I run a seasonal catering company. Most service businesses are seasonal by the way; they run in the black during the summer and use up their cash reserves in the winter. Our company is skewed even more seasonal because we primarily distribute ice cream. By design, we begin burning through cash reserves in December and continue to operate in the red until business picks up in March and we turn a profit again. Many successful, responsibly managed companies operate this way.

As of two weeks ago, our revenue plummeted to zero. No one is booking catering events, and no one is ordering home delivery because they might need that money to get them through an economic depression in a few months. We have enough cash on hand to make payroll through April, but then we will need to declare bankruptcy.

Would you say that I mismanaged my business? In the leanest time of the year we kept over a month's worth of expenses on hand in cash and it's still not going to be enough. No amount of penny pinching can inoculate a business from months of zero revenue with barely any notice. The speed at which our society shut down is going to put thousands of responsible small business operators out of business, and it's not their fault.