Thursday, August 20, 2020

Lift Off

I am betting on the U recovery, a downgrade from a V, hopes dashed by a uniquely American belief in personal freedom. A U is a V with a trough filled with the corpses of our callously discarded elders. A "U" assumes we will see sales back to normal quickly once a vaccine is in play, which is somewhat optimistic when many industries expect up to three years to recover. They expect something that looks more like a Nike swoosh. I do not want swoosh. If I thought we were swooshing, I might exit. No swoosh.

This willful rush towards oblivion cost my business $90,000. I didn't fully realize this until I applied for a grant this week. It will set me back five years financially, assuming things were back to normal, which they are not. We survived because I borrowed money from my home equity, called on investors for more cash, took a PPP loan/grant that is still questionable as to repayment, and only then dipped into a large EIDL loan to pay off creditors. Any victory lap you perceive me taking is in the context of this tremendous cost for others personal freedoms. 

My strategy forward is fairly simple. Since I'm loaded up with government loan money, I'm rapidly expanding inventory. Some of it will be good choices, some bad, but in the end, and before I make a single loan payment, I'll have it dialed in. I am going to attempt to broaden and deepen my offerings in hopes of drawing in more customers now, boost sales to something approaching normal as time goes by, and be prepared for my approaching U recovery. 

When that recovery comes, be it a U or even the dreaded swoosh, we will be stronger than before. Which is good, because I've got some hefty new loan payments. That's nothing new though, and in fact, they are lower than my recently paid off construction loans, for the game space I can't use, in the retail location rent out of proportion with what's happening.


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