SARASOTA – Many on the Suncoast are beginning to feel the financial impact of being out of a job due to coronavirus concerns.
Including Linda Shepard a owner of A Victorian Bride and makeup artist for weddings, she says 35 clients have already canceled or postponed their weddings and she anticipates more to come. She says as of now she’s not making any income and worried about how she will pay her bills at the end of the month.
Shepard says Governor Ron DeSantis’ bridge loan isn’t enough to help all small business owners who may be forced to close their businesses permanently.
“We should get a bail out as big if not bigger than the airlines and the cruise lines because we have no other income. Once we cannot work because we’re small businesses and we depend on our weddings and stuff like that,” said Shepard. “Once the income stops and the weddings are canceled we have no other income, when they’re bailing out big corporations in the trillions and billions of dollars.”
Shepard says her next wedding client is scheduled for April, but given the rise of positive cases in Florida she thinks that client may cancel as well.
