ARCHDALE, N.C. — A small business owner is feeling the impact of higher fuel prices.
Jeff Lockhart told us he had to lay off three of his employees this week because of supply shortages and gas prices.
"They put in a lot of effort and learned a lot," said Lockhart.
His business, Masters Touch Home Restoration, has been around for two years. He and his employees go into low-income homes and remodel them.
Now he hopes to not have to hang it completely up. Lockhart said due to the pandemic finding affordable supplies has been tough.
"It's made jobs almost impossible to price with any kind of timeline. If you price a job a month out you don't know if you're going to make money on it because of how supply prices are," said Lockhart.
He also said gas prices keep creeping up. "I went yesterday morning and I had a heart attack. It jumped 29 cents where I get gas every morning, it jumped 29 cents to 3.29 a gallon," said Lockhart.
Both supply shortages and high gas prices had a major impact on his business.
"We work in a profit margin that is incredibly low and when you throw the simplest thing into it puts us to where we can't even do that work," said Lockhart.
After letting three of his employees go he'll have to work extra hard to try and keep his business going.
"I already work 100 hours a week so I'll throw 130, 140 in it and see what that does. But, I don't know how much more I have to give," said Lockhart.
He says he's made great relationships helping people remodel their homes and it hurts them to see his business is in this predicament.