Not everyone has what it takes to be a self-employed businessperson. It requires drive, determination, and a willingness to take big risks. Oftentimes it can take years to see a significant revenue stream—and even then, finances have to be tightly controlled.

So when an unprecedented event like a viral pandemic strikes, small business owners take a massive hit, especially in the wake of forced closures.

In part two of this series, we take another look at small business owners in the area whose revenues have been slashed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many of them, the future of their livelihood is eerily uncertain. 

Done Hair, Skin and Nails 

Karen Albaugh of Done Hair, Skin and Nails in Niverville shut the salon’s doors even before the mandated closure.

On a Friday the 13th in March, with the announcement of school closures and recommended isolation, her business quickly dropped off to nothing.

“At first it was our older clientele, people who are late 50s and up,” Albaugh says. “We also heard from quite a few parents calling to cancel their young one’s appointments. By Monday, March 16, our fully booked days had become half-booked days, and by Wednesday we were down to one or two clients each. The phone calls were all the same: ‘I’m sorry, but…’”

Albaugh describes March 18 as a day that changed her. As she paced the salon floor and tried to get a grip on the ramifications of what her store’s closure would mean, her employees wrapped up the final details and left for home indefinitely.

“The second I heard them walk out the back door, I broke down,” Albaugh recalls. “I cried like a baby. All I could think of was ‘I have six people who count on me for a paycheque. I’m self employed and a sole proprietor, which means if your business fails, they can go after your personal assets to recover what you owe, and I still have start-up debt.’”

Having recently gotten through her fifth year in business, Albaugh says she hoped this would finally be the year she might be able to afford to pay herself rather than putting all of her earnings back into the business.

Now, she says, her credit cards are maxed out due to a recent renovation and the addition of a new product line and she’s got virtually no income. As a small business owner, she’s not eligible to collect employment income and is as yet unsure if the government will roll out any benefit packages significant enough to keep her business afloat.

In the days that followed the closure, Albaugh was stuck at home with little company apart from her thoughts, which insisted on visiting all the darkest places imaginable. She lost sleep and scrubbed every corner of her home just for distraction.

Her partner began to work from home, worried for her well-being. He did his best to console her.

“He reminded me that, just because my business is closed, the world hasn’t come to an end, that it won’t be easy, and that things as we know them will change,” says Albaugh. “But that we’ll have a roof over our heads and that we’ll still eat. I honestly needed to be told that.”

Since that time, Albaugh has been working at building up her online store along with some part-time assistance from one of her employees with skills in marketing. They are offering root touch-up and toner kits for existing clients and curbside pickup and delivery of all their products.

“While it’s a start, there’s still a lot I need to do to really make the online store succeed,” says Albaugh. “I would say that it’s brought us to just under 10 percent of what we’d have done in sales if we had been open.”

She says the length of the closure will determine whether her business will survive in the end. Bankruptcy, she admits, is one of her greatest fears.

“All of the big banks have entire pages on their websites dedicated to telling you, the desperate, scared small business owner searching the internet late at night for any kind of help or resources you can find, that you must plan for what you will do after the four months when [government benefit packages] have come to an end.”

As well, even if her business does survive, she wonders whether her clients will be left with enough disposable income to support her. 

Parallel Motions 

Parallel Motions Massage Therapy had been open for a mere five weeks in Niverville when the government edict forced owner Carrie Baldwin to close her doors.

As a registered massage therapist who sells an in-person service, online sales aren’t an option. Since March 20, she’s had no source of employment income.

“This closure has been devastating financially,” Baldwin says. “I had put all my savings, in addition to a small loan from family, into renovating the clinic space in February… When I got word of the closures, I put aside what I had earned… to pay for my rent and costs and scrambled for what to do next. It all happened so quickly. This was something you don’t prepare for.”

Between a bit of savings and the potential for government benefits, she’s hopeful she can survive till midsummer, but she worries about the hard decisions she’ll need to make if the closures continue into fall or beyond.

“This stress affects all aspects of my life and our family,” Baldwin says. “It has been a really hard time personally and with my business. I look around and see so many people in the same boat as me. It’s seems unreal. You have to worry not only about keeping your family from getting sick but also how your business and family’s finances will survive.”

Baldwin is thankful that she had no employees to let go. And, in the end, she feels like the government is doing their best in these uncertain times.

“My greatest fear is… that I have to give up my clinic, my dream,” Baldwin says. “I love my career. I miss my space and clients so much. I love being able to help my clients and be my own boss. I worry about losing it all.”

As well, she says, the pressure of raising a family on one income is taking its toll. In the midst of it all, the Baldwins’ also recently endured the stress of moving the family to a new home in Niverville.

“I would like people to really consider shopping close to home and supporting local… now and in the future when this is all over,” Baldwin says. “We small business owners are going to need the support… I want to continue to work in my community for years to come.”