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Society might appear to have settled into a sense of normalcy nearly eight months into the pandemic, but beneath the surface many businesses continue to struggle
The Rickshaw Theatre stage on East Hastings has gone from hosting 15 to 20 concerts a month for crowds of up to 500, to just a handful of live-streamed events, and now to an empty, cavernous room and varying numbers of people online.
“My goal right now is just to make sure that I’m sort of in maintenance mode and kind of mitigating any costs that I have,” said business owner Mo Tarmohamed. “As long as my costs are covered, it’s not really a revenue-generating thing for me.”
The Rickshaw closed its doors March 14 when live performances became impossible, threatening to decimate the live music scene.
Typically, the Rickshaw employs 12 to 20 people over 150 to 160 nights per year. Since March, however, it has been a skeleton crew of three, including Tarmohamed, as caretakers to maintain upkeep and a public presence.
The federal wage subsidy and commercial rent assistance programs have helped the Rickshaw stay in its holding pattern, and the province has opened up its Amplify B.C. initiative to applications for venue operating expenses.
Tarmohamed is investing in the technical infrastructure to do more streaming and video work as additional services for bands once they do reopen, which might be the middle of 2021, or 2022 in the case of international tours.
“Over time, depending on how long it will take for us to get back to normal, you know, I’m worried that there will be some funding fatigue,” Tarmohamed said.
Read the original and complete article here: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/the-challenges-for-business-in-surviving-covid-19