RaeShawn and LaShone’s Story

RaeShawn and LaShone Middleton, R&L Crab, LLC
Laurel, MD

Covid-19 has ravaged the restaurant industry. My sister and I know first hand. We lost our jobs as servers in March as restaurants were mandated to shut down in Washington, DC. We were out of work but not out of ideas. We knew food service could still be successful, it would just have to be rethought.

We knew the market in our hometown well and found an opening that no one had filled. We put together a business plan and put it into motion, delivering Maryland’s famous steamed blue crabs to our neighbors in Laurel. 

We’ve grown steadily since we started, increasing the days we operate, beginning a loyal following of repeat customers and expanding through special promotions on social media. It’s been a success. So much so that we’re already making plans to expand. 

Support such as that given to some small businesses during the pandemic would help us fast track our expansion and solidify our business. We want to move into a full-time commercial kitchen space or even a food truck. And we think this model can be successful in other cities as well. 

We applied for a loan through the SBA and were denied. We don’t seem to fit the criteria for the PPP or for municipal programs for small businesses. But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t use a boost up to keep us going and help us grow.

The government has stepped in to help businesses who’ve been negatively affected by the pandemic. We weren’t business owners at the start of the crisis. But we were directly and severely impacted—we lost our sole sources of income. We became business owners to survive the pandemic and contribute to overcoming the economic crisis it unleashed. 

We were unemployed, but instead of turning to unemployment insurance we decided to employ ourselves. We’ve found success. Now is the time to nurture the new set of entrepreneurs who’ve been born from this crisis, not shut us out before we can see our plans through.