Matthew Ferlito is a 23-year old small business owner and entrepreneur (where?) who had to stop working because of COVID-19.
He is a licensed contractor in the house building business but cannot work for the time being.
I spoke with him about the future of his company and what he has been doing in the meantime to stay busy.
What made you decide to start your own business?
After about four and a half years of working for the same company, I was at the point where I could do everything that my boss could do without him being there, without supervision and not have any problems. So, at that point, it was time for me to go out on my own.
How was your company first impacted by COVID-19?
The first rules that the premier made for Ontario, we were fine. They didn't shut down any construction…A couple of the sites wanted to start limiting different trades in each house.
When did you have to shut down completely?
It was just one company pretty much at a time, which was fine for the first couple weeks until they started the second implement of who's essential and who's not. And they were not allowing any builders or homeowners to get a footing permit, which pretty much shut us right down.
What was it like for your employees during this time?
The first couple weeks we were working it was a little bit eerie for them. Honestly, they'd be more comfortable staying at home than dealing with it. You know, we can have up to 100 people on site in a massive subdivision, right. So, there's a lot of interactions, we'd only have one communal Porta Potty for everybody. Everyone's touching their hands on the way in [and] the way out…They still came to work, but they weren't happy about it for the first bit and then once we got shut down, they were lucky enough to be able to go on EI or apply for the CERB.
How much money will you be losing because of your business closure?
A solid 70 per cent of my wages have been cut now that we've been shut down completely and I'm still waiting on cheques from other contractors that we've completed work on because they're shut down. They're behind on their bill payments and everything. So, I'm still waiting on a good chunk of change, which you know, might hopefully come in the next couple of weeks.
What about the future of your business?
I think we'll be okay. Provided that right now, everything is shut down. If everybody doesn't have any money to be able to continue to buy houses or pay for renovations or do upgrades on a house, anything like that. That's what we do. So, if that market really slows down, then we're going to be in a bit of a tough situation. We have to look for other different opportunities that we can complete as a company other than just doing home construction.
What was your initial reaction to the shutdown?
This is our third year in business and things have been going really well lately and we had a bunch of work lined up. We were pretty much booked up until the middle of June anyway and after we finished one job in the middle of March, we had a week's delay because the concrete guys took some time off because of COVID. We were there for a week and a half and then we were fully shut down after we finished that job. So, it would be nice to be working and that's, you know, this is what I love to do. I love being outside, building everything. But I'm not happy with what's going on and I do understand that it is the right thing that needs to be done in order for us to get over this global issue.
What have you been doing in the meantime to keep busy?
Currently, I've just been at my parent’s place, helping them out, doing a couple of home renovations for them, because I've always been busy for the last three years and they've always wanted to do the floors and the kitchen. So, now that I'm off, I can help them out and do some work for them.
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