I have been talking to lots of small business owners, authors, artists, agents, managers, filmmakers, editors, etc.
The general consensus has been that they have lost 75% of their business, and are barely holding on by a thread.
Yet, they are coming on social media and trying to be positive, trying to put some light into the world.
It’s a wonderful sentiment. However, if you’re a creator or business owner wondering how everybody’s able to keep it together but you, the answer is they aren’t.
Everybody is gutted. Nobody is okay.
There are a couple of rare exceptions of people who were able to pivot successfully, or even be MORE successful during the pandemic, but almost everybody is down 75%, stuck on unemployment, and wondering what will happen at the end of the month when that $600/wk extra bonus is going away, as that’s what’s keeping them afloat right now.
If that sounds like you, and you’ve been disheartened that it feels like you’re the only one, behind the scenes everybody is freaking the fuck out.
When it comes up, I tell people that I clawed my way back from the edge. (I am okay now, but honestly it was so bad in March and April that I didn’t even have enough money to file for bankruptcy.)
I’m glad you were able to do so.