I guess the bailout was not meant to help small businesses

I'm a work-at-home mom.  I think that is the wording if you own your own business, you run it from your basement and there is absolutely no escape from your children attempting to climb into vats of screenprinting ink while you work.  I also like to tell people I am a freelance writer, since that too pays the bills.  Sometimes it sounds more glamourous than Screenprinter of Edgy and Entertaining Tee Shirts.  But whatever the title, I'm just another person trying to make a buck in this world.  Daily it seems that is tougher and tougher to do. 

There is talk, talk, talk these days about the bailout.  Oh, I'm sorry.  That would be the bailouts.  Plural.  Married to an economist, I put my hands in my head ever single time the price tag goes up.  Whether or not saving Bank A or infusing money into Corporation B will help depends on your view of markets or the economy.

But like all Americans, I find myself most interested in what happens specifically to me.  I watched with great interest on November 10, 2008, when American Express was granted it's request to become a bank holding company.  It is a little funny since American Express never wanted to be regulated like a bank until banks were being written big ol' TARP checks.  The media was all over it (along with other bailout news), saying this is what the economy needed to keep going.  Congress praised itself for looking out for all of us little folks.

As a small business owner, I had a line of credit with American Express and for seemingly inexplicable reasons, they had changed my credit limit two months before from $10,000 to what my balance was:  $1,000.  Goodbye, $9,000 in credit I had been given and had done nothing to lose.  I guess they needed that bailout.  I sat back and waited. 

Roughly two weeks after the status change which helped put American Express on the short list for free money, I got a notice in the mail.

"We regret to inform you that we have decided to close our Small Business Open Line of Credit Program entirely as of January, 2009." They graciously advised me that I would still receive monthly bills but they would be canceling my (and every other small business owner's) account.  A week later my bill came, with a $139 yearly renewal fee added to my balance.

I saw red.  I did.  Apparently American Express hadn't used any of that free money to pay someone to remove that code in the billing process for the automatic yearly renewal fee.  On the same day, I got my separate bill for my business credit card.  Hmm, didn't see that interest rate hike to 27% coming.  I contacted customer service for my line of credit and got an answering machine.  For three days.  I guess I wasn't the only business owner who was mad.  When I finally got in contact with Amex, they said that I should just deduct that $139 from the balance.  Oh, and if I agreed to not use my business credit card, they would take my interest rate to 0% for 6 months. 

My choice was to pay nearly $600 in interest every month or do the equivalent of giving up my card for 6 months.  All the work I had done to pay down the balance and now there was no way I was going to chase the interest rate AND my balance.  This left me with only my personal credit to buy stock for my business.  The funny thing about small apparel businesses like myself, there are better times of the year than others.  Sometimes you can use cash for months in a row.  Other times you have to pay a big bill with your credit card.   That's why you have the credit card.  It's not like there is a bank that is going to give you a small business loan.  Good luck with that one.  Even with cash sitting in the bank, no one wants to give you money.

Now I sit here with no business credit, minimal cash and a husband giving me the hairy eyeball when the credit card bill comes due.  We have enough problems worrying about household bills to be adding business bills to the mix.  To combat the troubles, I signed up to sell my tees at three wine festivals in four weekends to try to make it over the winter slump.  Sure I'll be 8 months pregnant for the first one and 9 months pregnant for the last one.  I was going to skip them this year because nothing says premature labor like hauling 16 crates of tees around.  Friends have stepped up to help but this isn't really how I planned to spend the last 6 weeks before giving birth to Baby #3.  But thanks to all these bailouts, Mommy has got to work some overtime. 

It does kind of make you wonder what those banks (like American Express) are doing with all those government checks they are cashing though, doesn't it?

When Kristen isn't whining about the economy here, you can find her whining about her children at Mommy Needs a Cocktail, selling Mommy Needs a Glass of Wine tees at Baby Brewing or showing her (relatively) nice side at PBS Supersisters.