Shannon Turner, like many other small business owners, was not prepared for the circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. All too quickly Turner’s store, Animotion Plus, was having difficulty stocking the shelves and the business found itself without the expected financial support from the government.
“We were applying for the PPP loan and all those loans that were supposed to help small businesses, but they told us that we were not a big enough small business to be eligible,” said Turner, “so we just started going crazy and selling online to stay alive.”
Small businesses have had to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic quickly and are constantly trying to improve their processes for the sake of both the customers and their employees. Animotion Plus and Wings of Waco are two vastly different businesses, but both have faced unique circumstances surrounding the pandemic.
Turner and her three sons opened Animotion Plus, a small anime store with a niche audience in 2016. Before the pandemic, the business actively maintained booths at conventions and relied heavily on in-person sales, Turner said, but since March it has begun to rely more heavily on online orders.
“We literally spent hours listing everything that we had online,” Turner said about switching to selling completely online when the pandemic shut down Animotion Plus.
Animotion Plus bought most of its products from Japan before the pandemic to provide customers with a unique selection, Turner said, but since Japan is not shipping to the United States, it has been more difficult to stock the shelves.
While Animotion Plus has felt a surge of support from the community, Turner said it has not received support from the government. Many small businesses across the country received funding from the government due to the pandemic, but Turner said Animotion Plus missed out on this funding because the business is considered too small. An article from the Texas Tribune mentioned that many smaller businesses are missing out on these loans because they lack the resources to navigate the system.
The lack of support and funding from the government hurt the business, Turner said, but one positive has been how much support the store has received from its regular customers who have helped Animotion Plus pay the bills.
“We’ve had a couple that literally came in every other day just to see what else we bought new or what else they could do to help us out,” Turner said about the regular customers of Animotion
Plus.
In downtown Waco, Wings of Waco opened just two months before the pandemic started shutting down schools and retail stores. Kemar Ballentine-Harris, the owner, said it was daunting to try to establish his new business in the middle of a pandemic, but the bills had to be paid.
“At first I admitted defeat,” Ballentine-Harris said. “I was shut down for one week, but then I was like, well the bills aren’t going to stop.”
Navigating the pandemic has been a difficult journey for Ballentine-Harris. Wings of Waco was still a fledgling business when the pandemic hit Waco, but the pandemic has helped in some unexpected ways, said Ballentine-Harris.
“At the start of the pandemic I was doing probably one order a day,” Ballentine-Harris said, “and then I connected with Baylor students, and we set up a plan and implemented online ordering.”
The pandemic pushed Ballentine-Harris to add Wings of Waco to a multitude of delivery services to stimulate more orders. Ballentine-Harris said Wings of Waco followed the guidelines of the governor to make sure everything was sanitized, and the business added curbside pickup when customers were not allowed in the building. It makes you think outside the box, said Ballentine-Harris, and parts of the business model were implemented a little more expeditiously.
Wings of Waco received a grant from the city of Waco which helped keep everything open, Ballentine-Harris said, but the business has not received as much support from its bank. Ballentine-Harris said the bank did not communicate effectively with the restaurant, so Wings of Waco missed out on the first wave of funds and was denied the second wave.
“During this pandemic, they really didn’t help or point any business owners in the right direction,” Ballentine-Harris said on the issues he faced with the bank through the pandemic.
A unique characteristic of Wings of Waco is that the restaurant is located in Waco’s Union Hall, a building that hosts a variety of small restaurants. Ballentine-Harris said that being a part of Union Hall has provided Wings of Waco with a close support system. Union Hall attracts many customers, and the restaurants share the wealth by directing newcomers to the different businesses, said Ballentine-Harris.
“You have a united front. Everybody in here would support each other,” said Ballentine-Harris of being a member of the tight-knit group of small businesses in Union Hall.
The pandemic has not been easy for many small businesses across the country, and Animotion Plus and Wings of Waco have faced a multitude of different problems. Despite these problems, Turner and Ballentine-Harris have tried to keep pushing forward and remain positive.
“All of the local businesses have been supporting each other whether minority or other,” said Ballentine-Harris. “It’s just a good feeling to see everyone come together as a united front to be able to help everybody.”