I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty beat tonight. All week I’ve been either helping small businesses through the process of understanding, selecting and applying for different kinds of relief or trying to keep abreast of every new development in a rapidly shifting environment.
In the last week we’ve had three different online forms for the SBA EIDL loan. I’ve been on video calls with congressmen, with Employment Security, with the SBA. At one point I was on two different webinars on two different laptops and taking a call from a client. I’ve fielded dozens of calls and emails from businesses, from Quinault fishermen to timber companies to hairdressers to dog washers. I’ve done who knows how many Zoom calls, sharing screens with clients to fill out the form together. I did my first call with a translator yesterday, assisting an owner of a local Mexican restaurant.
Last night I basically tipped over and passed out at 5 p.m. Cranked through a ton of calls today and am again just wiped.
But I also feel like, how can I complain? I have a job and an income. The people I’m helping are looking straight into the abyss of losing everything. I’ve been on the phone with people in tears this week. People who are confused. People who run a solid business but are not financially literate enough to understand the questions, or not computer literate enough to navigate the form.
It’s been hugely rewarding for me to be able to help, but I fear for many of these businesses. I don’t want to give them false hope. I don’t know if this financial relief is going to be enough, how far this thing is going to go, how long the money is going to last. But they have to take the step, submit the application, hope. We have to hope that we can save our small businesses.
Please, if your income is uninterrupted, if you have financial security, support your local businesses right now. Buy gift cards, contribute to GoFundMe campaigns, buy takeout from a different restaurant every day.
This is already a grave moment for a lot of people and for the country as a whole. If our local small businesses go under, it is much, much worse. For all of us.
