MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There’s always some uncertainty in owning a small business.
For Terica Bell of Fabellous Beauty Lounge, there’s a lot of that with the coronavirus pandemic.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland issued a civil emergency Thursday, closing gyms and bars and restricting restaurants to take out.
“There are a lot of establishments that were not in that order, we are going to take it on a day-to-day basis based on recommendations from medical experts,” Strickland said.
That includes Bell’s salon, which remains open for now. But she does have clients moving up appointments in anticipation of that changing.
“I am concerned that will happen, and I’m pretty sure it’s probably going to resort to that, and if it does, of course we will be impacted because most our revenue is coming from the community,” Bell said.
While she’s waiting to know her future, she’s working on a plan to take care of her employees if that does happen.
She will stay open as long as she can with certain restrictions.
“We’re not doing walk-ins at all because we’re trying to keep the crowd controlled to keep the minimum of 10 people inside the salon,” Bell said.
Staff will also do more disinfecting and ask clients who are not feeling well or who have recently traveled to reschedule.
“We’re requiring that they wash their hands with soap and warm water and then sanitize and proceed to their services,” she said.
Though she doesn’t know what’s next for her business, she knows she and her staff will get through it together.