SAVE A SMALL BUSINESS FROM LOSING EVERYTHING
Mike Roberson is my entrepreneurial hero as the creator and founder of 1740 Beard Balm (all natural, handmade men’s grooming products). Oh yah, and he needs your help. Like, all the helps. Right stinking now.
Mike is the definition of “midwestern helpful” and aside from being ridiculously awesome, is crazy humble and would give you the shirt off his back. In fact, he refused to ask for help, so I’m asking for him. For his family. For the future of his company.
Mike spends his days and nights creating every tin of balm, bottle of oil, and tube of hand salve himself from start to finish and over the last several years his wife has lost the ability to work outside of the home due to medical issues. Taking things in stride, Mike also started burning the candle at both ends and has picked up a second full time job.
He now makes Beard Balms and does social media marketing by night but hits the pavement before the sun comes up as a bus driver for the local school district.
Things were going along well as he was living the life of many a small business owners until this past week when Mike and his wife awoke to a negative bank account. But not the “whoops I paid the bills with the wrong card” type of error. The kind where a random stranger steals your identity and charges $4,000-ish in a single charge to your account.
They of course did all the things that we would do. Panic, call the bank, file a claim, panic some more pretend not to cry and wait. Their bank (a familiar nationally recognized “stable” chain), that was supposed to keep their family and business safe in exactly these circumstances has told them that it will take several months to investigate the charge but most likely it won’t be reversed. Yes they’ve spoken with managers, supervisors, and they’ve taken their concerns all the way to the top with no luck.
Because why would a corporate bank care that with one single transaction, it would destroy a family or end a business? They don’t. But I do. And gosh darn it, I’m sure you do too!
So I’m asking for your help, be it big or small, $1 or $100, Mike needs your support in order to not only keep his business operational but his personal things running. He doesn’t need anything that wasn’t already his, just what some hacker stole without repercussions.
Mike’s plight could happen to any of us - at any moment. The world we live in is amazing and scary at the same time but we know if we can help each other out we can all get through it together and today — help save a family who doesn’t have a single cent to their name due to the frustrating nature of corporate banking.