How the power cuts have affected small and independent businesses

A food vendor prepares food at his shop after a power cut in Colombo (AFP)

• Dressmakers finding it hard to stitch and deliver undertaken orders, as electricity plays a vital role
• Powercuts hamper livelihoods of small time cake makers as they are unable to store ingredients
• Without power the beauticians are forced turn their customers away

As multiple crises take root in Sri Lanka, the average citizen’s ability to make ends meet is becoming increasingly difficult. While power cuts have been the latest hardship to hit the Sri Lankans, our island’s citizens have been hit with various shortages of basic necessities for many months now.   

On Tuesday, the Ceylon Electricity Board said it will continue with the 7.5 hour power cuts, despite assurances from the country’s leadership that power outages would come to a halt from March 5. With shortages of LP Gas, the power cuts have exacerbated the injuries caused to small business owners.   

The DailyMirror spoke to various small business owners and independent professionals to find out how they have coped with the various shortages and power outages, which are directly affecting their income.   

Vishaka Damayanthi - Tailor

It’s very difficult to send and receive orders because our productivity has slowed down. Without the help of sewing machines, it’s time consuming and ineffective to do the stitching by hand. We can’t work continually due to power interruptions, we can’t focus on the dress designs and we have loads of unfinished jobs that we have undertaken and awaiting delivery. Working at night is also hard since we can’t identify colours of the cloths or the stitches and threads even we happen to stitch by hand. The heat is also unbearable when working without fans or AC and we become tired and stressed soon.   

Tharushi Fernando - Cake maker

I used to accept quick-delivery orders, like cakes which are to be made within a week. They have come to a major halt. We did a lot of them before. Now we can’t accept those orders because we aren’t sure when the power would go off. Therefore I have lost clients and encountered losses. Most of the time home bakers do this work as a part time job, while working elsewhere. I am a teacher and I mostly do the baking in the evening or at night. But now it has become impossible to utilize that time I need for baking because of power cuts. We also have to keep a stock of ingredients stored in refrigerators and with inconsistent power cuts, ingredients such as butter gets melted or spoilt.  

"CEB continued with 7.5 hour power cuts, despite assurances from country’s leadership that power outages will end from March 5. With shortages of LP Gas, the power cuts have exacerbated the injuries caused to small business owners"

Achala Karunarathne - Beautician

Power cuts affected our industry in many ways. When it comes to salons and beauty parlours, we had to face many challenges when it comes to rebounding, straightening and perming. Clients must be treated with facilities such as AC and fan, and it’s difficult to manage without them. There are so many issues in using electric equipment such as hair irons, hair dryers and steamers and we are facing obstacles when using manicure and pedicure equipment. I also have a shop where we sell Saris. We need power to design those clothes and the fit-ons. Lighting is very essential for them. Apart from that, when it comes to store certain beauty cosmetics, a refrigerator is a must. With the power cuts all these have now become a challenge to continue our profession.   

Shilanka Madusankha - Computer technician 

Being someone who runs a small business in the IT industry, electricity is the most important source to me since it’s linked to everything that we do, especially when we are attending to a customer’s computer. Without power we are completely helpless and can’t even check the completion of repairs that were done. Whether it’s software or hardware, electricity is vital. The other major problem is the sudden power cuts while we are in the process of repairing something. This can result in severe hardware faults, failures and software corruptions and we have to take responsibility for these issues as well. So we have to take care of the problems which the client’s device initially had and solve whatever issues that might be caused by the power cuts too. Hence, the work becomes more tedious and stressful than it should be. Another issue is that there are customers who either request or demand urgent attention and in some cases, want the repairs done in one and the same day. If we don’t have power on that day, we have no alternative means to complete the work. The customers then leave to consult another IT expert from an area that does not have power cut. We have lost several clients due to this.   

Jayamali Perera - Baker

Since the power cuts are scheduled, we bake the products early and refrigerate them. Yet, it’s hard to store them when there’s no power. Decorating cakes is also a very hard task because of the heat. Normally the icing is done when the cakes are chilled. We also have deadlines. Since there are too many orders flowing in, we are only able to undertake one at a time with several breaks in between due to the power cuts. This has hampered our productivity drastically.   

W.G Samitha - Video editor and programmer

I do a lot of online freelance work on video editing. Most of my work is based on the international market. After the pandemic, our work has now finally improved. But in the face of the power cuts, it’s difficult to find any freelance work. Some of the services have good income in dollars and are mainly from online editing. If the power cuts continue, we can’t complete our work and they will drop our rank down, consequently making it difficult for us to find online editing jobs. Our small contribution to the inflow of dollars into the country will also be lost due to power cuts.   

Sandalika Liyanage - Online Maths Tutor

The time schedules of power cuts between me and my students are different. Therefore deciding upon a fixed time to do classes is very difficult. I missed a lot of classes during the past several days due to this inconvenience. Sometimes the power goes off when I am already in a class with a student. I have students abroad too and I have to adapt to their time schedule because of the time zones but now it has become even harder to do so. On some days the power cuts are from 1.00 pm to 6.00 pm and most of my students come home from schools at around four or five. Therefore I usually start classes during that time. But now I can’t do that. I can’t even manage to conduct classes at nights because there are two hours of power cut at nights too. This has really impacted my classes with the students.