[새해가 무서운 사람들] ④ “The more I struggled, the deeper I fell into bog”… Self-employed business owners who have lost their strength-Chosunbiz

Input 2020.12.31 12:00

“I spend 16 hours a day in the store, but I watch TV more than the store POS. If the quarantine authorities say something is announced, I can’t sleep properly because I feel restless until the announcement is made.”

The answer came back when I asked Nam-mo, 61, who runs a Korean restaurant in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. He said, “I was scared because I encountered a situation where customers were cut off at a word from the corona briefing.” “Looking back on 2020, it was a year that felt like a swamp. The more I struggled, the deeper I was sinking, so I had already lost my strength.”

The coronavirus infection that hit the world this year has caused domestic self-employed and small business owners to suffer damage at the level of’disaster’. Social distancing has become a virtue due to the spread of coronavirus, and places that most self-employed people use as homes for their lives, such as restaurants and cafes, as well as karaoke rooms, PC rooms, and gyms, have been branded as’infection risk facilities’.

With their income cut off, one self-employed person is now in a position to worry about survival, paying rent, labor, and loan interest. Recently, news has been heard that vaccination has begun overseas, but it is difficult to expect that the corona crisis will end next year. Self-employed people complain that they are afraid to meet next year, fearing that the situation this year, which was like a nightmare, will repeat itself.

◇ “It is harder than during the first and second epidemics” Self-employed without an exit

Jomo (47), who runs a coin karaoke room in Gwangju Metropolitan City, said, “The government tells us to leave the room empty for 30 minutes if one guest comes and goes, but even if we do not try to empty the room, the guest will not come anyway.” “Government quarantine The instructions have long since gone meaningless.”

“Assuming that you start a business with a loan of about 100 million to 200 million won from a bank, repayment is common within 3 years, but only the monthly loan is 6 to 7 million won.” “Excluding the monthly fixed cost, the only cost that can be reduced is labor costs. Even with the minimum number of part-time students, they are in a deficit of 10 million won per month. The only way to cut costs beyond that is to eventually shut down and pay rent.”

It was investigated that the’corona shock’ of self-employed people became more serious at the end of this year. In addition, according to the sales data of small business owners in Korea Credit Data released by the Democratic Party’s Office of Representative Lee Dong-joo, the average sales of small business owners across the country decreased by 32 percentage points compared to the same period last year in week 51 (December 14-20). This is worse than the record of 29 percentage points in the 9th week (February 24-March 1), when sales began to decline in earnest after the corona crisis began.

According to the data, the average sales of small business owners decreased by about 10 to 29% during the first outbreak, but remained at the 15-25% level in the second outbreak. Then, starting with a 22% decline at the end of November, the decline continues until the end of the year.

◇ Falling self-employed people, shopping mall market also collapsed… “I have lowered the price of used furniture”

The sales blow that lasted for more than 10 months led to the closure of the business. According to the current status of shopping mall rentals released by the Korea Real Estate Agency in November, the vacancy rate of medium and large shopping centers nationwide increased from 11.7% in the first quarter to 12% in the second quarter and 12.4% in the third quarter. Small shopping malls also increased to 5.6% in the first quarter, 6% in the second quarter, and 6.5% in the third quarter.

In particular, the vacancy rate of small shopping malls in Seoul, which has the largest cumulative number of confirmed cases in the country, surged from 4.2% in the second quarter to 5.7%. The vacancy rate for the third quarter of this year is the highest since 2014 when related statistics were made. As a result of a survey by the Federation of Small Businessmen last month, 7 out of 10 small businessmen answered that they were considering closing their business.

Lee, who quit his company during the 1997 International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial crisis and started operating a PC cafe, said, “It seems to be the time to launch a store.” “It’s not that you didn’t try. When the business was suspended, I started working hard, and not long ago, I received 2 million won to make up for the deficit and changed the dedicated line.”

Lee said, “An acquaintance who closed the PC room with the carrier agreement left said,’Would you like to take over the dedicated line because I will give you money?’ If I change the leased line, I will be able to fix all IP addresses, Wi-Fi, CCTV, etc. and I will not be able to do business for 3 to 4 hours. I tried to earn that money,” he said. “I would not have done it before Corona, but a penny was regrettable.”

He added, “I can endure day by day in this way, but in June next year I have to raise the deposit and renew the contract,” he said. “I am going to give up the renewal and close the business because I don’t think I can afford the deposit in a situation where only the debt has increased.”

The situation was the same for cafes, where eating and drinking was banned in the store as a result of the 2.5 steps to keep distance. A self-employed business owner who said the cafe was closed this month posted a video on YouTube and said, “Last year, there were times when card sales doubled the monthly rent in one day, but after the strengthening of distance, the daily sales fell below 100,000 won and the’mental’ collapsed. “I inevitably closed the store,” he said.

As the business closed, the price of used household equipment also fell. He said, “The second-hand companies suddenly said they wouldn’t buy them, so we’re looking into how to dispose of them. The used price of the ice maker was 250,000 won, but it gradually goes down. “I’m going to die,” he said, “I am working hard to drink the milk left in the refrigerator, and I am going to give out interior accessories such as frames to my acquaintances.”

◇ “Without knowing the circumstances of the industry,’support for sanctions and support’… I felt like I was turned away.”

The government has completed the first and second disaster support payments to self-employed people, and is considering the third payment in January this year. In addition, it allowed small business owners to receive a loan of up to 30 million won for emergency management and stabilization for one year, but self-employed people said, “It is a one-time support fund, but’communication with the government’ is urgent.”

Lee Mo (46), who runs a PC cafe in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, said, “The government imposes sanctions on preemptive quarantine and gives subsidies. If you think about the direction of policy supplementation with the business owners before making a decision, It would be nice, but some high-ranking people didn’t even know that the original partition was installed in the PC room.”

Mr. Lee also said, “I am asking the business owners to manage the QR code, but there is no separate’manager mode’, so there is no way to check if the QR code is well taken when a customer comes while visiting the bathroom for a while.” “In the end, I prepared a self-rescue so that I could access my computer only by entering my name and phone number, but it was my job to hear complaints about’double quarantine’,” he said.

Cho, the owner of a coin karaoke room, also expressed regret. He said, “I received 2 million won for the first disaster subsidy once, but after prepaying the VAT for next month, I didn’t know where the subsidy went.” “Let’s hold on to it,” he said. “Let’s hold on to it,” he said, but the same lending policy now sounds like’I’ll give you no guarantee, so I’ll pay the utility bills.’

◇ “New Year’s wish is a luxury… I hope I can only survive.”

It was just a day before the New Year, but self-employed people agreed that it was difficult to find further hope.

Kim Mo (52), who runs a restaurant in Myeong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, said, “When you think of’Myeong-dong,’ what comes to mind is a crowded crowd, but now it has become like a midday dream.” Kim said, “Before the Corona, if business did not go well, we had a discount event, sprayed coupons, or even placed a banner to recover,” he said. “But this year, it was difficult to achieve any results, let alone the end of the year.”

“Even if the corona is over, we don’t expect the sales that had hit the bottom to return in one moment. In the first place, it may be possible to become like before Corona.”

The dark new year’s outlook for self-employed people was confirmed by figures. According to the’Financial Stability Report for the second half of 2020′ released by the Bank of Korea on the 24th, the financial soundness of self-employed people will continue to deteriorate next year.

According to the report, even in a positive scenario that sales of self-employed people will recover next year,’liquidity-risk households’ and’non-refundable households’ are expected to increase further. Liquidity risk households refer to households whose accumulated balance exceeds financial assets, and non-repayable households refer to households whose accumulated deficit exceeds net assets.

The proportion of households with risk of liquidity in December was 6.2%, more than doubled from March, and is expected to increase to a maximum of 9.4% in December next year. The proportion of non-reimbursable households also recorded 1.2% in both March and December this year, but is expected to increase to 2.2% in December next year. The proportion of households facing liquidity risk and non-repayment situation also rose from 0.4% to 2%, and it is predicted that it will be difficult for them to recover to their previous state.

When I asked Kim about his New Year’s goals, the answer came back after sighing, “I have to endure even if I can endure it.” He laughed bitterly, saying, “In the new year, the goal is to keep the store somehow until the corona crisis is over,” and “I want to pay off the loans that are piled up quickly.”