This is the Hardest Post I've Ever Had to Make... 😔
Here goes...
I didn't choose one of Facebook's birthday fundraisers to have Facebook raise funds clandestenily for a charity that may never get it, when I can stare in the mirror and recognize our own vital needs. So, for my birthday this year, I am asking the unthinkable (at least in my world).
Anybody who knows me, knows that I HATE asking for help... to the point of my own detriment. 🙁 I've always combined being a business-owner with various other jobs, as that is the responsible thing to do until someone can wean themselves off their day-job(s).
Life happens... I was working my business and my day job(s), and things were doing fairly well... until they weren't.
Read on...
I decided to go through a third-party company to acquire clients for my production business. At first, things seemed amazing! I was amassing roughly 4 clients a day, and the price tag was pretty decent! ! This was a welcome breakthrough, as 2020 had pretty much shut-down down my business, and I didn't know if I would ever be coming back from that. But here it was... happening! The intake of clients was prolific enough that the workload eclipsed any other possibility of working outside of it.
I was a bit nervous at the prospect of solely putting all my (work) eggs in that basket. To state the obvious; there's the lack of a safety net. However, since the workload necessitated most of my working hours (in any given day), I went months focusing solely on those clients to fulfill these orders & make happy clients... For all intents & purposes, everything seemed to be on the up-and-up! Clients were happy and I received rave-reviews, as I was able to put my years of production experience to good use. I looked forward to what seemed like inevitable growth, and scaling!
... Until that third-party decided to stop paying me.
Month after month, I noticed I was receiving less and less money, until I examined the orders... my bank account... and realized my payments had come to a grinding halt. The orders were marked as completed, and although I had fulfilled my obligations, my due amounts were simply not being deposited into my account. I tried reaching out to this company to no avail (and yes, you can bet I will be seeking legal action in the future). When this third-party entity kept my earnings, I discovered the amount they'd stolen was well within the range of thousands of dollars. How could they even justify this? How could they get away with it?!
Horrified does not even begin to explain what I felt... I knew what the consequences of this would be... and how it could be devastating. I completely halted that end of the business, being forced to step out of it, scrambling to make ends meet in favor of any job yielding a paycheck. This left some of my clients wondering what had happened, but I was reticent to tell them the ugly/awful truth. 🙁
My public presence had become like a ghost town as I quickly worked behind the scenes. Nobody really heard from me very much during that time, as I panicked in silence... literally. Because to add insult to injury, my voice concurrently went out for a few months, and dovetailed with some of my hardware becoming obsolete due to involuntary subjugation of software-updates (which had snuck in to my OS somehow.) Now that I had no time, no operating systems, and no voice, I couldn't even spend time tying up loose ends for some of my dwindling clients.
My daughter kept continually getting sick week in & week out. So half our months we became homebound, with me literally not even able to work or speak.
Hope may be a town in Indiana, but unfortunately, my bills wouldn't wait.
I stacked up bill after bill, as the steep incline of inflation tipped the scales yet lower in my favor. Consequently, the perfect storm of extenuating circumstances had caught up in the most drastic of ways... My most dreaded-fear occurred... My landlord began the eviction process. Even though I've received the initial written notice and verbal notice from him that he intends to file this in court, I am waiting to see what our fate holds, as each day I work, and after work I nervously check the mail box for the inevitable court-appointed details on what to expect / where to go next.
No matter how hard I've tried, we're behind the 8-ball, and completely at a disadvantage to try to come ahead... unless by some miracle, we can reverse this around. I have applied for assistance, but those are dead-end roads, as most of them are out of funds, or require a waiting-list, some of which are 5+ years until your name comes up. And we just don't have that kind of time.
I have a heavy heart... because I'm a go-getter. It's simply not in my nature to ask for anything from anyone. Ever. But this is a mountain too great for me to climb on my own.
Although the spirit may be strong, sometimes the body & the conditions cannot surmount the summit. And this is such a time.
I started a GoFundMe campaign.
Hopefully, if this is at least somewhat successful, it will help get us out of where we're at, the bills we have, car-repairs, and past-due rent. I feel like it might be enough to at least keep my landlord at bay (unless it's too late; I don't know what's going to happen, as I've never gone through this before). And I may be able to allocate some towards my bills as well, and work towards catching up, and getting to a state of normal, before it's too late.
I cannot even tell you how my wings feel clipped by my circumstances... it's not a good feeling to be drowning when my intrinsic-nature is very ambitious.
If you cannot donate, please pray for our situation to get better. I believe it does help, as I've seen miracles occur from good intent, prayers, and positivity projected at people and their respective situations.
I'm prepared to provide documentation to verify our situation for those willing to help. You can request this info by sending me a direct message.
Because the very act of posting this made me so nervous, I opted to forego sharing directly from the GoFundMe site. Instead, I'm sharing the link here: My GoFundMe Campaign.
Thank you so much for anything you can contribute. Every bit helps.
Humbly yours,
Savannah (Savvy)
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