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Rebecca and Choo,

The fact that Kush carpets has weathered an economic storm of this magnitude thus far, indicates to me that this is a well managed, viable business deserving of financial help. I applaud the owners of Kush for persevering under these difficult circumstances.

In response to Choo, yes the economic stimulus package was meant to create jobs, but more importantly, it was meant to prevent the failure of viable businesses that are having a hard time getting credit. The credit markets are still reasonably frozen. I think Rebecca's point is, in this instance, not only has the stimulus saved two jobs at Kush, there's a far reaching trickledown effect if a business fails. If Kush goes out of business, this means everyone that provides Kush services has lost business of their own which may mean additional layoffs in their respective industries. Each of those lost jobs represents one less consumer to fuel the economy, and one more person competing for hard to find jobs. Magnify that by the failure of many small businesses, and you can see the impact it has on the economy. The point of the stimulus is to prevent this from happening.

An additional suggestion to Rebecca in case you haven't explored it- with property prices falling, and businesses going out of business, this may give you the leverage to re-negotiate your lease terms.

Additionally, you may want to consider diversifying. People are looking for bargains right now. I would assume you travel frequently to foreign countries given the nature of your business. You may want to offer additional wares at your store beyond high end rugs. For instance, home decor items that can be purchased cheaply in third world countries, and marked up substantially. If someone comes in to buy rugs, but decides it's beyond their budget, they may end up going home with a $200-300 dollar decor item that caught their eye before they left.  Just a suggestion.

Wishing you success!

Pandora 

 

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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