Recession Hurts Family Businesses
Posted in Community on July 27th, 2009 by By the Bootstraps – Be the first to comment
The New York Times has an article focusing on a Miami-based family operation that may face closure because of the recession and the unique nature of their business.
The Great Recession, especially its stranglehold on credit and new construction, appears to have mortally wounded what the Depression could not kill.
“It’s not ‘Oh, I don’t have a job, I have to go find a new one,’ ” Mr. [Scott] Peterson (who works for his family business, Harold A. Peterson Steeplejack) said. “We’re losing a corporation that is 83 years old. We’re losing our house. We’re losing our credit. We’re losing, other than our own physical bodies, everything.”
Harold A. Peterson Steeplejack, an 83-years-old business built on repairing steeples and flagpole installations, will close this year because it can’t afford the business’ steep overhead costs. In the report, Scott Peterson, the grandson of the company’s founder, said he had been rejected for small business loans because his credit score was too low.
Unfortunately the Peterson’s story isn’t an unique one: American businesses with only one to 19 employees lost 757,000 jobs from second quarter 2007 to third quarter 2008, according to the report. How many of these are small family businesses isn’t readily available, but the Times says the number of Americans with small businesses is in the millions.
Photo credit: Vintage family from England