Brown’s business was already struggling due to the trade war, and now stacks of orders—key chains, mugs, t-shirts—sit uncollected on his shelves as corporate clients trim discretionary spending. He and his co-owner wife are two months behind on the mortgage for their Minneapolis shop, and now have to think about the mortgage on their own home.

There are three things our elected leaders can do to help. First, we need protection from mortgage and rent payments. Second, we need help covering paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave. Third, real stimulus payments to individuals—payments that make the difference for people being able to meet their needs—would give me a sense of relief.

I fear waiting to create safety nets will only lead to extreme mental health tragedies and hardships. Please save an industry that employs millions of people and helps keep this country moving forward.

Usually this time of year my business would be shifting into high gear. But because of the emergency, work has dried up. Just paying bills is a task. Small businesses like mine need grants, not loans, to make us whole after these lost opportunities.

We exist in a ghost town. Last week, revenue dropped 50%. This week, we are closing early for lack of customers. We need help. State and Federal assistance in any capacity to help make ends meet would be a huge relief and allow us to remain open while the community weathers this storm. 

We are experiencing a huge loss in revenue to date. The CDC made a recommendation that people not gather in groups of 50 or more for the next 8 weeks. That week 70% of our business canceled.

We recently decided to fully close, and we are losing around $130,000 monthly in projected revenue. We are experiencing deep uncertainty about what is to come, what we can do, what we are supposed to do, what we should do.

Any closure longer than a month, and our inability to cover our own basic living expenses will likely necessitate closing permanently. With no exaggeration, we're planning for a total loss of our business and bankruptcy by June. 

I have a small bakery business in Southern MN. We make from scratch baked goods, fresh coffee, and serve as a meeting place. Overall our losses are topping about $12,000 - $15,000 over the last month and we are worried about the continued impact on our ability to survive this to stay open. 

There is so much uncertainty and anxiety for workers in the service industry. The unemployment system is showing signs of becoming overwhelmed. What won’t work for us are cumbersome loan processes and the prospect of taking on more debt in these uncertain times. Loans might be helpful for businesses with larger margins, but we need money now.

For my business, this crisis has meant that events that were booked months ago have now been cancelled. It’s because of this uncertainty and the huge risk it poses to the foundations of our economy that we need immediate help that matches the scope of what we’re up against. 

As of March 15, we employed around 75 people. On March 16, we laid off 40 of them. I can’t say for sure if we’ll find ourselves needing to lay off more before the end of the month. For my business and others, our most critical need is immediate access to funds. We need quick and substantial support to keep people employed.

February, March and April are traditionally our busiest 3 months of the year but that will clearly not be the case for us this year. I truly have no idea what to expect other than a sharp revenue drop.

Before COVID-19, our business was thriving. Then came the virus. When word of the virus first got out, our business dropped by 20 percent. That was tough, but I thought we could survive it. But once Amazon closed its doors and told its employees to work from home, business plummeted. We’ve lost 80 percent of our revenue.

Many small businesses are now seeing or are expecting potentially devastating drops in sales as Coronavirus changes workers’ and citizens’ daily habits and large group events and meetings are cancelled.

There has been widespread concern about the economic impact of the coronavirus, many fear Asian businesses will be particularly hard hit. In fact, the uptick in anti-Asian bias has been so strong that the National Science Foundation has awarded a team of researchers a grant to study the pattern of discrimination during the outbreak.  

Do remember that in times of crisis, it is your friends and neighbors, and the local, small businesses that are run by your friends and neighbors, that creates the strong web of community to support us through these uncertain times.

Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, I have been forced to furlough all my staff. We are letting our team draw down their PTO, then giving a $500 bonus to float them until UI kicks in, and we are going to pay their health, dental, vision, and short-term disability insurance premiums for as long as we can while we are shutdown. But we can’t do this long term. We need federal action, and we need it now.