We know that 2020 has been a difficult year. There is no denying it. We all have been looking forward to moving into 2021 to get away from this year. Sadly, there are a lot of small businesses who will not make it across that line. We know of too many companies that have had to shut their doors permanently, unable to continue on. With the current lockdowns by Governor Inslee in place now extended into 2021, it continues to be extraordinarily challenging for small businesses to stay alive. The lockdowns were supposed to end in November, then the Governor moved them to December and currently, are still in effect until January 4th.
While various types of loans and grants became available, many small businesses were unable to apply for them. Some of these grants specified that they were only for businesses owned by minorities or gave favoritism to minority owned first. Others were not defined well enough so large companies cashed in on them before small businesses could even apply. This resulted in many smaller “mom and pop” companies closing the doors, unable to continue without help.
A lot of people think that small business owners are wealthy. The truth of the matter is that most small businesses make enough to earn a living. The difference between working for themselves and others is we get to define our hours of business. We can open early for a client or stay late. We work hard to put food on the table and pay the bills, and we try to hire others so that they can earn a living doing something they enjoy as well. Small business is an important part of the economy. We pay taxes, L&I, B&O, sales, employee, workers comp, and more. We may have high overheads and monthly budgets that we need to meet in order to keep our doors open.
Our business was not a priority business for many of the grants out there. We have been struggling to make it through each month wondering if we would be able to keep our doors open or not. We believe that we will be able to make it into 2021, for which we are thankful. We are especially grateful to our faithful customers who have continued to give us business so that we can keep our doors open.
We would like to encourage everyone to shop locally this holiday season. So many small businesses need YOUR help in order to make it into the New Year. Please think about this and help your community small businesses stay afloat into 2021. We would love to see more companies able to keep going than have to shut down.
You faith and compassion toward your communities’ small businesses will go a long way.
Thank you.
The Owners and Staff at The Master Locksmith