5 ms·

Being a sole proprietor / contractor right now feels hopeless. Nobody is spending money with me right now, projects on hold, no possible way of filing for unemp

by dpcan 7y ago

Being a sole proprietor / contractor right now feels hopeless. Nobody is spending money with me right now, projects on hold, no possible way of filing for unemployment. It's worrisome. Thankfully my wife is still working - but she's an administrator at a Nursing Home and people there are starting to get tested - and she's panicking. They are days from having no nurses. She's worried about cleaning crews being sick. She's worried about bringing it home. Luckily they have a stockpile of supplies, BUT THIS WHOLE THING IS ABOUT TO BLOW UP! The problem is that the tests of their employees are taking UP TO 10 DAYS to come back. They are sending home nurses for this long just to wait and see if they are all going to be exposed, their residents too. Anyone in their facility who may be sick is being sent home for 14 days. There will be nobody left to take care of the elderly, who may also get sick. People are worried about dying themselves, or the people they care for dying. I'm confident we are 10 days from hearing about Nursing Homes and Nurses in Nursing Homes everywhere getting sick and dying in massive numbers.

cheeze 7y ago
> Being a sole proprietor / contractor right now feels hopeless. Nobody is spending money with me right now, projects on hold, no possible way of filing for unemployment. It's worrisome. Please don't take this as me being captain hindsight here, but I think that this pandemic has reallllly shown the need for an emergency fund. IMO if you're sole prop or contractor, you owe it to yourself to have a bigger emergency fund for this exact scenario.
- manquer 7y ago
  It is not that people don’t know this and spend all they make. Not all contractors make enough to save for an emergency fund easily. Independent of all of this, every experienced contractor knows that sometimes there will be dull patches and you save for that . However it is not always possible to do so, and you may have saved for 2weeks or 2 months and it may not be enough the economy might limp for 6months or a year .
- GaryNumanVevo 7y ago
  perhaps having better social safety nets like 90% of the developed world would be better, no?
- Pfhreak 7y ago
  In an country with healthy safety nets and an economy that fairly pays everyone, sure, I'd say maybe they should have saved more. We're not that economy, and we're not that country, and it's totally unreasonable to expect that everyone can put aside months of emergency funds.
vsareto 7y ago
I don't think you'll be hearing much about nursing homes: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/feds-decline-to-release-list-of-147-nursing-homes-stricken-by-coronavirus/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/feds-decline-to-...
avalys 7y ago
Check out the details of the small business forgivable loan package just passed by the Senate. I think they took some actions to help sole proprietors and self-employed people also.

by dpcan 7y ago

cheeze 7y ago

> Being a sole proprietor / contractor right now feels hopeless. Nobody is spending money with me right now, projects on hold, no possible way of filing for unemployment. It's worrisome. Please don't take this as me being captain hindsight here, but I think that this pandemic has reallllly shown the need for an emergency fund. IMO if you're sole prop or contractor, you owe it to yourself to have a bigger emergency fund for this exact scenario.

manquer 7y ago
It is not that people don’t know this and spend all they make. Not all contractors make enough to save for an emergency fund easily. Independent of all of this, every experienced contractor knows that sometimes there will be dull patches and you save for that . However it is not always possible to do so, and you may have saved for 2weeks or 2 months and it may not be enough the economy might limp for 6months or a year .
GaryNumanVevo 7y ago
perhaps having better social safety nets like 90% of the developed world would be better, no?
Pfhreak 7y ago
In an country with healthy safety nets and an economy that fairly pays everyone, sure, I'd say maybe they should have saved more. We're not that economy, and we're not that country, and it's totally unreasonable to expect that everyone can put aside months of emergency funds.

vsareto 7y ago

I don't think you'll be hearing much about nursing homes: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/feds-decline-to-release-list-of-147-nursing-homes-stricken-by-coronavirus/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/feds-decline-to-...

avalys 7y ago

Check out the details of the small business forgivable loan package just passed by the Senate. I think they took some actions to help sole proprietors and self-employed people also.