How has Covid-19 affected you?

I have really missed running workshops for my small feltmaking business flights-of-fantasy.com. However, turning them into fully illustrated postal workshops has given buyers from much further afield to access the instructions so they can enjoy learning during lockdown. Their comments and queries have kept me going during the months when I would otherwise have been cut off from the joys of sharing my craft.

My business The Little Sensory Box, has been affected positively by Covid with turning over £250,000 in the last 12 months. I don't think I would of had this growth so quickly if it wasn't for the pandemic.

 

The pandemic brought our business and charity community together in Derby and inspired us to create The Swap Shop, a free innovative platform swapping skills and services (as opposed to toys & games). Now with over 500 members, we have supported businesses to start up, pivot, survive and thrive. Entrepreneurs have created new busineses from the ashes of their former companies left out in the cold by the Government, and we've helped a revolutionary new business reach £1m turnover in less than 6 months. All of these started with a swap in Derby - and now we you can swap all across the UK. Because the even in the darkest of times, there is a glimmer of hope and everyone needs a bit of swapping in their lives.

The Covid-19 Pandemic has affected our business on both a positive & negative note. Negative with regards to finances, reducing our turnover by at least 75%, but positive in relation to us having to think of innovative ways of diversifying & staying visual to keep our business afloat. 

Working in hospitality and events, I lost all my clients in March/April 2020, saying goodbye to 100% of my income overnight. Of course it was stressful, but I was surprised afterwards that the most significant struggle was the feeling of total uselessness. Everything I'd built up over the previous few years felt absolutely meaningless, and that was the biggest effect in my case and I'm working harder than ever to try and make the business more resilient. 

My business, Case Study Writer is dedicated to telling the stories of the the value my clients bring to their customers. During the pandemic I'm delighted to say that my IT clients have been heroes, ensuring public and private sector organisations keep up and running, working remotely and securely. They've also taken the time to commission Case Study Writer to tell their success stories, which now add powerful collateral to their sales and marketing effort. As a result my business has tripled its turnover. It's been great to focus on the great things that are happening to keep the country afloat.

One might think that a home-based CV writing business would be booming during COVID, but as a working parent, lockdown meant I was forced to down tools and home-school my children. This reduced my capacity to fulfil orders and affected revenues.

During the first lockdown, I ended up working late into the evenings, often beyond midnight, but it was simply not sustainable and negatively impacted my health. However, this time around, I utilised a great network of trusted writers and we managed to keep the clogs turning.

But with Scottish schools now reopening, I’m eager to start writing again! In the current climate, I particularly interested in helping applicants adapt to the new normal. Given the dynamics of the job market have changed since the COVID-19 crisis and may not revert to old patterns when and if we get back to ‘normal’. The candidate’s approach will have to change, too, in terms of when they need to push, when they need to be patient and how they get a potential employer’s attention.  

I own The Amethyst Centre, a complementary therapy and training centre in Coventry. We've had to close during lockdowns because we come under "beauty" rather than "health". Husband and I got Covid April/May. I got the cognitive symptoms - confusion, anxiety, word blindness - and my husband went blind and had a severe UTI. I have severe arthritis anyway and my husband is my carer, but those roles had to be reversed while my husband waited for an op on one of the cataracts he had. My husband works as an IT network manager for our local hospital, and was able to return to work in October.

During lockdown I've launched a podcast series, "Walking the Path" which is about spirituality. I'm also pursuing avenues for expansion of the therapy centre and of the training we offer, as a potential way of securing the Centre's future. The only way out is up!

I firmly believe that as a community of women entrepreneurs, we have leant on each other for support, encouragement and motivation to keep going. The strength of our community has allowed us to change, lose and grow our businesses - and the majority of us with no help or support from the Government.  

COVID has been a disaster in many ways, but it has also created opportunities for us to help our clients in different ways. A busy area has been helping marketers to find new suppliers with the skills to help them communicate through the pandemic, such as Huntingdonshire District Council. We helped them to recruit numerous service providers to roll-out the communications around their COVID response when their inhouse team did not have the capacity to do so. 

AS a community business we have seen an increased experience of social isolation due to the virus and this has
impacted people’s confidence and social reach. Many of the people spoken to are
struggling on the poverty line . 80% of people spoken to from Headlands helping hands stated that they are suffering
from anxiety and are struggling to cope and have a fear of going out.

Natasha Caton has been a busy woman since the coronavirus pandemic
struck - despite losing all of her income basically overnight. 

"The first two months we thought, 'right lets re-charge, re-think and strategise,' and then we had to
think about getting some income as my partner's contract finished three
days before the lockdown and my income went to zero overnight."

Work soon came Natasha's way though, mainly by teaming up with Northampton
Hope Centre to make vegan meals for homeless people in the town, making between 70 and 120 meals a week of home-cooked and home-grown food.

"It really helped to know we were making a difference and just touching base with people," she said.

"The council did an amazing job putting them in hotels to keep them safe but
feeding them is another issue. We did make a difference for people who
can't help themselves sometimes. 

The pandemic inspired me to start a new business, with someone I'd never met and who lives in another country. Together Natasha and I help people navigate the mental and emotional challenges they face via their supportive employers.