I’ve never had to meet payroll. I’ve never had to put money on a credit card to keep a business afloat. I’ve never had to go without a paycheck as the owner of a company in order for my employees to be paid. In other words, I have no idea what it is like being the owner of a finishing or coating operation, or any business in the U.S. for that matter.
So I can’t sit here and say I know what everyone has been going through during the pandemic. I can assume what it must be like to have your livelihood swept out from underneath you in a matter of weeks, but I don’t know what it feels like to put your head on the pillow at night and not know if customers will still send you work the next morning.
But I can only imagine. And it must be terrifying, daunting and surreal. A mix of all of the above.
So over these last five months when I was away from the finishing and coating industry, I could not help but think of all my friends in the industry who were going through all of the havoc through no fault of their own.
I’ve been around lots of owners and managers of finishing and coating operations, but professionally and socially. I’ve heard them take calls when they were away from the shop about something going awry and it needing their attention. Some things were big (“How big are the flames?”), and some not so big (“Tell him to take an aspirin and get back to work”), but they all give me an insight on what it takes to manager or own a finishing and coating operation, and why I probably will never have the guys to be in that position myself.
It takes a certain breed to put their livelihood, their home, their assets and their family’s well-being on the line through small business ownership. Everything comes at you so quickly: the government, taxes, employees, disgruntled employees, taxes, red tape, more taxes, and the planning for the great family vacation (not!).
I admire the men and women who do what they do in owning or managing any business in the U.S. and Canada. It is a lost war sometimes, and often no one to commiserate with and share what is going through your head. How great would it be to open up to someone who gets what you are going through.
Small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy; they are just not employing 30 to 60 works; they are also paying for college expenses, a roof over a family’s head, and medical insurance.
A pandemic is not what the owners of finishing and coating operations needed. But they survived, just like they have survived everything else thrown at them.
It will take more than a virus to kill off these hearty people.
Tim Pennington is Editor-In-Chief of FinishingandCoating.com. He has written about the industries for over a decade. You can reach him via email here.
Tim Pennington is Editor-in-Chief of Finishing and Coating, and has covered the industry since 2010. He has traveled extensively throughout North America visiting shops and production facilities, and meeting those who work in the industry. Tim began his career in the newspaper industry, then wound itself between the sports field with the PGA Tour and marketing and communications firms, and finally back into the publishing world in the finishing and coating sector. If you want to reach Tim, just go 
