My husband and I are small business owners. Due to COVID-19, we closed our doors temporarily, and it is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.
My heart is hurting.
I’m sure that most business owners can relate when I say that our business is like one of our children. It takes so much time to nurture and grow a business. A lot of love, tears, and stress goes into building our businesses. Serving our customers is what we always strive for and then out of the blue we are hit with the unimaginable.
Because serving and caring for our customers is the most important thing for us, we had to make that difficult choice, and I’m glad we made it sooner than later.
TNT Martial Arts & Fitness services many different families and individuals in our community. We have kids and babies that walk through our doors. Pregnant women and grandparents. Young and old.
Every single life that walks through our doors is valued and loved. And as a business owner I can not put any of them at risk. As a business owner I don’t want to put my local community in Cayce in more danger than it already is. And because of all of this, despite being terrified of the outcome, we chose to close our doors.
We know closing will directly affect our finances as we try to stay afloat. The virus has completely disrupted my business and my life, but in every bad situation there is a silver lining.
If you look hard enough there is always something to be thankful for.
I am thankful my family is still healthy. My kids are running around laughing and playing without a single care in the world. I’m glad they are completely oblivious to the chaos around us.
I am thankful for my husband. I know he bares the full weight of caring for our family, on a level I probably don’t quite understand. But he has been an incredible leader and a calm space for me in this.
I’m thankful for all of our members and clients. The outpouring of love and support during this time proves that we are not alone. We are all in this together. We will rise from this and be better for it.
I’m thankful for our community leaders. The decisions they have had to make are not easy. This virus is a new thing for us all but as a community we can get past this.
I have felt every emotion imaginable in the last couple of days, the biggest of which has been fear. Fear that I will lose my business, fear that I won’t be able to take care of my family. Fear of the unknown.
But even though the fear has been great, I have learned that walking by faith doesn’t mean that fear is non existent. It means that I walk despite the fear.
