Life on the Edge: An Entrepreneur’s Story of Survival during COVID-19

Life on the Edge is my story about surviving COVID-19 as an entrepreneur and small business owner outside of Philadelphia. I started documenting the happenings of each day about two weeks into lock down so that when I look back on this time I will be able to remember it for exactly what it is. 

My goal with Life on the Edge is to provide an inside look into a small business struggling to survive, my first major crisis as a leader, and ultimately the process of saving a small company during a global disaster. I hope that by sharing my experience I might help other entrepreneurs and business owners during this time. 

In Episode 32, I discuss the two primary SBA loan programs that are available to small business owners, the Payroll Protection Program and the Emergency Disaster Loan or EIDL Loan Program. I'll tell you about some of the weaknesses and shortfalls of those programs, which is creating frustration for me and I'm sure many other business owners and entrepreneurs right now.

Ultimately, what we need and what most other businesses need is the economy to get going again. That means we need to get businesses opened back up, we need to get people back to work, and we need to get the wheel turning again. I'm not offering any opinions as to the implications of the virus by opening things back up, and that may indeed be the wrong thing to do; I'm simply stating that my company needs things to open back sooner than later.