Fine Estate, Inc. An American Small Business
It has been just shy of two months since we made the decision not to open our Estate Showroom Sale doors on March 13.
That was not an easy decision, given its consequential economic impacts, not just for us, but also for the many vintage and antiques dealers who throng to our doors.
After all, we are a part of an economic ecosystem of buyers and sellers, realtors and attorneys and trusts and estates officers. Each of us depending on each other to prosper.
We were ahead of the curve to flatten the curve
We made the decision not to open that weekend, because it was the right thing to do; Disneyland had decided to close, and the NBA had cancelled the rest of its season.
We were ahead of the curve to flatten the curve. We adore our shoppers, many of them older than sixty years old and we didn't want our fear of income loss to endanger their lives.
Monday following our decision, many states began issuing stay at home orders.
Let's begin forecasting variable scenarios
Other than DOOM, none of us small time businesses had a single solitary clue on March 16, what the magnitude of Governor Newsom's statewide stay at home mandate would produce.
We live in a new reality. The retail world has been forever changed. We need to become flexible enough to pivot from public style retail, to online retail, and then back again.
Now, to stay alive, publicly facing business, large or small, will need to begin forecasting variable scenarios. Each, taking into account the likelihood that there will be successive waves of Covid, buyer fears and or governmental interventions.
Fine Estate, Inc. is a San Francisco Bay Area Company offering auction and consignment services.