What's your thoughts

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by GUMP

What about all the small business owners with mortgages, credit lines, fleet payments, etc.? What words of wisdom do you have for them?

Go open up your business. Get infected. Infect your family and co-workers. Go out of business because your customers stay home.

The government can give the OK for you to open. They can't force customers to come to you.

[GUMP]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

Go open up your business. Get infected. Infect your family and co-workers. Go out of business because your customers stay home.

Interesting. I wasn't actually talking about myself.

But, since you are so concerned I will share my situation. My business is deemed "essential" by the powers that be. Among other things, we support hospitals, prisons, manufacturers, and others that have to stay open. I only have a few employees, so it has been pretty easy to keep them working at different locations or working from home. My wife works in the local hospital, so I feel it is my personal responsibility to stay away from people. I only go to my office when there is no option. We practice social distancing and keep everything wiped down.

The government can give the OK for you to open. They can't force customers to come to you.

There are a couple of problems with this. First, I feel that the government can only make recommendations. Second, if they do make a recommendation and a company goes against it, that company is opening itself to lawsuits.

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by GUMP

There are a couple of problems with this. First, I feel that the government can only make recommendations. Second, if they do make a recommendation and a company goes against it, that company is opening itself to lawsuits.

Even if the company follows all recommendations, customers may still decide not to come.

[GUMP]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

Even if the company follows all recommendations, customers may still decide not to come.

That is very true. I don't deal with the general public. So, my situation is a little different. Still, many of my customers are closed because their customers are closed. These guys are also my friends. You can hear the worry over the phone.

Based on what I see in my area with the businesses that are open, I would bet that if they were to open every sit down restaurant, they would all fill up!

Given the choice, people ARE going out.

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by GUMP

Based on what I see in my area with the businesses that are open, I would bet that if they were to open every sit down restaurant, they would all fill up!

And if that were to happen, in a month we'd be all closed up again and would be back where we started from six weeks ago.

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by GUMP

But, since you are so concerned I will share my situation.

I am glad to hear that you are able to keep things going. I got laid off from my hospital marketing job in February 2019 and have been freelancing since then. So I am still freelancing and working from home. I was already in the position of working hard to keep going so this is no difference for me.

My wife is a genetic counselor for one of the largest health systems in Philly. She has been able to switch all her patient appointments to telehealth and is working from home. She is immuno-compromised so I am not going to do anything to risk bringing home the virus to her.