Our micro-company needs some help.
Precision Braille Plus (our doing-business-as name, the company name is D & S Wilson Enterprises LLC) is a very small braille transcription company. We transcribe materials from print into braille and other formats used by blind and visually impaired persons. Our primary work is transcribing textbooks for school districts, but we also transcribe everything from tax bills to insurance handbooks to menus. The entire staff of our company consists of three people: my husband, Scott; our son, Adam; and me. Scott’s main job responsibilities are math book transcriptions and production (embossing the braille books, binding the volumes together, and boxing for shipping). Adam’s main job responsibilities are getting the texts ready for transcription, helping to keep the website updated, and doing anything else I ask him to do (which can be a lot). I handle everything else. Scott and I are both certified braille transcriptionists.
Our company’s primary income source is school districts. Because of this, we were severely affected by COVID-19. We were fortunate enough to apply for, and receive, two Paycheck Protection Loans. We had an EIDL reconsideration in progress when the program ran out of money. Our company income is beginning to recover, but we are not there yet – our income for the 2021-2022 school year was approximately 60% of our income from the 2019-2020 school year. We have orders lined up for the 2022-2023 school year, but we have not yet received the purchase orders. Even when the orders are received, there is a lead time of approximately two to three months between the time the order is received and the time the first invoice is paid.
This time of the year – April through June – is traditionally our slowest time of the year for work and payments. The orders for the previous school year are complete and the orders for the next school year have not arrived yet. This year, we need help filling the gap. Usually, our orders for the previous school year allow us to budget enough money to cover the slow period until the new orders arrive. Because of COVID, our orders for the 2021-2022 school year did not give us that cushion.
Right now, because of the reduction in our business income over the past school year, Precision Braille Plus is behind on paying all our expenses. We have outstanding invoices with our suppliers, we are behind on payroll, and we are behind on our taxes. We have ongoing invoices for our transcription software and website. We have maxed out all our personal credit cards keeping the business afloat and, since payroll is behind, we are now behind on the payments for the credit cards. We have so many plans for the business that we want to implement – we just need to make it through the next two to three months. We want to get caught up on all the payables, including payroll and the taxes. We want to buy a computer program called TactileView and an inexpensive laptop to run it on. TactileView will allow us to produce tactile drawings at a much faster rate than we currently can and having an exclusive laptop will allow us to emboss the tactiles while we use other laptops to continue transcribing. We also want to move from Nevada to central Illinois, my home state where the cost of living and buying a house is cheaper. This will help us stay in business and continue to provide a much-needed service. Catching up on payroll will help us make this move a reality.
Our current total need is $10,000. This will not completely resolve our payables, but it should be enough to carry us through the lead time until our orders for the next school year arrive. Any help is appreciated. We want to continue to assist blind children with their education by providing the textbooks they need.
Thank you in advance.
PayPal.me: @PrecisionBraillePlus
Deb Wilson