Small business revenues fall as govt shutdown persists

A member of the kitchen staff make wipes the plate in a final preparation before serving it to customers at Gotham Bar and Grill in New York. Some small businesses are making hard choices as labor and other costs keep rising. Gotham’s hourly wages have gone up along with the city’s minimum wage, which rose $2 an hour to $13 last December and will reach $15 this Dec. 31. The restaurant is also paying more for ingredients, especially eggs and other dairy items, key dessert components. Baked by Yael isn't getting its usual flow of customers who stop in after visiting the nearby National Zoo; the popular Washington, D.C., tourist spot remains closed by the government shutdown.Owner Yael Krigman gets half her business from the three-year-old store, and the shutdown that began Dec. 22 is taking a toll."Right now, I'm just trying to focus on the day-to-day and hustling to generate revenue any way I can," says Krigman, who also has corporate and online customers and sells at farmers' markets.Small companies across the country are losing business because of the shutdown. Federal contractors, especially those who rely on the government for most of their revenue, aren't getting orders and aren't getting paid.