(WDTV)– With an abrupt change to how we work during this pandemic, local business are facing continuous challenges financially as time goes on.
Adam Herrick, the manager of Sargasso in Monongalia County has lived it first hand.
“Our staff is a lot smaller so we have to essentially let go of a lot of people, even though when everything comes back to normal, we’ll welcome them back, but a lot of that affects them and as manager it affects us as well,” Herrick said.
Rick Mirza, the CEO and Founder of Daulat, said there are a few pointers small businesses can take to help during this hard time.
“This is a pivotal time for those businesses I think because they have to look at avenues to be able to generate revenue and generate new customers,” Mirza.
Mirza shared advice that he himself took when he faced a business crisis.
“The primary thing that I suggested from day one is advice I’ve taken myself,” Mirza. “Cash is king,” he said. “Conservation of your cash on hand is both for your small business, medium business and yourself personally as a family,” he said. “It’s got to be the upmost importance.”
He said cash is important during a time like this for many reasons.
“The number one thing that lenders, creditors like to do is revoke lines of credit, decrease your available credit on your credit cards,” Mirza said. “So those lines of help that we would normally look for in times like this, they may not be that abundant,” he said.
Mirza also mentioned that it’s important to consider where your money is going and get rid of nonessential payments.
“Things will add up to a lot of money if you look at it month by month, quarter by quarter and then working our way up to bigger ticket items like rent and utilities and so on and so forth,” he said.
Even during this time, as businesses like Sargasso continue to work to stay open, they are thankful for those that continue to support them.
“We’ve had a lot of good feedback from the community,” Herrick said.
Mirza said it’s great to have the support from customers, but paying attention to employees is also a key factor.
“A lot of people are going through mental health issues and issues of just being home for so long and not being able to go outside,” Mirza said. “So when coming back into work, some may be excited and some may say, ‘hey, I can do what I want to do at work from home,’ so working with your group cohesively is something I saw that we did that worked really well for us,” he said. “And God bless, we were able to survive the last crash.”