How an L.A. indie bookstore’s GoFundMe motivated a smaller organization lifeline

On a Tuesday morning in September, Raymond Wurwand was in his Southern California home sipping tea and examining the newspaper when he happened on a story about having difficulties unbiased bookstores. The print headline examine: “Spine-tingling bookstore woes: Some outlets, such as Diesel, are turning to fundraising to survive. Shelve 2020 as horror.”

© (Lucy Wurwand)
Jane and Raymond Wurwand at a regional restaurant. The Dermalogica homeowners have dedicated $1 million in grant assist to L.A. modest firms having difficulties owing to the pandemic. (Lucy Wurwand)

He turned to his wife, Jane Wurwand, and explained: “We have bought to do a thing.”

In partnership with Pacific Local community Ventures and TMC Community Money, the proprietors of skin-treatment firm Dermalogica decided to launch Observed/L.A. Little Business enterprise Recovery Fund, a $1-million grant program to support little minority-owned corporations in Los Angeles County keep open up during the pandemic. Amid the eligibility requirements: Applicants must personal at minimum 50% of a brick-and-mortar store, make use of less than 20 men and women, and present evidence of profitability right before the pandemic. The Wurwands acquired 2,430 applications for the very first round of grants — from restaurants, salons and cafes as nicely as fitness centers, retail merchants and working day-treatment centers. Ten were randomly selected. Applications for the second cycle open up Jan. 11.

“We constructed Dermalogica as a result of providing to little salons, so we constructed our enterprise by means of advertising to modest business owners who have been devastated by COVID-19,” explained Jane in a new Zoom interview. “So as we read the piece, we recognized that could’ve been our story, but we’ve been particularly lucky. Our salons ended up particularly like Diesel,” she stated. Diesel, a Bookstore, with destinations in Del Mar and Brentwood, is one particular of several corporations that have made general public pleas for aid. “That’s who employs the neighborhood.”

The longtime philanthropists generally present minority businesses micro-financial loans through their Wurwand Basis, but Diesel’s pandemic battle place into sharp aim the need for direct, no-strings support — some smaller corporations just are unable to on any more credit card debt.

Some 7,500 enterprises in L.A. have forever closed given that March 1, according to a community economic impression report posted by Yelp in September — the major selection of closures in any U.S. metropolitan area. Retailers and dining places signify the bulk of closures, with proprietors of coloration disproportionally affected. A university analyze printed in Could discovered that 41% of Black-owned enterprises throughout the region shut down concerning February and April. The amount of outlets owned by Latinos, Asians, immigrants and ladies dropped 32%, 26%, 36% and 25%, respectively.

These closures are what get worried Jane Wurwand. “The detail I’m fearful the most of right after this is, when we elevate our heads and glimpse close to our communities and neighborhoods, I imagine we’re likely to see a whole lot missing, and we have to rebuild our most important streets in our neighborhoods mainly because normally we just never have a issue of relationship,” she reported. “I want to reside around the regional bookstore and the area salon. I you should not want to stay future doorway to the Amazon warehouse.”

1 new beneficiary, Rice and Noodle, has been holding on by a thread this yr.

Lunch gross sales at the very small Thai and Vietnamese restaurant fell by additional than 60% just after offices in the area shut. Operator Kwan Chotikulthanachai, 43, was forced to lay off all her employees. She hasn’t been in a position to fork out whole hire since May possibly, and she did not qualify for Paycheck Protection Method or financial injury disaster loans. Cleansing and sanitizing supplies have additional a lot more fees. But with her lover and chef, Son Ongjampa, she’s managed to dangle on, her 8-12 months-aged son, Hugo, and 6-thirty day period-outdated little one, Ethan, at her aspect.

When she uncovered out Monday night time by means of e-mail that she would obtain a $5,000 grant, she cried.

“I was so satisfied,” Chotikulthanachai mentioned tearfully in a phone interview Wednesday. “It’s like I won the lottery.” Hugo joyously jumped and screamed. She identified as her mom in Thailand — who cried, far too.

© (Curtis Dunwoody)
Kwan Chotikulthanachai, still left, inside of Rice and Noodle with her household. (Curtis Dunwoody)

“I am doing work so tricky,” she said. “This time has been extremely hard, but I can not give up. I never want to close my restaurant.”

Owning a small business has been a desire for Chotikulthanachai. She grew up in the restaurant entire world in Bangkok, where by her mom ran her personal area. She opened Rice and Noodle in 2018 with the assist of relatives, and hopes sometime to hand it down to her son. “I are unable to permit my relatives fail with me.”

Adrianna Cruz-Ocampo also sighed with aid this 7 days. The proprietor of U-Body-It Gallery, a customized frame store with areas in Tarzana and North Hollywood, closed her retail store for four months at the commence of the pandemic. Product sales dropped up to 50% following film and television studios shut down, stripping her of a responsible resource of income. She obtained PPP and Small Enterprise Administration loans, but the latter funds was despatched to the completely wrong particular person she does not have the money, but she’s receiving invoiced for payments.

Via it all, she kept her employees on the payroll, setting up cupboards, tables and other items to arrange the retail outlet although the doorways remained closed to the community.

Cruz-Ocampo, 55, stored performing, way too, in spite of fears of contracting the virus. She has scleroderma, an autoimmune sickness that would make her vulnerable to severe issues from COVID-19.

© (Jennifer Daigle)
Adrianna Cruz-Ocampo inside of her framing business, U-Body-It Gallery. (Jennifer Daigle)

On Tuesday morning, though she was having ready for get the job done in the toilet of her Northridge household, Cruz-Ocampo opened an email: “Congratulations on the L.A. Small Organization Restoration Fund,” it read through. “U-Frame-It Inc. has been awarded a Observed/LA Restoration Grant for the sum of $22,500.”

She screamed.

“I have been at the rear of on lease, and this will assist me retain my staff,” she mentioned in a phone job interview. “This is like a bridge, a lifeline, to get by way of a incredibly, very difficult calendar year. This is a blessing.”

Cruz-Ocampo still left Colombia for the U.S. with her loved ones when she was 9. Immediately after finding her associate’s degree in business administration from Pierce Higher education, she acquired the body shop in the 1980s with price savings and a enterprise personal loan. She opened a next locale in Tarzana in 2000.

“It is like a Christmas existing, a big Xmas existing,” explained Cruz-Ocampo. “It can make me sense something great about this Xmas. As negative as it is really been, it is really ending definitely nicely.”

This story at first appeared in Los Angeles Occasions.