I am small business owner in the construction industry and have been severely affected by the recent downturn of the econiomy. Despite this I had one of my best Christmases ever this year.
In 2001 I moved to Myrtle Beach South Carolina when the housing market was booming. Baby boomers were selling their homes in the north and settling in the south in record numbers. I was looking at what I thought was a never ending horn of plenty. At one point I had about 20 people working for me. I spent irresponsibly. I bought a new truck, I bought 3 condos and I hardly ever ate at home. Now eight years later I have four mortgages, three vehicle payments and a son entering college. Last year was a Christmas for the ages. I decided that instead of spending a bunch of money on junk that i would buy everyone in the family a ticket for a cruise to Mexico. I thought at the time that that was the best vacation we ever had. It was extremely enjoyable. I didn’y have to go through the hassle of buying a bunch of useless presents for everyone and we got to spend a whole week together. I thought “Isn’t thst what Christmas is about? Spending Christmas together?”
Well we came back from Christmas and sat home. Sat home for weeks. Work just stopped coming in….but the bills did not. Not only was I saddled with the large expense from our wonderful Christmas cruise but all the other business bills came in. Insurance bills, advertising bills, material bills, mortgage payments, fuel bills, payroll etc. etc. etc… I had to downsize.
Now I am working by myself. I do have a salesman and we are trudging along through the toughest economic times I’ve ever had to endure. in the past I have always tried to outdo the year before by buying more or somehow buying the perfect gift. well last year was rhe pinnacle of my buying ability. When this year came around and I hadn’t even finished paying for last years Christmas, not to mention that I had laid off most of my employees and was behind on all of my mortgages, I knew I was going to have to cut back. But how could I? i had never done so before.
Finally i decided that there was no other choice. If people didn’t like it than so be it. I did belong to a trade organization called Biz2biz .com. I had dollars with them that I could spend and did so. They had memberships with area restaurants and also held a Christmas fair where I was able to purchase some things on my account. Besides that all I could do was use my God given abilities to give. I built corn hole sets out of wood and sewed the bags that go with them. I baked cookies and combined those with golf balls which I got on sale as well as gift certificates from Biz2biz. I bought bottles of wine and gave those as gifts. They were inexpensive and very appreciated.
The important thing is that when Christmas was over, I had given to everyone that I always do but there was one important glaring difference, I had zero credit card debt. I’m still paying for last years Christmas… but had completely pulled off Christmas this year without incurring any additional personal debt. it was a wonderful Christmas and everyone was happy. In my opinion it was the best Christmas ever, Everyone sincerely appreciated wht the other person had done for them and nobody overspent.
