A Pandemic Death and Rebirth / Live Free or Die

[cinquino]

On March 15th 2020 I was in my studio in SoHo, NYC. At that time, I was a professional photographer and I owned a rental space business. The space I was in I used for my own work and I rented it out to other photographer, productions, tv shows and classes. I had bought the business two years prior and was just starting to reach a decent level of profitability. Additionally, my partner Rebecca and I had bought our first piece of real estate. A beautiful condo in Brooklyn. So, at that time, we took all the money that we didn't have and bought a condo and a business with the certainty that we'd be living and working in NYC for, at least, the next ten years. Because what couldn't possibly cause there to be absolutely no opportunity for our skillsets as creatives in NYC? I mean, it's not like New York could or would ever be shut down for over a year and for people to be ordered inside by the government and certain business be deemed "non-essential" I mean something like that is impossible... Right...? Obviously not because it all happened.

To make a very long story short, we lost almost everything. I lost the ability to legally work in my chosen profession and my partner was let go from her 15 year career as a textile designer. We had no income. We, shamefully, had to apply for unemployment (something I had only done once in my life when I finished 4 years on active duty in the US Navy) but had always worked and always been able to support myself. I learned that you can only make about 400 calls on your iPhone (the amount I was making to the unemployment line) weekly before the phone stops counting calls. Longer story short.... We were able to get unemployment and I was able to get PPP loan money to keep the studio rental biz afloat while the doors were locked by the city. Then the riots started in the summer...

And, at that point, I had about had it. We were not permitted to work or gather but if you were protesting or rioting it was permitted? I have to say unless you were a small business owner owner in NYC at that time who was deemed non-essential, it's difficult to grasp how hopeless things felt. Shop after shop, restaurant after restaurant closed most for good. It was a hollowing out of the city I loved. After sitting in our 600 sq/ft condo alone for months at this point I turned to Google and asked: "What are the states with the most respect for Constitutional right..?"

New Hampshire kept coming up as a state that fit that bill as well as a state that was good for small business. We paid a visit in the later summer of 2020 and decided to relocate. We had no idea what we were going to do or what we were going to offer. We didn't know anyone and had no leads. Just the fact that NYC wasn't it for us at that time and we needed to go somewhere where the pandemic restrictions on businesses were more reasonable. In New Hampshire it was a 2 week shut down and that was it. We found a decent apartment and relocated to New Hamsphire Fall of 2020 and relaunched SoHo Creative Studio (the name of our former rental space) in Spring of 2021...

We weren't sure what we were going to offer. But we took inventory on our skillsets and resources and decided to offer Web Design, Photo / Video content and copyrighting for Small Businesses. To take a page out of MJ's book The Great Rat Race Escape : We looked for businesses that were already offering great true and relative value but when you looked at their website, branding and marketing material it didn't add up. Cut to present day...

We did over six figures in 2022 with strong margins which we take as a win. There's still a lot of debt we're chipping away at but things are moving forward. I read Millionaire Fastlane a long time ago and was just introduced to Rat Race escape and, of course, it's been a game changer for us. The road ahead is uncertain (but it always is) and the struggle is often very real.

I take MJ's point on looking at things as a process and not an event. Our mantra has become something I took from the documentary on Netflix "Stutz" - the one where Jonah Hill interviews his therapist:

1. Be willing to take a risk
2. Act with some degree of faith
3. Eat the consequences (and adjust accordingly)

Thanks for reading my story and I look forward to contributing to and connecting with the community.

Warmly,

MIchael Cinquino
"Live free or die. Death is not the worst of evils" - Brigadier General John Stark

 

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