Liz Spratlin has seen a lot of storms in her 10 years in business.
The women’s boutique owner remembers when major improvements were underway in the Fondren Business District causing massive traffic issues and hampering foot traffic. She and other area merchants wondered if they would weather it all. They did.
However, today, retailers are facing something that has been far worse on business than sidewalk construction: a virus that has caused shops across the country to temporarily shut their doors and lay off workers.
But thanks to a text support group made up of several local business owners, Spratlin doesn’t have to face COVID-19 alone.
Seven Northside shop owners have formed a COVID-19 text group. Through this tool, members have sought assistance on applying for stimulus assistance loans, tossed around ideas about how to generate business and shared jokes about the outbreak.
More importantly, though, the text group has allowed these owners to stay connected during the pandemic, which for many has been a time of isolation.
“One of the main ways it has been helpful is that it has allowed us to laugh,” Spratlin said. “We all take our businesses seriously, but it’s such a strange time. We’ve learned to lean on each other.”
Members include Spratlin, owner of Blithe and Vine; Jude Muse, owner of The Treehouse Boutique; Erik Kegler and Brennan Hovell, owners of Erik Kegler Home and Eventful; Elizabeth Upchurch owner Fresh Ink; Lisa Palmer, of SummerHouse; and Courtney Peters, of Courtney Peters Interior Design.
Peters was the one who pulled everyone together.
The interior designer closed her Old Canton Road studio March 18, the week after she returned from spring break. She began the text group days later.
“As a business owner, you prepare for just about anything,” she said. “You work your way through all these scenarios with hard work and buckling down. But for something like this, which is totally out of your control, it is terrifying.”
Most businesses closed that week as cities and the state began issuing orders to shutter non-essential businesses and limit gatherings of more than 10 people.
“When they told us we couldn’t be open, that’s when I started it,” she said. “I decided to reach out to people who were in the same position I was in.
“Some of these people were my friends, as well as people I looked up to. I thought they would be going through the same thing I was, and that we could share ideas on how to help each other during these times.”
Kegler had become friends with Peters over the years and was happy to be apart, even brought in a few of his friends as well.
“We have talked or texted almost every day through this experience,” he said.
Kegler and Hovell co-own the event planning business. While events are being postponed or ccanceled, they continue to work with clients remotely.
He employs and provides health insurance and benefits for nine-full time staffers, several of whom were temporarily laid off.
The text/support group has especially been helpful in answering questions about applying for federal assistance, such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) through the Small Business Administration (SBA), according to Kegler.
“We could come to the group, and someone would say, ‘here’s this website,’ or ‘here’s a banker you can talk to,’ or ‘here is what our accountant told us,’” he said. “It’s been really helpful.”
Muse said applying for the funds was tedious.
“What was most hard was the limited amount of time we had to apply and the fact that the information the banks wanted just kept changing,” the women’s boutique owner said. “Between your banker and your accountant and being able to ask others who were doing the same thing as you were has been helpful,” she said.
Palmer, who owns shops in Ridgeland and Oxford, said members are now relying on each other, when just weeks ago they were competitors.
“We’re not thinking about each other as competitors or that we’re in the same markets,” she said. “That is far from our mind right now. “
The group includes three interior designers, two women’s boutiques and a wedding and stationery gift shop.
“It’s about helping each other out. That’s the number one goal.”
In addition to helping each other with SBA loan information and ideas on how to maintain business, members also check in with each other to stay current on the latest developments related to the COVID outbreak.
Last week, several of them reacted after news broke that Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba extended the city’s stay-at-home order through May 15.
Under the order, retailers in the capital city classified as “non-essential” could reopen for curbside pickup and delivery, but could not allow individuals in their stores to shop.
The retailers are able to cope with such stressful news, in part, because of each other.
“It’s how we keep our sanity, we laugh now and then, when memes are sent out,” Muse said. “We celebrate with each other when someone gets their SBA money.”
