soon go down to 2 people, me and my partner, just like when we started. Our very best person, who takes it upon herself to ship/receive, schedule, and is a fantastic manual printer,  will go down to 3 days as long as we can. All understand what's going on, couldn't ask for better people, and to have to do this is real spirit crusher for me and Paul. But, we will struggle through as best we can to see if we can get through it, we both have personal reserves, and I could always start collecting Social Security, I'll be 68 at the end of April. I'd rather wait until 70 though, for maximum benefits. So, let's all put our seat belts on, it's going to be a bumpy ride. My very best wishes to all here, a truly great gathering of good people...

Steve

[GraphicDisorder]

Certainly sad to see everyone struggling so hard.

If we can all learn something form this, it has to be keeping a larger nest egg for times like this. Although this is totally out of left field it could happen again.

[TCT]

Shifting gears here. Although we have an "Emergency Action Plan" in place, we sure weren't ready for this. We made it through a devastating flood in '08 and thought we learned a lot. While we have documentation on responsibility of certain people in certain areas, we clearly weren't ready for this. And honestly I don't know how this will play out for us. I've made time over the last few days updating our plan and making sure all procedures are in place for both short term and long term shut down. Others are taking care of documenting the same things in other areas of the building. I did drop an email to M&R to verify what I need to do with my ST in either case. Although it's in the manual, I wanted to make sure I was completely clear on it. Everything is in a document on a shared drive here, and also hard copies updated and now in the EAP. I never imagined things like this could happen. Naive I guess? But now we are updated and I'm thinking about anything I may have missed.  When they shut down bars (nooooo) restaurants etc here, those businesses had TWO hours to be secured and locked up. That's not a lot of time. I'm still not in panic mode, but I want to make sure if things continue like this, we are as ready as we can be. Just some thoughts from a survivor of a different  kind.

I truly hope you all stay safe and make it through this. A lot of businesses won't. There are a lot of great people here. Hate to lose any of ya.

Dave

Didn't know it made it down your way! Thought the fields of pigs and corn would fend the virus off.... Hope you are doing well man. Dan is freaking out, he leaves with his wife and retreats back your way Friday to ride out the storm down by you.

[Sbrem]

If you get a loan, do not use the money. Have it sitting in the bank to use after the virus is under control.
When the businesses reopen and ppl are walking out and about, you will see if you can use the money to get going again.
That is the only acceptable use for it. Even then you will have to do some math to figure out if the risk is worth it.
Pierre

I literally just got done having that conversation with our bank. They advised getting the loan when it becomes available and sitting on it.

I have to guess at the concept here; is the idea to get the loan now for the best interest rate? Like all of us, our vendors will be screaming for money, of course, and I see paying for shirts with personal credit cards so they'll ship, then reimburse ourselves immediately, and let the loan sit until the sun starts to shine again. I know I'll get through it, but the hardships on our employees is the shitty part...

Steve

[cleveprint]

Similar situation to most of you for us as well. Turned off like a light switch. Had everyone in Monday to finish up jobs we had and laid everyone off for the foreseeable future. Pisser is we were having a great start to the year. Up 20% in January. Almost up 50% in February. Great start to March. Had 2 enormous (for us) jobs lined up for end of March. All gone in the blink of an eye. Sucks is a good word I can use to describe it...

[Crazy Mike]

The only good thing is that the virus dose not turn people into Zombies.

[bimmridder]

I'm also using this time to unsubscribe to a few hundred emails that come from somewhere I do not know of. Digital house cleaning I guess

[Maff]

We laid off our 2 main production guys today, I could barely get the words out of my mouth, these guys have been so good to us.  They totally understood and realize they are better off on Unemployment and are hopeful to come back if we all make it through. 

So it's basically just my partner and I holding it down as long as we can in straight up survival mode.  Between the 2 of us, we can run the entire shop and keep things as lean as possible. I think we can make it to the summer with our reserves and a little longer with some unpaid invoices (hopefully). We still have a few orders to do and possibly a few orders coming in, maybe.

We reached out to our bank today to hopefully defer loan payments on our Auto for as long as possible.  Tomorrow I'll be talking with the landloard to see if we can hold off on rent, not sure how that will go, but at this point as Pierre mentioned, we are going to try to hold on to as much cash as we can for as long as possible.  I'm going to try to defer everything, taxes, terms account with vendors, whatever we can. The loan option will be a last resort only if we feel like we can really pay it back some how.

There is a light at the end of this, despite how dim and far off it seems right now, it's just a matter of holding on for as long as possible.  I feel like by the fall things will be picking back up again. I'm trying to remain hopeful, I'm not going to roll over and die and cave into the depression of all this. 

I'm trying to figure out what industries are not totally shutting down.  there are a few companies out there that still need custom screen printing and i'm going to get out there and sales rep it as hard as i can. Police, fire depts, Town maintenance crews, utility companies, electricians, plumbers, construction, landscaping, they are all still working for now. Some of it maybe small quick orders, but i'll take what i can get, crap i started this dam business on small piss orders, i fought my way out of the garage printing thousands of shirts manually, finally made it into a shop and an auto and employees and for the past few years it's been going freaking awesome. I will be dammed if this virus kills my business! 

that's it for now, i'll see you guys on the other side. 
Everyone stay healthy

[brandhouseink]

4 man shop here. Laid off everyone except myself. Lucky our crew are younger kids without a ton of financial responsibility. A lot of our market is education K-12; so we’re done for now. We initially had enough work to carry us another week; This was prior to our President putting the world on notice this thing could carry on until August. All orders were cancelled, and hopes were dashed after that press conference. Of course we weren’t smart enough to have enough nest egg for multiple rainy days! Lol…  We have a 30 day plan that will work, but not perfect. I’m spending the next couple days putting a dollar amount on a 90 day plan; Once budget is complete, I will decide on cheapest way to fund it and move on. Not many other options. Will use this downtime to follow other industries and their recovery patterns. 

[jesterapparel]

I came to check on my old friends hoping its not that bad.......  Sorry Guys.
Im still in business but contract things out.  My main source of income is a food factory job.  It pays well and of course they can't make enough. They actually couldn't before this.
Was telling my wife tonight thank God I dont have a lease, equipment, and a screen printing business as my main source of income.
I did buy an antec 6/4 dirt cheap few months ago and I was gonna clean it up and resell it.  Was busy and never got around to it yet.  Looks like I will be sitting on that awhile.
Hang in there guys.  Eventually things will be back up and going again.

[Nitrox73]

If you get a loan, do not use the money. Have it sitting in the bank to use after the virus is under control.
When the businesses reopen and ppl are walking out and about, you will see if you can use the money to get going again.
That is the only acceptable use for it. Even then you will have to do some math to figure out if the risk is worth it.
Pierre

I literally just got done having that conversation with our bank. They advised getting the loan when it becomes available and sitting on it.

I have to guess at the concept here; is the idea to get the loan now for the best interest rate? Like all of us, our vendors will be screaming for money, of course, and I see paying for shirts with personal credit cards so they'll ship, then reimburse ourselves immediately, and let the loan sit until the sun starts to shine again. I know I'll get through it, but the hardships on our employees is the shitty part...

Steve

Actually, the thought was that if this continues the government could come out with assistance programs that could help offset lease, utility, vehicle, and other payments in the form of grants or forgiveness. Our bank even said we could see companies/vendors offering buyout deals. Buy out your equipment leases at a reduced rate. Lenders are going to be just as strapped for cash as we are.

So, if we get a loan now, sit on the money until we now what other plans become available. Congress is already looking at suspending evictions, rent payments, and utility payments. The lost income from those payments would be covered by the government. One banker told me flat out, don't be a boy scout. You have to play the long game if you want to survive.