With Stay-At-Home Orders Extended, Some Business Owners Fear Going Under

DENVER (CBS4)- Even before it looked like Denver was going to extend stay-at-home orders, some businesses have been hoping they could see customers as soon as possible. Jimmy Funkhouser, the owner of the outdoors shop Feral Mountain Company, wrote a letter to customers on Tuesday asking for their business when he is allowed to reopen his store.

"Nobody wants to signal that you're struggling," Funkhouser said. "Why wait until you're going to close to say that things are hard? Why wait until it's too late to tell your community that you're struggling?"

The response has been overwhelming, but there's still uncertainty of when the gear shop can have customers back in to buy products.

"Most businesses are going to be able to reopen, that doesn't signal that everything is OK. A lot of businesses have had payments deferred, rent deferred, that's going to stop when May comes around and the bills are going to come due. When we reopen and other small businesses reopen, we've got to find a way," Funkhouser said.

He's spent weeks filling out applications for government assistance and grants. So far, the business hasn't received a penny.

"At the end of the day we can't grant or loan our way out of this situation. We have to do business. If you were going to combine every single loan and grant we could even apply for right now, it doesn't even come close what one month of sales would be," he said.

Worry about employees and how the community will respond have weighed heavy on the owner. He knows many in Denver are dealing with the same uncertainty.

"We're ultimately going to decide, what does the future of Denver look like? And that decision is going to be made in the next three to six months with who we choose to support and how we're going to support them," Funkhouser said.