(March 26, 2020 at 3:52 pm)Brian37 Wrote:(March 26, 2020 at 2:04 pm)Drich Wrote: Most of you know i have a small refrigeration company. who designs and upfits cargo vans for a range of temps for speciality product delivery. from -20F deep frozen to 35F cool frig temps to 200f warming ovens for cooked food or we could put all of that into a single van. been at this since 2001 ish with a partner 2003 ish on our own. went from building one offs in my dads garage on the weekend to s single bay single van shop to s shared two bay to a single 10,000 space to 20 ac space to now over 50 under ac and a car lot on top.
in a span of about 20 years. 2 weeks ago i celebrated my wedding anniversary when we left work friday we had 9 different deals on the table. cars being sold freezer vans being built. had a mustang roll out on saturday. monday one one phone call all day and that was the finance company making final arrangements on the mustang.
tuesday I called all those other leads to see what was up. everyone is holding money waiting to see what will happen. we have two job we are finishing up now, and after this we have nothing. have to send everyone home. which should allow us two weeks of revenue at a min level of operation. which if we can get the subsidy loan may take us to june. if this goes longer than june there will not be enough time in the rest of my season to cover the expenses. IE i will have to basically borrow/borrowed almost a 1years revenue to try and catch next years busy season.
I won't let the company take on that much debt. we have about a 10-15% debt ratio now. which is alot. I will shut everything down before taking on more than i know i can payback with in a few years.
sharing this to show me stepping out like the rest of the country, being lead down a dark and most likely fatal path. I want to share with you the good bad and ugly of how God works in my life. It may work out the way I want it may work out the way he wants it may all fall to chance. i do not know for sure.
Right now i called everyone i know in this business as we all kinda know each other and spoke to a few and everyone is in my boat. but they have generational companies dads dad owned it everything paid for ect... meaning the will obviously last longer.
This may also mean the end of my weekly free time i spend here typing away.
So far we started with a prayer to ask God to open our hearts and minds to what needs to be done and if we need to make a move to close this door completely and open another in the direction we are to go. We filled out the government money app to see if we qualify. and we are shutting down all non essential services like advertising and car fax that sort of stuff tying to make out dollars stretch.
If your business fails because of this pandemic, it won't be because God is testing you, or punishing you. or me. It would be merely because life is imperfect and bad shit happens, beyond your control. Just ask the dinosaurs.
and if i make it? what if i thrive? what if i make more money here in this mess than i have in years past?
that's what this is about. or it's about my new direction if i don't.
