How a Small Business Holds It Together
"World News" followed Hendrick Custom Cabinets as it struggles with recession.
NEW YORK, Dec. 13, 2009— -- We hear it all the time: Small businesses play a vital role in the American economy, creating two-thirds of the nation's jobs. But many small business owners say surviving this recession has been an epic struggle, marked by an inability to get economic support from the federal government or, as the president is expected to highlight Monday, credit from banks and lenders.
In April of this year, ABC Business Correspondent Betsy Stark and producers Catherine Cole and Justine Schiro began following one small business as it tried to keep its doors open for business through the worst recession since the Great Depression. For the last seven months, our cameras followed Lisa and Felix Hendrickson of Hendrickson Custom Cabinetry and documented their battle to save their Bronx, N.Y., cabinet business.
When we first met the couple in April, sales at their custom cabinet company had evaporated. Orders were so few, they had been forced to cut their staff of 30 down to five. It was a tough decision laying off people who felt like family, but the Hendricksons said they had no choice.
"The phones stopped," Lisa Hendrickson said. "People canceled jobs overnight."
It was then the Hendricksons realized their days of selling to the luxury market were over. To survive, they would have to make a more affordable product, one they hoped the government would buy with its $787 billion in stimulus money.
Lisa and Felix Hendrickson hoped the help that was available to big Wall Street banks would be available to small businesses, too. They knew it meant a fundamental change in their business, but they said the only way to survive was to become government contractors, so they dove in.
In April, Lisa took the first step, visiting an agency that advises companies on how to get work from the government. The agency gave her half-a-dozen applications -- for state, local and federal projects. The application to become a federal contractor took 30 hours alone to complete. She submitted the six pounds of paperwork and waited to hear back.
