GOOD PEOPLE IN SMALL TOWNS

A year and a half ago one of the customers in my portfolio fell ill. We found out when the corporate office of the franchise chain sent a letter to all suppliers alerting them that he was in a medically induced coma, and that his wife was trying to run the store by herself in addition to attending to her fulltime job and taking care of the family.

[“Customers in my portfolio”: Mostly small merchants who own one or two stores. There are over fifteen hundred of them in our field.
I always admire people who go into business for themselves in this industry – it speaks of both guts and a wondrous level of craziness. Seeing as many people actually buy the stuff from a big distributor or major name chain, the ma and pa stores on Main Street function more as show windows, not so much as mainstays of our business. ]


Bob got out of the hospital slightly over a year ago. Then he went back in again. He’s spent a large amount of time being treated.
It proved too much for his wife. After the last holiday season they decided to liquidate the store. The bank had a secured claim, but there was not enough to satisfy even that, and they have not been able to pay off all their vendors.
This is pretty much what I expected – a percentage of our customers cease operations every year, and the last invoice is often the one they cannot pay.

[I do credit and collections. Many of the customers in my portfolio are by necessity late payers. These past two years have been very interesting.]


Bob and Jen had been customers for well over ten years.
They were very good people to deal with.
They are left with nothing, and are now struggling to avoid filing for personal bankruptcy protection.

I am very glad that they had incorporated – doing so serves to protect personal assets, and is a sensible thing to do.

If they had NOT incorporated when they started the business, Jen would lose the house as well as her helpmeet this year.


Most of my customers are decent people, doing the best they can, and I enjoy the interaction I have with them.
I wish all of them well.
And I wish Bob and Jen all the strength and courage they will need to get through the next few months.