Our small business, the main source of our income, is going under.

[GreenPartyVoter]

Calls for computer repair work have always dropped around holidays, with the worst coming from mid-December through early tax season, but this year down times have been longer and more frequent, with more invoices left and barely trickling back in.

Hubby went from full-time work to part-time. Trying to replace the missing income by picking up a minimum wage side job won't be enough to cover all the bills, let alone keep food on the table or the lights on. And medical care? Forget it!

This is the new normal. I suspect at some point we will wind up selling the house, albeit for less than we owe on it. Add a leftover mortgage to a mountain of credit card and medical debt. The worst part is watching this break hubby's heart. He's worked so hard to build this business and it just crumbled in a couple of months after several successful years.

I miss President Obama. We still struggled back then, but nothing like this!

[notdarkyet]

1. Sorry times are bad. I've had a bad year too. Lost my car in a head on.this trump sucks. He does

Not care out America or the people.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I'm so sorry! What a terrifying thing to go through.

[UniteFightBack]

2. Is there a way to go back to full time work but keep this business as a side hustle? nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. He makes house calls around our rural area. Not enough

hours in a day to do that and work full time elsewhere. I doubt he could keep the business alive enough to survive until (if) the economy gets better. By then, he would have said "No, I'm working that day" to enough people that his customer base would have moved on.

[Ms. Toad]

9. How about remote service in the evenings (or off-hours from FT work)

and house calls on weekends. A lot of computer software work can be done remotely. For the work that can't, just set it up as a regular expectation that house calls are only weekend.

I grew up in a rural area - most rural folks don't expect instant service, the way city folks do. Not to mention that rural folks are typically used to living on the edge and needing to work second jobs around farming to make ends meet.

[hlthe2b]

4. I am sooooooo very sorry to hear this!

I send you deep understanding and empathy. Admittedly, I am going through something not dissimilar, but I can't bring myself to share.

May things turn around for you, your family and all who are facing hard times. May our country return to a time when society cared about everyone and not just the wealthiest among us...

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Thanks for the hug!! I am so things are hard for you as well.

Hope it gets better for all of us!!

[peacefreak2.0]

7. I am so sorry, GPV.

I'm afraid that we are all going to be facing difficult times & decisions. I wish you well.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Thank you! I feel like we are screaming down in

the steerage of the Titanic, but the people above have their hands over their ears.

[Hortensis]

10. Does he service business clients and they're in trouble,

or residential mostly? Residential's been disappearing for a long time, but if small-medium businesses can't afford to hire people to install and maintain computer systems, we all are in bad trouble. Hope your home is within service distance of a good supply of healthy businesses, whatever it is they need. Someone told me security is a big, growing field. A lot of training is on line these days.

Just noticed you're in a rural area. Installations of routers systems, security, etc., can be scheduled ahead, but when businesses need troubleshooting services they need them at once. Perhaps one possibility to explore would be to rent out your home and rent an inexpensive place close to a city where your husband especially could get a job in which he would be training toward what he wants to do. Later he could start building a commercial client base of his own.

A new adventure.

Best wishes.

[Arazi]

11. Consider online tutoring

https://www.teachaway.com/blog/8-amazing-companies-let-you-teach-english-online-from-home

I have a friend who teaches for VIPKids. It saved her home.

I watched you build your home here on DU and I'd be so sad if you had to move out of your dream place. Good luck

[renate]

14. that sounds so cool!

Does she have to speak the language of the kids she's teaching?

[Arazi]

16. Nope. 100% English

[hunter]

12. I used to do a lot of desktop repairs and upgrades, and CRT monitor repairs.

Now people use tablets and phones and laptops. When those break most people simply replace them.

I bought quite a few tools for repairing smaller electronic devices, but rarely use them. They're in the same box now as my CRT monitor and television repair tools.

Medical debt is horrifying. Years ago my wife suffered a very serious illness from which she's since recovered. The financial stresses caused by the U.S. health "care" industry only made her feel worse. We started out thinking we had good health insurance, then we went to a COBRA, and when that ran out, my wife was accepted to our state's high risk insurance pool at the last possible minute, when any discontinuity of care might have had very severe consequences.

So long as we don't have universal health care the U.S.A. I don't consider us a civilized "first world" nation. We're just another screwed up "developing" country with an absurdly large military.

My wife and I managed to keep our house and settled our credit card debts for somewhat less than we'd actually charged to them. At the bitter end most of this debt was late fees and inflated 30% compound interest rates anyways, so I don't feel too bad about that. That experience has left me in a place where I don't care to ever have a credit card again.

I don't know if I have any advice, except to say my mom and dad's computer guy does much more than computers. His customers are mostly senior citizens who also need help with their satellite and streaming television, Blu-ray players, setting up their cell phones, replacing broken electrical outlets and switches, replacing incandescent lights (especially ceiling can lights) with LEDs, and all sorts of other minor "technical" work. Add to that any minor chores that require standing on a ladder since that is a very common cause of accidents among senior citizens.

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. This may be impossible, but have you considered a franchise?

Like these guys;


https://www.ubreakifix.com/franchising

[keithbvadu2]

15. Republican answer... borrow from your rich dad.

Republican answer... borrow from your rich dad.

[malaise]

17. Our family friends' son and his wife

came over today to repair an old PC for us and have Sunday dinner. He saw it lying around over the holidays and asked if we'd like him to rebuild it. He is quite the expert.

Funny that you raise this because he said that in a short while the only computers that will need repairs are lap tops, since most people have replaced PCs with smart phones.

[seaglass]

18. I used to work for a company that subcontracted technicians for all types of work. There are a

number of companies that do this and the type of work varies from hour long jobs to projects from highly technical work to smart hands. A lot of big companies, especially retail, outsource this work.

Here's an example of a company (not mine) who does this type of subcontracting.

https://www.workmarket.com/

and another

https://smartsource-inc.com/

Good Luck!