Hoping to slow the spread of COVID-19, statewide public health orders were enacted that shut businesses down or restricted their operations. However, these orders threw the economy asunder and strained the financial position of some companies.

Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday issued some guidance to begin relaxing some of the restrictions, which is welcome news for businesses that were approaching a precarious situation as the restrictions continued. The impacts vary from business to business, and some had increased revenues during this time. Most experienced losses to one degree or another.

“I’m hearing mixed comments,” said Bruce Morse, executive director of the Wyoming Small Business Development Center.

Some businesses, such as restaurants, have had a means to continue operations, albeit with many restrictions, which remain in place until at least May 15. Those limitations strain the bottom line, but other businesses, such as gyms and personal care services, had no revenue source at all during the shutdown.

Stacy Bair, owner of Club Dauntless, opened her gym at the end of last year, having invested heavily in a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility.

“We kind of knew it was risky going into it, but who could have foreseen this?” Bair said.

Bair is a fitness enthusiast and her business, she said, reflects a commitment to community health. During the shutdown, Club Dauntless offered online classes, but Bair said they don’t make any money; they just help the community stay fit during the lockdown.

When the gym closed, Bair recorded a voice message to play for anyone calling the gym that said in order to maintain public health, Club Dauntless would be temporarily closing.

“Those are words I never thought would come from my mouth,” she said.

Besides being a type of business with no means to serve customers, it’s also a new business with a large investment, making it among the most vulnerable. Before the pandemic hit, she said things were going really well.

“We had such a great momentum at all three of our locations,” she said, referring to the Club Dauntless gyms in Greybull and Lovell.

Gyms are among the businesses that will be allowed to reopen on Friday, but some restrictions will remain in place — including prohibitions on one-on-one training.

Federal support

Like many business owners, Bair tapped into the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which provided $349 billion in loans to small businesses across the country. The loans can be forgiven if the borrower meets certain stipulations, including spending 75% of the money on labor and 25% on rent and utilities. The program had so many applicants, it ran out of money last week. Congress added another $310 billion to the program late last week.

“It’s been super busy ...,” Todd Ernst, marketing president for Powell’s Pinnacle Bank, said of the first round of applications.

He said that, as of April 16, the bank had made 64 loans to area businesses. Ernst said the ease of application, which didn’t require a credit test or financial statements, made it an effective program. Applicants just needed tax information from 2019 and the first quarter of this year.

Trace Paul, Powell branch manager for First Bank, said that as of April 24, they had received 350 applications, totaling $25 million. Every one of the first round of loans had been closed by the time the second round was authorized.

“We are hearing back from people that received the loans, and it’s already made a difference,” Paul said.

Processing all the applications kept the bank busy, he said, but they enjoyed being a part of something that’s helping so many area business owners.

“It’s giving us a higher purpose to why we come in every day during this pandemic,” Paul said.

The Bank of Bridger Family of Banks, which operates the Banks of Powell, Lovell, Greybull, and Thermopolis, processed 123 loans totalling $9.8 million as of last week.

“We are beyond pleased that we could serve so many small businesses in our communities,” Stan Lundberg, branch manager of the Bank of Powell, said in a statement.

While the program is helping businesses across the country, it has its flaws. Trying to address the needs of 30 million businesses across the country with a single federal-level program suffers from the “one size fits all” problem.

Unlike, say, restaurants, gyms don’t spend as much on labor costs, making rent and utilities a much larger portion of their budget. It’s especially hard to spend 75% on labor when there are no customers. To make it work during the shutdown, Bair was having employees do training and work on gym processes, as well as a lot of cleaning and maintenance.

“We’ll be one well-oiled machine when we open again,” she said.

Bair said the governor’s statement on gyms reopening seemed “practical and feasible,” and she will be opening on Monday, May 4.

TJ Edgell, co-owner of Sportsman’s Barber Shop, is another business owner who had no means to serve customers until Friday. Like Bair, he applied for funding through the PPP. That and the business’s reserves are helping him get through the period, but it’s not easy.

“Not being able to work for two months is an ordeal,” he said recently.

Mixed bag

However, some businesses are not getting hit as hard as others. Like all restaurants, Skyline Cafe has been limited to just takeout meals — and will continue to be after Friday — but co-owner Shanna Ramirez said they’ve been staying pretty busy.

“We wouldn’t be here without our regulars,” she said. “We have a great community.”

Morse said he has talked to business owners who are as busy as they were, if not busier, before the pandemic hit. It’s the ones that have to shut down completely that are most vulnerable.

“They’re going to struggle. Some might not recover,” Morse said. “That’s the reality.”

Should closures extend into tourist season, he said Wyoming businesses are really going to be hurt. Tourism is one of Wyoming’s biggest revenue generators, and with oil crashing, the state is going to get hit hard if there’s no tourism.

“That’s a double whammy,” Morse said.

He said business owners, whatever the position they’re in, are staying positive during the struggle.

“Overall, it’s a pretty positive attitude from people I’m talking to. They understand the reason for the public health orders,” Morse said. “Optimism is the Wyoming way.”