For 15 years, Colleen Parker ran Dance Explosion in Glen Burnie with a team of professionals, including the occasional Russian ballet master, teaching everything from ballroom to hip-hop. Her students have earned more than 2,000 trophies and some of them fame: There's a Radio City Rockette and a Broadway performer.
Parker was devoted to the business, her mother said, after answering her daughter's home phone. The word proud appears a half-dozen times on the studio's Web site in a section describing its achievements.
What doesn't appear is any mention that the company is effectively gone, a victim of the economy. Students left en masse as families cut discretionary costs. Parker filed for bankruptcy in August, listing $1,200 in resources and more than $35,000 in liabilities. Dance Explosion's assets were disbursed and the case closed last month. Parker said she wants to start again, but she didn't want to talk about much else. Not many in her situation do.
While the rough economic times have meant painful adjustments for most people, they've crushed some small businesses, even those with long local histories, along with their owners' livelihoods.
"I have people calling me who've been in business for 10 years, in business for 15 years, saying they've been fine for 10 years and fine for 15 years: 'I've made a good living for myself and my family,' [they say] 'but in this economy, I just can't do it,' " said Ann Shaw, a Salisbury bankruptcy attorney.
Over the past few months, about 60 Maryland businesses have filed for bankruptcy. Not all blame the economy; some have tax troubles, or they're facing expensive lawsuits. But for many, the downturn was a contributing factor. That is worrying to analysts who say that small businesses, which account for half of the nation's gross domestic product, are its strongest economic driver.
Small businesses often weather economic slumps fairly well. Their size allows them to be more nimble and react quickly to adversity, and they're less likely to resort to layoffs: Their employees are more like family. But things are different this time, particularly in Maryland, said Ellen Valentino, state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
"In addition to just a lag in spending in the economy here, we had the rise in fuel costs at the same time, had utility bills increase at the same time, had the minimum wage increase at the same time, the tax increase, so it became a perfect storm," she said.
