My name is Matt Livingston, a small businessman from the small

My name is Ma Livingston, a small businessman from the small town of West Point, Georgia. I

would like to start o by thanking all of you for the opportunity to express my concerns and my

issues with you. I’m not sure anything I could say will change the minds of those that believe

this economy is striving or it is the best that it has ever been. Anyone that has those beliefs

obviously has not been to my small town.

I am currently the owner of two businesses, one of which is Coach’s Bar and Grill, a family

restaurant that has been in business since 2016 and the other is MahewSco Homes a

construcon company that builds custom homes that has been in business since 2020.

From 2012 unl 2022 I was blessed enough to own and operate 4 restaurants. As menoned I

now only have one. We have been forced to close 3 of them due to a few reasons.

The rst being labor in the restaurant, or should I say lack thereof. We have been forced on

several occasions to “shut the doors” for a day or two due to sta shortages. We had to

permanently shut the doors on three and combine sta just to operate one. We are facing mes

now where people just don’t show up. Gone are the days as an employee when you were

expected to show up on your scheduled day and to be on me, or the days when you could re

an employee for these acons. Since the workforce is so limited, we nd ourselves leng this

be ok. Turning a blind eye to the situaon and allowing it to happen, which in return inhibits

and promotes these acons to connue. Not only does a lack of labor cost your business daily

revenue when you are not open, it costs a tremendous amount of money in payroll to train new

employees, just to have them quit a few weeks later. Our turnover rate in the past few years has

been at an all-me high. We try to employ 30 people at Coach’s, a few months ago I mailed out

92 w-2 forms. Employees expect higher pay for less work. At the me you pay a normal rate for

normal performance they quit and say, “I can make more staying at home”. This is the mentality

that needs to be changed. There is no concept of an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.

We as small business owners must increase our compensaon to ence people to work, all

while paying more for goods to be sold only to leave our menu prices the same. Which brings

me to my next reason, inaon.

Inaon on the cost of goods sold, for the past few years, has had a signicant impact on

several items. We are paying outrageous prices for eggs, which in return increases the cost of

every by product of that, mayonnaise, dressings, shortening, etc. Other huge cost increases

include beef, pork, chicken, seafood, produce, french fries, sugar, plasc resin products and an

abundance of other items. We are constantly having to change our menu prices to just keep

our head above water. Our food cost has drascally gone from 28 percent to almost 40% just to

keep from pricing ourselves out of business and having to close the doors to another restaurant.

In return we are lowering our prots to the point we are operang just to give the few that want

to work a job. Our customers are suering in return paying more for menu items than they are

accustomed to living in a small town.

Not only are labor and inaon a major concern, but the supply chain issues have also caused a

major problem. The price of fuel has caused grocery suppliers to cut back on the days that they

will deliver, which makes it tough to keep all the menu items in stock. As well as other menu

items being dicult to get. We are a sports bar and sell an average of 17-20 cases of wings a

week. We have been cut short to 10 cases a week because of the companies allocang wings

due to shortages. Chicken breast are being allocated as well, along with several fresh produce

items. These supply chain items are a major issue when the items are the majority of what is

sold by us.

Now changing lanes, not only has the restaurant business been a struggle, but our custom

home construcon business also has its concerns. We don’t have as many issues as the

restaurant when it comes to employees because most of our contractors are 10-99 workers.

However, our contractors face sta shortages which in return hurts us from being able to get

jobs completed on me.

Our main issues are inaon on materials and driving the rise of interest rates and causing

fewer approved or interested buyers. The higher rates are pricing people out of the current

markets and causing higher mortgages. For every half percent rise in interest rates home

buyers’ buying power drops 5%. So, a homeowner that was approved for an average

$350,000.00 home and the interest rate goes up by a ½ percent, their buying power dropped

$17,500.00, So now their pre-approval is $332,500.00. Which hurts us in our cost-plus contracts.

Just this scenario alone, would shorten our prots by $3500.00. We average 2 contracts a

month, so annually we are talking $84,000.00 on a ½ percent. Not only is there a loss in revenue

due to the rise in interest rates, but we also have lost several thousands of dollars on our xed

cost contracts due to the overwhelming rise in materials. The price of materials in May was at

an all-me high causing us to spend three mes the amount budgeted for contracts that had

already been signed.

The supply chain issues in the construcon world have caused a signicant amount of loss as

well. Suppliers are having the same problem geng employees to load materials, drivers to

deliver materials, the cost of fuel liming them to only one day a week delivery, all of which

slow down the building process. Our contracts have expected compleon dates, with a penalty

if not met. We are having issues geng windows, doors, concrete, drywall tape, electrical

boxes, wire, and especially meter cans. Meter cans have 6 months to a year lead me on them,

making it dicult to get permanent power turned on at these homes.

In conclusion, we all face many challenges in a day’s me no maer what business we are in.

We, as Americans, face a situaon that has caused our cost of living to go up, and our chance of

living to go down. I can only pray that this will be short lived, and we can give our children an

opportunity to be proud to be an American as we once all were. Thank you for allowing me this

opportunity. God Bless America!

Thank you, Ma Livingston