The Covid-19outbreak in the United States has severely affected small businesses across the country. To some owners the virus threatens to destroy everything they have created.
Memphis natives Christopher Galbreath and Micah Dempsey are both in their early 20s, and they started their business, a coffee and pottery shop called The Belltower, at the beginning of their college careers.
Galbreath attended Lipscomb University, where he ran division one cross country when he decided to open up a coffee shop and pottery studio. He teamed up with a high school friend and teammate, Dempsey, who was also a college freshman.
The two friends had taken pottery classes together throughout high school and developed an affinity for it that they wanted to share with others. They opened up the Belltower so that people could have that experience while also enjoying hand-crafted coffees.
The friends left Lipscomb, took on huge loans of more than $50,000, and moved back to Memphis, where they had grown up and attended high school, to open up their shop in Minglewood Hall in 2017. After a year there, they moved to a bigger location on Highland and their business continued to grow.
In the months before the pandemic Galbreath and Dempsey had been growing their brand and were planning on moving into an even larger space next door to their current one, on the Highland strip, in October of 2020.
“Business was awesome we had just rolled out a food menu, we had grown our staff up to 16 people, and we were expanding our pottery classes pretty rapidly. Business was pointing up and had been for a little bit and we were very happy,” said Dempsey.
Like many other small business and restaurant owners, the virus hit Dempsey and Galbreath hard.
“It’s been really hard. I watched everything we spent the last three years building evaporate in a week. So far being closed has cost us $50,000,” said Galbreath.
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, some changes had to be made to their business. They started by cutting the hours down for their staff and prioritized those who needed the money most. However, the city of Memphis completely shut down restaurants right as they started to make these changes.
“We’ve had to totally close. We have stopped teaching our pottery classes, our membership program, and our coffee shop operations. Our gross revenue has gone down to zero,” said Dempsey.
Galbreath and Dempsey have not given up though. Dempsey says they have been making plans every single day. They came up with the idea of a pottery “take home kit” for people, especially parents, to bring home. They also tried some curbside and to-go food and drink orders, but because of the decline in road traffic, it was not making much profit.
On top of the to-go and take-home ideas the two entrepreneurs have applied for some government assistance like many other business owners in America. Galbreath said that they have applied for the economic injury disaster loanand they plan on applying for the paycheck protection program loanbefore they re-open their doors. So far, they have not heard anything back from their applications.
One of the store’s biggest groups of customers were students from the University of Memphis. When the school moved to all online classes and shut down campus, it took away a large source of income from the Belltower.
“The University of Memphis going to all online classes, followed by summer break, means U of M won’t be back in school until August. That’s a pretty substantial portion of our traffic that won’t be there,” said Dempsey.
Not only are they worried about losing that source of revenue, Galbreath and Dempsey also worry that if restaurants are able to open back up soon, they will get an influx of students coming in to work on their online classes and taking up tables for hours. That could lead to a slow turnover rate for the business.
Galbreath and Dempsey had already signed the lease on their new space prior to the outbreak and now they wonder if they will even be able to make it to their move-in day. Galbreath says if they lose the business they could probably get out of their lease, but they would also have to pay back a $60,000 loan.
“I am working on things right now so that if we close we won’t owe all that money. The main concern is out leases. It could be bad for us for a couple years,” said Galbreath.
If the situation with COVID-19 does not start to turn around soon, Galbreath and Dempsey could potentially lose their business. Right now, they are in a waiting game and they cannot plan their next moves. Not only does the future success of their business rely on how quickly this crisis is resolved, but also on how life is after it is over.
Currently Tennessee governor Bill Lee has extended the state’s “stay at home” orderuntil the end of April and hopes that the economy and businesses will start to re-open in May.
Memphis has announced new loan programsto try and help local business stay afloat during this time. The city has created the Economic Hardship Emergency Fund, the Small Business Resiliency Fund, and a grant from The Economic Development Growth Engine of Memphis.
“The terrifying and grim reality is I stand to lose everything. Everything is so unpredictable right now and that makes everything planning-wise really tough,” said Dempsey.
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