A butcher’s longtime customers stop paying their bills. A building contractor has half as many jobs as he did a year ago. A restaurant owner considers sharing space to stay afloat. Steadily, inexorably, the fallout from Wall Street’s layoffs and the credit crisis is trickling down to small businesses across the region. Over the coming months, The New York Times will track six of those businesses to see how they are weathering the economic storm.

Downtown’s Lean Time

Mouhamad Shami, 54, the owner of Alfanoose, a Middle Eastern restaurant on Maiden Lane in the financial district, came to the United States in 1974 and opened his restaurant in 1999, operating it with three employees: his wife; his daughter, who plans to attend law school; and his son, a junior at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Sales have dropped by nearly 30 percent as layoffs have mounted at nearby banks and brokerage houses, causing him to scrap plans to serve breakfast and to consider asking the deli next door to share his space and split the rent.

“It’s scary, to tell you the truth. I can feel it, the cutting back. Our business depends on orders from the big financial companies. A.I.G., they used to order from us. Goldman Sachs, they cut down a lot. Citigroup, I hardly get any orders from them anymore.

Image Georgette Blau Credit... Rob Bennett for The New York Times

"They are afraid. I am afraid. It’s crazy and it’s scary. I’m afraid more for my kids’ future.

“I’ll do everything I can, honestly, to stay in business. As is, I put in long hours. Like I said, the whole family works in this establishment. And we take a pride of what we do. So we built a name and a good reputation. And we don’t want to lose it.