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Ask HN: Do we take the relief money?

7 points by anticsapp ↗ HN
Local politicians are urging all entrepreneurs to start applying for aid. But we're not a local beloved coffee shop. You know the old joke that entrepreneur as a job means unemployed? That's kind of us before and now. The tech is real and we are paying local people, there just was no Stanford incubator. I don't have impostor syndrome, I just don't know what to do. I haven't even incorporated yet. It feels real and we need the relief money desperately. But would we be stealing from older more well known businesses that equally need it? What happens when hucksters start applying for aid? I know half the readership does startup, so are you applying for aid? It feels like it should go to local retail, but entrepreneurs gonna entrepreneur.

13 comments

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Spooky23
Take it.
anticsapp
The problem is how do you prove a loss of business? Startups are always losing money, but this situation intensifies things. But then again the cruise ship industry that doesn't pay US tax is getting bailed out. Why is this so complicated?
jki275
isn't the aid mostly low or zero percent loans? That's what the discussions were anyway.

As long as that's the case, what are you hurting if you take it? It's just free money to help your business along, and businesses like yours are what drive the economy and pay people's salaries.

anticsapp
I actually do employ people. They just don't have health care plans. Also, some dumb scarf store that loses money every year will file for this and get it. Why not us?
jki275
That was my point -- you're employing people, you're building the economy, take the money. That's the whole point.
sloaken
Decent people like you who ponder the question are especially the ones taxpayers want to take the money.

A few years ago, a friend of mine was laid off. It had been two months and I was talking to him about his situation. I asked: SO how much do you get from unemployment?

Friend: Well I have not applied for it.

Me: Why not? It is there for exactly your situation.

Friend: I am not desperate yet, and I think others need the money more than I do.

Me: Stop being an idiot! Get the damn money! You are not doing anyone else a favor by not getting it. In addition you dwindle your meager savings down.

Moral of the story: You will not prevent someone who deserves it more from getting the money. You will probably keep some politician from pocketing it as a campaign donation.

anticsapp
Thank you for this perspective. And thanks for calling me decent. I actually was your friend with the unemployment. I lost a job and someone paid me under the table to build some stuff for them. It didn't feel right doing both at the same time so I didn't do unemployment. Kind of dumb of me.
toomuchtodo
Safety nets exist to catch you, not to shame you. Always take all of the help you can get. There is no extra credit for making life harder needlessly.
anticsapp
Thanks Yoda. No, I mean seriously, you just dropped some gems.
toomuchtodo
Prevent the suffering of others, we must.
muzani
My personal stance is that a lot of small businesses should close down. They're not doing well, they're not paying well, customers give them money not because the product is good but because they're supporting businesses. They have a poor future for themselves and their employees, they're not happy, and are dealing with sunk cost, pride, and family pressure.

If you're in that group, don't take the money. Close down and blame the lockdowns.

If you're not in that group, take the money. If your business is growing. If you're planning on paying staff well instead of skirting labor laws. If you make products that improve someone's life, and want to use that money to make more of such products.

But personally, I don't need the relief money so I procrastinate on it a bit, in case it's limited. It puts me at the bottom of the pile when it goes through, so if they have to pick one out of two, it deprioritizes me.

seanccox
You should contact you local Small Business Administration office. They will be better able to direct you to both disaster assistance and Covid 19 support funds, which are low-interest loans with suspended repayments for the first year. To be eligible for funds in Indiana the business needed to be incorporated by January 31, 2020, but I don't know about other states. Your SBA will be best able to direct you. Our newly founded farm is eligible and we are making the call today.