Entrepreneurs Take Second Jobs to Stay Afloat
Small-business owners who are struggling to keep their companies afloat are doing anything they can to ride the recession, even taking on second jobs.
For Darren Hammond, co-owner of Chile Blossoms, a Concord, Calif., importer of peonies from Chile, the winter was particularly harsh as clients stopped paying or fell behind in payments. Sales are down 60% from last season, Mr. Hammond says.
Last year, he had to stop taking a salary so that he could continue paying business expenses.
To manage personal expenses, such as cellphone bills and car payments, Mr. Hammond found a part-time job working two to three days a week as a customer-service representative and weekend guide for All-Outdoors California Whitewater Rafting in Walnut Creek. “Everybody has bills to pay,” he says. “It’d be nice if I could sit back and collect money from Chile Blossoms and live a very comfortable life. At this stage, that’s not the case.”
Small-business owners like Mr. Hammond are looking for alternate sources of income to make ends meet and to fund their troubled companies. Some 18% of owners surveyed in April said they are working a second job, according to the latest findings from the American Express Open Small Business Monitor. Many of them have sacrificed their personal finances and have stopped taking a salary to deal with the current economic reality.
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