Restaurant owners / Small business what is the survival strategy?

[Anonymous]

Also, are you sure that your restaurant employees will be eligible for unemployment--are they mainly full-time workers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a major investor ina few restaurants. Fortunately for me I have another business that is actually flourishing right now.

I had a teleconference with my partners on Sunday night. We shut both restaurants down effective Monday. Complete stop.

Employees were immediately eligible for unemployment at 60%. We are paying only the following expenses: insurance, utilities (which will be much lower), license renewals so when everything comes back we can immediately start. We notified landlord that we will not pay April (what are they going to do, not like another restaurant or anyone is looking at leasing space right now) and will reconvene with them April 15 and assess from there. I figure we can easily work out a payment plan with them. We’ve been there 6 years and while catastrophic this is a blip. We can limit monthly expenses without rent to $3K.

Partners without other income called mortgage companies and asked for deferment for April payments. I am sure it will be approved. Partners are only paying food, insurance and other necessities. They are paying for cell phone internet and cable/ Netflix since they are trapped at home. They will sort out the rest later. They will actually be increasing cash on hand albeit they will be not paying their utilities etc and will need to do so later

Presuming this is relatively short lived it won’t be catastrophic by any means.

Partners who only have income from restaurant

If you have been open 7 years, how do you not have rent for next month?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a major investor ina few restaurants. Fortunately for me I have another business that is actually flourishing right now.

I had a teleconference with my partners on Sunday night. We shut both restaurants down effective Monday. Complete stop.

Employees were immediately eligible for unemployment at 60%. We are paying only the following expenses: insurance, utilities (which will be much lower), license renewals so when everything comes back we can immediately start. We notified landlord that we will not pay April (what are they going to do, not like another restaurant or anyone is looking at leasing space right now) and will reconvene with them April 15 and assess from there. I figure we can easily work out a payment plan with them. We’ve been there 6 years and while catastrophic this is a blip. We can limit monthly expenses without rent to $3K.

Partners without other income called mortgage companies and asked for deferment for April payments. I am sure it will be approved. Partners are only paying food, insurance and other necessities. They are paying for cell phone internet and cable/ Netflix since they are trapped at home. They will sort out the rest later. They will actually be increasing cash on hand albeit they will be not paying their utilities etc and will need to do so later

Presuming this is relatively short lived it won’t be catastrophic by any means.

Partners who only have income from restaurant

If you have been open 7 years, how do you not have rent for next month?

OP is a Trump style business person, I’ll do what it best for me, even if I am breaking a contract and hurting someone else’s business.

[Anonymous]

We’ve laid off 10 people or 50% of our team. We will keep their benefits going for three months and they will collect unemployment benefits. It sucks but we need to survive. The rest of us are taking a 25% pay cut and just hoping we survive. Our business has dropped off by almost half and it could get worse. I figure we can hang on for no more than six months and then 15 years of work disappears. As a country we should have been on this two months ago and I know it would have depressed the economy but it might not have been a meltdown. Thank you Trump and Congress.

[Anonymous]

My sister laid off all 40 of her employees yesterday. She couldn’t cover the rents for her clinics, plus insurance, plus payroll. She’s looking into telehealth options to possibly stay connected with patients

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BI insurance is going to boom after this

Business income coverage won’t step in to cover these claims.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a major investor ina few restaurants. Fortunately for me I have another business that is actually flourishing right now.

I had a teleconference with my partners on Sunday night. We shut both restaurants down effective Monday. Complete stop.

Employees were immediately eligible for unemployment at 60%. We are paying only the following expenses: insurance, utilities (which will be much lower), license renewals so when everything comes back we can immediately start. We notified landlord that we will not pay April (what are they going to do, not like another restaurant or anyone is looking at leasing space right now) and will reconvene with them April 15 and assess from there. I figure we can easily work out a payment plan with them. We’ve been there 6 years and while catastrophic this is a blip. We can limit monthly expenses without rent to $3K.

Partners without other income called mortgage companies and asked for deferment for April payments. I am sure it will be approved. Partners are only paying food, insurance and other necessities. They are paying for cell phone internet and cable/ Netflix since they are trapped at home. They will sort out the rest later. They will actually be increasing cash on hand albeit they will be not paying their utilities etc and will need to do so later

Presuming this is relatively short lived it won’t be catastrophic by any means.

Partners who only have income from restaurant

If you have been open 7 years, how do you not have rent for next month?

OP is a Trump style business person, I’ll do what it best for me, even if I am breaking a contract and hurting someone else’s business.

That is nature of business
If I can take advantage of you, I will. If I don't, I loose out on an opportunity
This person clearly can pay rent, but thinks he can get away with not paying because the landlord is in a bind

[Anonymous]

I put aside about 6 months of cash in case I lose my job or for other unforeseen scenarios. Why are small business not applying the same rule to their business? The last 10 years the economy has been booming.

No excuse for being financially irresponsible!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I put aside about 6 months of cash in case I lose my job or for other unforeseen scenarios. Why are small business not applying the same rule to their business? The last 10 years the economy has been booming.

No excuse for being financially irresponsible!

Very few Large or small business will have 6 month cash reserve.

[Anonymous]

It's clear a lot of posters have no business experience. Small businesses almost never have 6 month reserves. Your rainy day fund can sustain a month or two of SLOW business. But this is almost a total loss of ALL business for an indefinite time. No business can survive this if it lasts more than a month

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a major investor ina few restaurants. Fortunately for me I have another business that is actually flourishing right now.

I had a teleconference with my partners on Sunday night. We shut both restaurants down effective Monday. Complete stop.

Employees were immediately eligible for unemployment at 60%. We are paying only the following expenses: insurance, utilities (which will be much lower), license renewals so when everything comes back we can immediately start. We notified landlord that we will not pay April (what are they going to do, not like another restaurant or anyone is looking at leasing space right now) and will reconvene with them April 15 and assess from there. I figure we can easily work out a payment plan with them. We’ve been there 6 years and while catastrophic this is a blip. We can limit monthly expenses without rent to $3K.

Partners without other income called mortgage companies and asked for deferment for April payments. I am sure it will be approved. Partners are only paying food, insurance and other necessities. They are paying for cell phone internet and cable/ Netflix since they are trapped at home. They will sort out the rest later. They will actually be increasing cash on hand albeit they will be not paying their utilities etc and will need to do so later

Presuming this is relatively short lived it won’t be catastrophic by any means.

Partners who only have income from restaurant

If you have been open 7 years, how do you not have rent for next month?

OP is a Trump style business person, I’ll do what it best for me, even if I am breaking a contract and hurting someone else’s business.

That is nature of business
If I can take advantage of you, I will. If I don't, I loose out on an opportunity
This person clearly can pay rent, but thinks he can get away with not paying because the landlord is in a bind

I"d love to know the restaurant so we don't go there when they reopen, if they reopen.

[Anonymous]

So the small businesses plan to take down the bigger businesses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's clear a lot of posters have no business experience. Small businesses almost never have 6 month reserves. Your rainy day fund can sustain a month or two of SLOW business. But this is almost a total loss of ALL business for an indefinite time. No business can survive this if it lasts more than a month

The internet has allowed for a lot of low-capital small businesses that have 6 months reserves because it doesn't cost much to run them. Small business types vary widely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's clear a lot of posters have no business experience. Small businesses almost never have 6 month reserves. Your rainy day fund can sustain a month or two of SLOW business. But this is almost a total loss of ALL business for an indefinite time. No business can survive this if it lasts more than a month

THIS.

We own a small biz and can meet overhead for 2-3 mos but WITHOUT payroll. We are laying them all off. Our business was forcibly shut down- who would ever predict that? If it goes longer than 2-3mos we will have to get an SBA loan or dip into personal retirement funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a major investor ina few restaurants. Fortunately for me I have another business that is actually flourishing right now.

I had a teleconference with my partners on Sunday night. We shut both restaurants down effective Monday. Complete stop.

Employees were immediately eligible for unemployment at 60%. We are paying only the following expenses: insurance, utilities (which will be much lower), license renewals so when everything comes back we can immediately start. We notified landlord that we will not pay April (what are they going to do, not like another restaurant or anyone is looking at leasing space right now) and will reconvene with them April 15 and assess from there. I figure we can easily work out a payment plan with them. We’ve been there 6 years and while catastrophic this is a blip. We can limit monthly expenses without rent to $3K.

Partners without other income called mortgage companies and asked for deferment for April payments. I am sure it will be approved. Partners are only paying food, insurance and other necessities. They are paying for cell phone internet and cable/ Netflix since they are trapped at home. They will sort out the rest later. They will actually be increasing cash on hand albeit they will be not paying their utilities etc and will need to do so later

Presuming this is relatively short lived it won’t be catastrophic by any means.

Partners who only have income from restaurant

If you have been open 7 years, how do you not have rent for next month?

OP is a Trump style business person, I’ll do what it best for me, even if I am breaking a contract and hurting someone else’s business.

That is nature of business
If I can take advantage of you, I will. If I don't, I loose out on an opportunity
This person clearly can pay rent, but thinks he can get away with not paying because the landlord is in a bind

A Commercial landlord here. We are of course being flexible with our tenants because, for many of them, it's the right thing to do. But you'd be foolish to think that we are not taking notes on those that are being difficult right now just to take advantage of the situation - we know who you are. Depending on how your lease is structured, we are taking it back in future months or on renewal - with interest. In the end, the customer pays for everything.