Poll for small business owners in DR

[chrisgy]

This is for fellow small business owners in DR . Responses from all even if it's a small side gig is appreciated and regardless of your size of business .

Stating location of your business and type of business would be useful

How is your business coping since the start of the state of emergency?
What are your expectations for the rest of this year ?

I'll begin. Retail clothing and footwear for kids, men, women. Three current locations

SOSUA: We had two in Sosua We closed one of the two location in Sosua, and kept the better one. We were able to double the square footage because the tenant next door closed, and we took down the wall, and integrated it while renegotiating the lease to give us a net savings since we needed less employees and it's less fixed costs overall.
In Sosua , we are doing extremely well and have hired extra staff, so a net increase even after closing the one location in Sosua

PUERTO PLATA : POP has not come back , sales are slow as we expected , but we project that in December we should see a temporary uptick, and in January back to the lows. We downsized staff and hours in POP.

We will open in Cabarete in one week with full staff / full hours and complete inventory as I see growth opportunity there.

 

[chrisgy]

This is for fellow small business owners in DR . Responses from all even if it's a small side gig is appreciated and regardless of your size of business .

Stating location of your business and type of business would be useful

How is your business coping since the start of the state of emergency?
What are your expectations for the rest of this year ?

I'll begin. Retail clothing and footwear for kids, men, women. Three current locations

SOSUA: We had two in Sosua We closed one of the two location in Sosua, and kept the better one. We were able to double the square footage because the tenant next door closed, and we took down the wall, and integrated it while renegotiating the lease to give us a net savings since we needed less employees and it's less fixed costs overall.
In Sosua , we are doing extremely well and have hired extra staff, so a net increase even after closing the one location in Sosua

PUERTO PLATA : POP has not come back , sales are slow as we expected , but we project that in December we should see a temporary uptick, and in January back to the lows. We downsized staff and hours in POP.

We will open in Cabarete in one week with full staff / full hours and complete inventory as I see growth opportunity there.

I neglected to mention we were never in Cabarete, it is a new point for us, but the location is prime , and even though Cabarete is dead, we negotiated a two year lease contract to lock in at todays rate. This is not a location we would have gotten in normal circumstances.

 

[windeguy]

We rent out 3 apartments. We used to be full with wind and kite surfers during the golden age of the north coast. That distant past was about 5 to 7 years ago.

DR1 and Active Cabarete provided three times as many clients as we could accommodate. Almost zero problems over many years. One exception was a Criminal Justice major who defaulted on a payment, go figure. Then Punta Cana came on line. Then along came AIRBNB...

Business is now down to zero for us in Cabarete near Kite Beach and we are being dropped by AIRBNB this month because of bad reviews from entitled millennials. With renters like these, we would rather be empty. Sincerely, they are miserable self-centered people that should never leave home. The client level at our price point (lower end price) with AIRBNB has dropped tremendously.

How things change.

I also played music live in Cabarete and Sosua. For me it was for fun that I did this. During the golden age, a four piece band I was in played 3 to 4 times a week. That went down to a couple of times a week with a trio and is now down to zero with the CV19 situation.

 

[drstock]

I also have apartments in Cabarete. For me this year has been quite good, with more permanent clients, and this winter I expect to be full with snowbirds as usual, although that is not certain yet.

 

[nsxplus1]

I also have apartments in Cabarete. For me this year has been quite good, with more permanent clients, and this winter I expect to be full with snowbirds as usual, although that is not certain yet.

what part of cabarete? walking distance to the center with amenities or outside that requires transportation?

 

[JD Jones]

Free Zone business. We are doing better than ever. The pandemic has caused some of our competitors to close their doors and that business has moved to mine. The demand for my services has never been better and I am turning away twice as much as I can handle. (knock on wood)

The only effect the pandemic has had on us has been closing an hour earlier due to the curfew but we're back to normal hours.

 

[Chirimoya]

We have a small company offering communications services: translating, editing, writing, research, photography.

We have some local clients (non-profits, private; mainly in the tourism and construction sectors), but most of the work came from a couple of large international organisations. It hasn't made us rich but it has enabled us to live comfortably.

Everything was fine until about May. Since then there has been very little work. We've had quiet patches before but nothing like this. Hoping things will pick up soon.

If you have any tips or know of anyone looking for these kinds of services, please send them my way!