Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | February 20, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 21 Sending out a small business SOS V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A L A lmost every day, we are seeing another Instagram or Facebook post from a local business an- nouncing they are closing. Cue the post mortem conversations, the blame, the theories, the sideline com- mentary from self-appointed experts and, of course, the popular scapegoats Worcester loves to blame. We're not talking about what's really going on, and it leads to the pointing of fingers and inaccurate theories instead of factual conversations. I don't pretend to be the voice of small businesses; but I am a voice, and I'm telling you what I see. What's happening is complicated and not caused by any one big rea- son. I wish it were that simple. My businesses survived 2020, but the long-term effects are coming into focus. Costs have doubled on almost everything, shipping costs have skyrocketed, consumers are spending less, businesses are spending more with less return, supply chains remain delayed, changes are happen- ing citywide, old ways of thinking dominate, and deferred loan payments are coming due. ese are just a few of the issues we navigate. Our suppliers have the same struggles and are going out of business, sometimes with the money we paid them for services never rendered. Costs are not being passed onto customers the way the math on paper says they should. Everything is connected to every other thing, and it has never been more apparent than right now. Businesses are running lean with staffing, altering business hours. Add in the normal things coming up every day, and all of this results in an inability to pro- vide the level of service to our customers they are used to, further resulting in less revenue. No matter how much we plan and adjust, it doesn't change the fact we are leaning on dominos that continue to fall. e mental, emotional, and physical effects are taking their toll. Small business owners have been running around in a quiet state of panic since the beginning of 2020. e much-needed break never comes. e cracks are showing, and the burn out is here. We love what we do and will cause mental, emotional, and physical harm to ourselves to keep our businesses open and our customers happy. Sadly, it's reaching a point where a lot of us are doing just that. How long can a small business owner be expected to hold up the weight and continually adjust be- fore it is just too much? Changes and hard decisions need to be made, and honest conversations need to be had. In February, I made the decision to close my second Worcester Wares location in Kelley Square and keep my DCU Center location and online store open. I did so for all of the reasons I mentioned above, including a serious decline in my mental health. For the continued survival of Worcester Wares and myself, I needed to make this big de- cision and know the guilt and false feelings of failure will pass. I'm hopeful, excited, and can breathe easier. Small businesses need your support more than ever. Please. If you can, go buy that item, order that food, write that review, share our posts, and support in any way you can. Now. Please don't wait. Jessica Walsh is the owner of the gi shop Worcester Wares. BY JESSICA WALSH Special to WBJ A T H O U SA N D WO R D S B Y R A M Ó N L . S A N D O V A L A moonshot, in Devens Jessica Walsh R arely ever do you see Bill Gates, Joe Biden, and the community of Devens all in one story, but the palpable excitement around the opening of a $2-billion energy company in Central Massachusetts is creating just such that buzz, with the future of the world's energy sources and climate on the line. Five years aer its founding and two years aer announcing its intentions to build a 50-acre campus in North Worcester County, Commonwealth Fusion Systems cut the ribbon on its new Devens facility on Feb. 10. Among the attendees were U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Sen. Edward Markey, who all spoke to the importance CFS could play on the global stage. e ribbon cutting was an important milestone in the history of the young company spun out of MIT, and it hopes to have many more significant moments over the course of the next decade. With its SPARC system, CFS is working furiously to create the first commercially viable fusion reactor, with the aim of having it contributing power to the electric grid by 2032. Fusion is something of white horse in energy generation. A cousin of the fission reaction that powers today's nuclear plants, fusion is essentially using the same reaction powering the sun. In theory, and that theory keeps moving closer to reality, fusion reactors could generate massive amounts of electricity at a relatively low cost, without greenhouse gas emissions, and without the nuclear waste created by fission reactors. Biden has called for fusion power to be part of the global economy's clean energy future within the next 10 years. However, the technology remains elusive. Only this past December were researchers in California able to create the first net-positive fusion reaction, where the system generates more energy than it consumes, and that breakthrough lasted for just a few moments. CFS believes its technology has cracked the code, and has convinced investors enough to raise $2 billion, including an investment from Gates, the Microso co-founder. e confidence displayed by CFS and CEO Bob Mumgaard about the SPARC technology is inspiring, and our hope is their confidence is well founded, despite the roadblocks. e move to a clean energy future will be built on the backs of proven, incremental technology like solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, and electric vehicles. Yet, we need gamechanger technology as well to bend the curve on the clean energy transformation. Commonwealth Fusion Systems is not the only one in its niche working on a winning breakthrough technology, yet the company is off to an incredible start with the facility opening in Devens. e fact this breakthrough science is happening in our backyard, and the potential economic impact of the company can have on our region, makes it all the more exciting. The above Editorial is the opinion of the WBJ Editorial Board. The Viewpoint column, the A Thousand Words cartoon, and the Word from the Web commentary represent the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of WBJ or its staff. WBJ welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Send them to bkane@wbjournal.com. W W

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