the economy & your job.... how bad are you feeling the b

[tom d. friedman]

as a retailer who owns 2 stores that sell high end merchandise, & being in ohio which is ready to fall into lake erie, my business is down considerably. we are in the survival mode, & have trimmed as much fat as possible from our overhead operating expenses. my brothers & i have had to resort to paying for our own life insurance, which in the past the business paid for, not to mention we had to lower our health insurance coverage because my business just can't absorb those perks in this financial funk.

asside from those who've lost their jobs, who has had to take a pay cut of 10 or more percent just to keep your job???

[Holedigger]

Boy, I know that survival mode thing! Self employed as an Architectural Rendering /Illustrator, sales were off 60-70% last year. Burned through my savings cushion, sold a car, cashed in my life insurance, just dropped health insurance......not liking it one bit! Still holding on to the house, but with credit trashed after having too many late payments (can't pay if you don't have the cash!) can't refinance. Have the Feds on my case for late and overdue taxes... It has NOT been a good year. The last couple months have picked up a bit, slowly, bit by bit. But even that is frustrating, I do the work and have to wait 30-60 days to get paid because the banks are not releasing funds to developers, builders and owners.

[A2C]

I'm feeling a recovery. Starting to get several huge projects 7 months backlog! Recovery appears to have started this month, and let's hope it continues.

[Ztex]

Our family has tightened the belt... It seems that last summer's energy cost spike did not do us well. We have some debt due mostly to that. Health insurance costs keep rising, but we were able to latch on to my wife's school plan and that has stabilized things. Scary part is my kid is about to leave high school (yes it makes me feel old sometimes) and higher education costs are here...
My job has been slow but we tightened things up at work and seem to be doing OK for a small business. Last month was much better than the previous three and this month so far is better than that. The this week has felt like old times...yesterday and today were just nuts.

It looks better on the horizon....from here.

[bugazon]

The autobody industry has really felt the pain too. We are a family run body facility and our buisness has been off 35 to 40% at times. While people still get into accidents, instead of repairing the car, they have cashed out on it from the insurance companies. So we had to lay off 2 bodymen out of 9 but were able to hire one recently who has more skills and certifications. I have been advertising we can repair motorcycles which are pretty easy providing they do not total. We looked at every aspect of the buisness to cut cost, find where we were fat so we streamed lined the expenses a little. Usually summer is a slower time for us, but I can see it is starting to pick up a little for us. The one thing I noticed is when people arrive for estimates and pick ups. Use to be all day, but now, 3pm is the magic hour now. Fridays everyone will roll in around 3 to 5. I had 5 estimates in a row from 3 to 3:45. When the times get thin as they had, you really learn to appriciate the rush and the too busy times. -Keith