YORK, Penn. – John Bailey knows the scope of the economic damage that COVID-19 has created for small businesses. Earlier this year, the owner of a small family-owned travel company was forced to lay off all of his employees.
“It’s devastating to me that I’ve worked to ensure that I can be a good employer and raise families, provide for families,” said Bailey, who owns Bailey Coach in York, Pennsylvania.
Bailey Coach has been a part of the Bailey family since 1933. Determined to somehow keep from going under, John looked around and that's when he found his answer in a $750 sprayer.
“When COVID-19 hit, I said, ‘I’m not going down without a fight. I’m going to do something to provide employment to as many people as I can,’” he added.
Bailey had purchased the sprayer a few years back to sanitize his bus fleet. With no busses to sanitize, he started cleaning other businesses in the area. Bailey Coach now owns seven of those sprayers and every day, they're deployed to local businesses to disinfect facilities for COVID-19.
Bailey has been able to rehire more than 20 people.
“We do this on an ongoing basis as far as preventative maintenance, as much as a pest control company would do, we’re spraying for germs,” he said.
As for Bailey Coach, their message to other small businesses trying to rebound from this pandemic is to look at what you already have.
“Other businesses need to look within and say, ‘What are we really good at, what can we do?’”
