BP Oil Spill Affecting Small Business Owners
Beach wedding planners along the gulf coast are seeing a decrease in business, just another effect of the devastating oil spill, as couples are in a wait-and-see mode since April to see how the spill would affect pre-scheduled weddings. However, within the past few days couples have begun cancelling their beach wedding plans. One wedding planner, Charli Linn, owner of All the Details located in Fairhope, Alabama, estimated a 30-50% decrease in clients. Linn's goal was to book 50 weddings this year. She will not book half of that. The owner of Barefoot Weddings, Maggie Halsey, located in Fort Walton Beach, Florida has seen a 60% drop in bookings and has had 13 cancellations in the past two weeks.
The businesses have provided rerunds and made claims with BP in order to reimburse the businesses for lost profits. Other businesses, which were unable to immediately refund their clients, are relying on the reimbursements from BP to make good. Some small businesses are also advising the couples who wish to be reimbursed their non-refundable deposits to make claims with BP as well.
The oil spill is an environmental disaster and it is having affects all over the gulf coast - not only on the natural environment, but on the business environment as well. This will impact business owners and, as the crisis continues, the employees of those businesses. If you feel your business has suffered from the oil spill or another environmental disaster contact Wood, Atter, and Wolf, P.A. to seek legal guidance on your options.
To read more about how the oil spill has affected beach weddings see Beach Wedding cancellations skyrocket as a result of oil spill.
