Missouri started reopening its doors on May 4, but Shakespeare’s Pizza isn’t opening their doors to its dining room quite yet.
“If we can get this thing under control and it's safe for people to go back out again and we can safely open up our dining rooms that would be the starting point because that's our main business is having people come into our dining room,” said Kurt Mirtsching, Shakespeare’s Pizza general manager.
Mirtsching has worked at Shakespeare’s Pizza for 43 years and is trying to take each situation cautiously as Missouri moves forward in reopening, but making profits has been difficult.
“We're way, way, way down [in profits],” Mirtsching said. “Our main business has always been throwing a big party in our dining room, and we can’t do that anymore.
Shakespeare’s Pizza already had an online ordering system in place before the COVID-19 pandemic prevented dining in at restaurants. The restaurant is still selling pizza, but Mirtsching says online ordering doesn’t amount to the same profits. The online ordering system is about a third of its orders, and the other two-thirds are done over the phone.
“Just pick-up and delivery, but that's always been a smaller part of our business. And that's all we have now. So hopefully we can keep the doors open,” Mirtsching said.
Karen Leatherman is a business development specialist at the Missouri Small Business Development Center (SBDC) working at Missouri S&T. She provides one-on-one business coaching and counseling to business owners.
“One of the biggest concerns for business owners is financial survival,” Leatherman said. “What I'm hearing from clients are concerns such as how is my business going to survive this? How am I going to pay my expenses?”
Shakespeare’s Pizza is doing everything they can to financially make things work, “we’re just sort of treading water at this point,” Mirtsching said.
Leatherman said it's going to take years for some businesses to recover if they even recover at all. “Some will close permanently.”
She said a nationwide survey done by America’s SBDC nationwide network found that 21% of U.S. small businesses say they could only survive three or four months if they’re not allowed to reopen.
There have been eight different surveys done by SBDC since the pandemic started shutting businesses down. In the most recent survey done from May 4 to the 10, 220 small businesses were interviewed across the U.S. Only 28% of owners think they will completely recover in one year from now; 4% of owners think they will not survive at all.
Leatherman said the pandemic has affected and changed virtually every business and in every aspect of how business is done. “From operations and supply chain to modifying business hours and customer service, many of these changes will definitely be permanent.”
Darla Campbell is an agriculture business and county engagement specialist in Schuyler County and has seen the community aspect at work for small businesses.
“I think a lot of small rural businesses are pretty good at customer service. So they were able to adapt a few things, but I think a lot more people are also shopping locally, which is helping the businesses that have stayed open,” Campbell said.
Part of small businesses adapting to the pandemic has been shifting employee tasks. Campbell said most restaurants and bars have moved their employees from waitressing to delivering and curbside pickup.
She said a lot of business owners are in survival mode right now.
“I think this really drives home for businesses that they need to employ risk management techniques, and they need to plan. And that is something that smaller businesses really struggle with,” Campbell said.
Once things get better, Mirtsching is hoping Shakespeare’s Pizza will start safely bringing people back into the dining room. “Of course, it's never going to be the same again, things are gonna be different forever,” Mirtsching said.
But until then, the safety of its employees and customers is number one when thinking about reopening its dining room.