For small business owners like Paul Currie, the COVID-19 pandemic has not been an easy thing to get through.
Most of the clients for his commercial print shop, Quikprint Services Ltd. in St. John's, vanished for the early months of the pandemic and Currie was forced to lay off most of his staff. While just about everyone is back to work these days, it's far from business as usual in the office. Revenue is still down by about 20 per cent from where it was a year ago.
That's why he and other small business owners in Newfoundland and Labrador were happy about the inclusion of the new Small Business Assistance Program in Wednesday's provincial budget. The $30-million program addresses the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, offering $25 million for small businesses and $5 million for community-based organizations. These funds can be used to address revenue lost or costs incurred due to online sales initiatives or health and safety upgrades.
"I think you're going to see a lot of small businesses that probably skated through the summer and have probably kept their heads above water because of the federal wage subsidy and some of the small business loans," said Currie, whose father Philip founded the company in 1973.
"But people that unfortunately went into this in rough shape or were not sitting pretty are probably going to find January and February really hard. I think you'll really see the true story in March as to who survives this.
"Anything local, provincial, federal governments can do to help small business stay alive and keep their people working and keep the economy churning is going to pay dividends. If not, we're going to end up with a lot of people out of work in the new year."
Slow business
When the pandemic hit in mid-March, expectations at Quikprint changed quickly. At first, Currie thought he could implement small changes to get through what was on the way.
"Then two days later, literally everything around us and our clients were being shut down," he said, later noting his business was considered an essential service. "We had to lay off four people and basically close the building to the public and offer curbside pickup and delivery of their safety signage, decals and paperwork."
Currie and his production manager handled all the remaining print jobs for a couple of months, at which point other businesses started to reopen and Quickprint was able to bring back employees one-by-one. The full team was only brought back recently, and weekly operations have been reduced by five hours.
"September (sales) was down 20 per cent, but if you go back to August, August was down 50 per cent," Currie said.
The loss of large gatherings has hurt the company's bottom line. The Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra typically uses Quickprint, but it's not returning to live performances at the St. John's Arts and Culture Centre until the new year. The company also prints 50/50 tickets sold at hockey and basketball games at Mile One Centre. The playing season was cut short for both sports back in March, and a return to play remains uncertain at this point.
"A lot of things like that have unfortunately impacted our business," Currie said.
Similar experiences
Hair salons were closed in Newfoundland and Labrador for almost three months. In order to reopen in early June, they had to make considerable investments to ensure public health and safety. Dale Abbott, owner of The Hair Factory in St. John's, expects the new government program will help businesses cover those unexpected expenses.
"The expense for so many of us back in June was really substantial, so I think this will help us to cover some of those, which will be wonderful," she told The Telegram.
Margaret Butt owns multiple Hallmark franchises in St. John's and Mount Pearl, employing 16 people. Her stores were closed for two-and-a-half weeks before reopening to offer curbside pickup. From April to early June, sales were down year-over-year by about 80 per cent.
"We were working real hard, but there wasn't a lot of money going in the bank," she said.
Butt said the pandemic has been stressful for staff, some of whom are taking leave from work as a result. Like others, she's pleased the province is offering a program to directly support small businesses.
"I think it's a great recognition that we're all struggling out here," she said. "Every business probably has a different struggle. But small business is the engine of the economy. Even though we talk about oil and the fish, an awful lot of people are employed by small businesses, and most of us are just profitable most of the time. When you get a hit like this, it can put you really close to the edge.”
Other provinces
Other Atlantic provinces have instituted their own programs to assist small businesses trying to make it through a very uncertain economic climate.
The Government of Nova Scotia created the Creative Industries Fund-Digital Project Grant to help businesses and organizations in the creative industries for short-term projects that engage audiences, build awareness, develop skills or diversify earned income streams. It also developed an Agriculture Response Program with four streams of funding.
Prince Edward Island earlier this year launched a COVID-19 Business Adaptation Advice Program and a COVID-19 Small Business Rental Deferral Guarantee Program, among others.
In a statement issued to The Telegram, Industry, Energy and Technology Minister Andrew Parsons said details on eligibility criteria and how to apply for the program will be released in the coming weeks.
The application process will be handled online.
