Keep My Business Going #smallbusinessrelief

Hi all, I'm here to share this heart broken story after continually trust a friend!

As a first time business owner who desperately want to keep my business. I was extremely sad when my shop has seen a significant loss in revenue -- down almost 70% compared to pre-Covid. It has been a very difficult experience for me and my family. No one expected that this pandemic would last this long, but as it stretches out longer and longer, I’m beginning to realize that holding on to my business is no longer sustainable unless I receive some help.

Due to the size of my business, we were unable to receive any of the small business grants. The only idea that I can think of is the inheritance left by my grandfather. However, due to expensive international transfer fees and international barriers. It was so hard for me to transfer this money for help. With all these financial pressures, I emotionally talked to my friend about my worries. I feel so lucky that he said he is able to help me with this matter, I trust him with all my heart and exchanged my foreign currency with him.

The pain is he wrote me a check with non-sufficien funds, so the check got returned and the money went back to his account. At the time, I didn't realize and didn't understand the meaning of "NSF" which is the abbreviation of "non-sufficien funds". I thought that might be just a identity verification issue. I was very optimistic waiting for the money to come and planning on my business. I never expect that he will lie to me and do this money fraud. I was so worry about him when he told me he got tested positive for COVID-19 and need to be quarantine at home for 14 days, and this was actually his excuse of unable to write me a official cashier check.

Until two months after I finally uncover his fraud and now I am unable to reach him anymore. This is a huge lesson to me, and now I deeply understand that we don't lose friends, we just learn who the real ones are. Be careful who you trust, a devil was once an angle!

I'm a direct importer for my business, most of the products are from different countries. During the pandemic, international shipments were delayed and shipping fees have increased significantly. It has been a hard time for us to run the business with low inventory, also paying the rent and business expenses. A lot of my customers are moving out of the neighborhood due to high rent cost and the neighborhood has received a large increase in the nuisance of homeless. Our business main door has to kept shut and locked with a sign indicates in business due to safety issues, but what happens is many shoppers thought we are closed and we lost many potential shoppers. Therefore, I'm experiencing an extreme business hardship to keep my business to stay running. 

I'm here kindly asking for help and this fund would take a significant amount of stress off my shoulders and help cover my business expenses to keep the business going. All donations are greatly appreciated. #Smallbusinessrelieffund