Freezing in NH

ABC News has an article Small Businesses Feeling the Squeeze.  I think these folks are going to end up somewhere they don’t want to be.  They claim that they’re keeping an eye on the bottom line, but in an economy like this they need to be pretty proactive. 

They have cheaper competitors in China, they are having trouble getting paid by buyers, heating costs are going up, it doesn’t look good.  They’ve got to economize and adapt, or close.  They’re dipping into personal savings right now.

“With the recent pay cut that we both just took at the business, I’m concerned that by now our outgo is more than our income and that means it would only get worse, not better,” Diane says. “If it should come to another round of layoffs, my son is next on the list. And that would break my heart.”

I understand that she feels bad, but maybe your son should take a look at what it’s doing to you and go get a different job.

Diane says she is constantly assessing what she calls “the point of no return” for the company and she says she is determined not to let things get so bad they would face insolvency. But some weeks now — to stay afloat and make payroll — they dip into their personal savings.

While that takes the pressure off at work, it adds to the stress at home. The Dearings are more than $100,000 over budget and wondering how to make a dent in that debt.

“The business is in difficult straits,” Diane says. “We are overextended personally because there is no profit to bring home.”

Sounds like they’ve got some difficult choices to make.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 10:02 am and is filed under articles, saving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.