Hands up, who’s lost work because of Covid?

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EltonFrog

Legendary Member
🤬
Folks are emailing me now to cancel bookings, I’ve even had one cancel for Christmas Eve.

A good friend and colleague rather wryly posted on another site:

“I had always hoped to retire at some point. I had no idea this would be the year!”

What’s happening with other self employed folks?
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
Predictions are 75% drop in revenue in April because all the automotive market has shut down. I am not even sure the company will survive 2020.
 

screenman

Legendary Member
🤬
Folks are emailing me now to cancel bookings, I’ve even had one cancel for Christmas Eve.

A good friend and colleague rather wryly posted on another site:

“I had always hoped to retire at some point. I had no idea this would be the year!”

What’s happening with other self employed folks?


Cancelled appointments for my wife who does feet, I am just taking it day by day with dents and screen repairs for trade customers, retail has stopped completely. Tool sales got a big order yesterday, only thing is though I have stock here they come from the USA and are going to cost a lot more in future. I know a lot of people in the motor trade and most will really struggle financially to survive a downturn let alone a shut down, I am not sure what the government can do to help sole traders.
 

Julia9054

Guru
Location
Knaresborough
Both my sons who are freelance musicians. (The youngest still at college so not quite as critical as he still has his student loan to fall back on)
The joke going round is that your musician-virus name is your favourite drink followed by the number of gigs you've had cancelled.
They are Fanta-15 and Doombar-23!
 

Rocky

Hello decadence
I'm retired but my spouse and younger son are doctors. My wife stopped seeing patients after her cancer treatment but she's decided to go back to clinical work to help out. Both of them are busier than ever. My other son works in tourism and conservation in Fiji. His resort has been closed down and he's no longer getting paid. His bosses, however, are providing food and accommodation for a skeleton staff (but I'm not sure for how long).

I'm desperately sorry for those who are losing so much from this awful situation.
 

DRM

Guru
Location
West Yorks
I'm finding that a lot of companies are either closing or not allowing visitors, which I can postpone jobs, but once we are out of the other side of this it will be very hard to catch up again, if not impossible to fit them in later.
 

PaulSB

Legendary Member
I'm retired but the businesses or individuals I know to be impacted are:

  • Neighbour self-employed graphic designer says business has fallen off a cliff. Nothing new coming in
  • Cycling buddy who is a private podiatrist two days a week says most clients are elderly and she is experiencing multiple cancellations. She expects to close in the near future but reopen when this is over
  • My wife's French classes suspended for the foreseeable future
  • Our local deli, only open 10 months, closed Saturday to yesterday. Not sure what this means
 

PaulSB

Legendary Member
I used to work in the bedding plant industry. At this time of year the company was entirely reliant on 30-40 seasonal workers from Europe. The Brexit issue aside I guess this labour source will have dried up. The company made 80% of annual sales to the end of June. The profits made at this point were those for the year.

All consumables were usually ordered by November 15th of the previous year and stock delivery would have begun early January.

I can't imagine how the business will survive.
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
Most small businesses will be witnessing the biggest financial shock imaginable..
I know for a fact my old business would have been a zero income business by now.

I was used to putting money aside for a lean winter but its March and March is spring and the feel good season ..most builders landscaping and general home improvement business wait for spring to get going again.
It's been cancelled.
 

mudsticks

Obviously an Aubergine
I've had to cancel all but one, of the four weekly yoga classes I teach.

I may do some online classes - but I wouldn't expect anyone to pay for that.

Thankfully, it's only a supplementary income to the vegetable and egg farming - suddenly, producing nutritious food for the local population is enjoying an elevated status in terms of worthwhile occupations...

I've had several new enquiries about veg boxes this week, but because we are in the hungry gap - where overwintering crops are dwindling, before the spring plantings kick in - I've had to put them on a waiting list.

My prices are very fair (some might say too cheap) so I don't think it's going to hurt my business directly, in terms of demand.

But of course, I have family and friends, and other businesses roundabout, who are already affected.

Both sons, are in hospitality of sorts, and are renters - like most of their generation.
So they're understandably worried.

Plus there's the generalised worry, of people we work with, and care about getting dangerously ill.

I can't imagine anyone being unaffected by this, economically or otherwise.

My only hope, is that when we start to rebuild our economy, we do it in a such a way that gives far more consideration to issues such as social welfare, long term health - in all its forms, and preservation and enhancement of the environment we all share.
 

derrick

The Glue that binds us together.
Got to build a Cervelo S3 for a customer today. He bought forward the build before we go into full lockdown. Cant see me doing much more work after this one for a while. Being a pensioner am not bothered money wise. But i do miss chatting to customers.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Not lost work but busier than ever as our customers all over the world place bigger than usual orders. We have had to put a two-week production lead time on airfreight orders to help the factory. I just hope we can find flights and sea containers for all the cargo because airlines are stopping and many of the containers are stuck in China.
 

steveindenmark

Legendary Member
The Danish government are well on top of this and are already arranging rescue packages for companies and small businesses.. This will probably mean a raise in taxes when the worst has passed. But that is the price we have to pay.

At our company we have a good order book for the next couple of months. All the materials we need are coming in and everyone is at work.
 

PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Location
Hamtun
My nephew is a freelance sports/football commentator. He, amongst his usual work with UEFA, was waffling on for Euro 2020.
He has nothing now. He will be a stay at home dad as his wife will need to end her maternity leave early to bring a wage in.
 
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