Jessica: A Small Business Owner Weathering the Storm of the Pandemic

Jessica began preparing to be a small business owner in high school. She attended a vocational school halftime and enrolled in their optical program. Her aunt and uncle owned several Black and White Look Optical eyeglasses shops, and she intended to follow in their footsteps. 

After graduating from the University of Buffalo, Jessica opened her own Black and White Look Optical in Washington D.C. Nearly four years after she opened up shop, the store was doing well. 

“We were doing decent,” she said. “Able to pay our bills and get merchandise. Then, in early March, everything got scary.” 

All of Jessica’s employees were women with children, and working became harder because of safety concerns and cancelled daycare. Jessica has a one year old, and did her best to alleviate their concerns. 

“The coronavirus was unknown and we wanted to stay safe,” Jessica said.

Jessica did what business owners do best: pivot. She ramped up the store’s mailing orders for customers who were unable to visit the physical location. Sales for contacts actually went up a bit because people’s glasses get foggy from the masks. 

“My husband’s hours were getting cut,” Jessica said. Her husband works for D.C. Metro and transportation was slowing down. “Then I started going into the super negatives.”

With no idea how long the pandemic would last, and what the economic fallout would be, Jessica decided to hold on to her cash. She used credit cards to keep the business going. As she said, “All I had to leverage was decent credit.” 

The landlord cut Jessica a deal to give her a break on rent, and she had to cut back the hours and pay of her employees. 

Then, on June 1, in the midst of protests against the killing of George Floyd, Jessica got a security alert: her store was being broken into. 

“[It was a] very disheartening moment,” she said. 

Jessica filed an insurance claim and launched a fundraising campaign to help cover the cost of the nearly 50% of her inventory and several machines that had been taken. She also gave several interviews to local news stations about the impact of the looting on Black business owners such as herself. 

“I feel like it's deflecting from what we're what they're really trying to do, you know what we're really trying to say about the police brutality,” she told a local news station. 

Jessica filed an insurance claim in June to recoup some of her losses. Near the end of August, the process was still incomplete, and she had yet to receive all of the payments. She used some of the insurance money to pay bills she was behind on and buy materials for the store. 

A $500 grant Jessica received from Wells Fargo and SaverLife went straight into her payroll account so she could continue to pay her employees. 

While weathering all the difficulties 2020 has brought, Jessica is also continuing to evolve her business model. 

“Coronavirus made me have to adjust,” Jessica said. “That propelled me to start trying to do virtual eyeglass fittings [and try] to make the website look better.”

All of her employers are back to work—although not at the same time. Jessica makes sure to check in on how they’re feeling and what kind of work they’re comfortable doing. As she begins to look to the future, Jessica is envisioning setting up outdoor appointments and continuing to keep her employee’s safe. 

“I never wanted to quit,” Jessica said.