‘Small Business Owners Are Really Toasted At This Point’
When the Nova Scotia government announced a two-week lockdown of the province amid sky-high Covid-19 cases, small business owners were forced to scramble to comply with a rapidly evolving situation. Businesses that sold primarily “nonessential” goods would have to sell their products online and with curbside pickup or delivery; no foot traffic would be permitted.
For small retailers like Wendy Friedman, that meant a lot of sudden stress and a whirlwind of steps to adjust accordingly. Friedman, born and raised in South Carolina before moving to Halifax, owns Biscuit General Store and The Independent Mercantile Co. Her first concern was her 18 employees’ well-being. She says laid-off staff across the city are wondering if they qualify for the federal CERB program and if they will get money of time to make ends meet.
“I’m trying to help my staff out by giving them some extra money, but I can’t really afford it. But I also don’t want them to be afraid,” said Friedman.
“They’re really scared and stressed out, and they don’t know how they’re going to pay their rent.”
One of the first aspects Friedman had to fix upon the lockdown announcement was her social media marketing. Like many business owners, Friedman creates her social media posts for marketing purposes ahead of time and schedules the posts to be published at a later date. As soon as Premier Rankin and Dr. Strang announced the lockdown measures, Friedman’s posts for two businesses became useless and had to be deleted. This task took her most of a day.
Despite the stress she has been under since the lockdown, Friedman still supports the strict public health measures.
“I completely support the concept of shutdown because we need to do whatever we have to do to protect public health. That comes first always,” said Friedman.
Friedman will now be relying on federal and provincial support programs to help get through the next number of weeks. While these programs help relieve business owners’ financial stress, they’re also a lot of work to keep on top of. Different programs have different eligibility requirements and weaving your way through the system can be mentally taxing.
“It is a ton of work keeping up with it because it keeps changing and there are different programs, and you have to figure out what you’re eligible for,” explained Friedman. “And then you have to track your sales, or how much your sales are down.”
“I know that is a concern I have going forward is to just keep my radar scanner going all the time for what I am and not eligible for.”
Business owners in Halifax who have been forced to close will be relying heavily on online orders to keep themselves afloat, along with the government programs. But Friedman knows from experience that online sales, for small retailers, don’t provide the same level of revenue compared to in-person shopping.
“We can’t possibly offer everything that we sell in our stores online, because it’s too much and it changes so rapidly,” Friedman explained. “It’s a huge amount of work to add something to your online store.”
This is the third time in the past year that the province announced public measures that affected how businesses can operate in the HRM. Each time, it meant less foot traffic and fewer sales for these outlets. Friedman talks to a lot of other business people in the city. She says morale is low for a lot of her colleagues after such an exhausting year.
“Small business owners are really toasted at this point,” said Friedman. “Everybody’s exhausted and it’s been such an emotional rollercoaster for all of them and a lot of them are afraid for their future.”
Friedman, despite her stress, is trying to remain optimistic about the future for her and her two businesses.
“Confidence is a spectrum; I would say I’m on the confidence spectrum. I’m a very determined style of entrepreneur, so I feel I’ll do whatever it takes, even if it means working every shift myself.”
Friedman is staying confident because of customer loyalty. Halifax has a lot of kind people who will help small, local, businesses during hard times.
“It’s touching how people have made an effort and they do try to come out and support us,” she said.
“I’m grateful that I live here and that my businesses are here. For the most part, people have been really decent to each other.”