Earlier we shared insights from the first three interviews Ana set up to see how organisations had responded to the current crisis. We featured, a restaurant, a dental practice and a solicitors.
These are the remaining three “Chats with a local business” which this time had viewers in Moscow as well as Cologne.
J. Kirby Electrical Ltd
As a tradesman working in an industry deemed key, James who is asthmatic faced a difficult choice. He didn’t want to let customers down and yet felt a duty of care to his team and clients to ensure personal safety and be the cause of the virus spreading.
He’d saved for a rainy day (including a supply of sanitisers and disposable gloves) so that when lockdown was announced his response was to maintain emergency cover with some of the team and place the remainder on furlough. While secure as a business James is nonetheless concerned about the post Covid-19 business landscape and the safety of his team. He noted the importance of:
Cashflow. As an SME it’s vital not to overextend so that when the “…. hits the fan” you can cope.
Wellbeing. It’s important to keep up team spirit while people are furloughed so schedule regular virtual meetings to catch up as human beings.
Natural Fitness & Therapy Centre
A weekend was all it took for Tracy to discover Zoom and turn a face to face personal holistic business into one that is thriving online with an expanding list of clients. Fortuitously Tracy had invested in a new client management system a few months earlier so her client data was up to date and so notifying everyone of the new schedule of online classes proved to be a simple task.
Her concern was whether people would miss the human interaction. She found instead that people who had previously attended but lapsed now wanted to join in the online sessions. Tracy comments:
Belief. Allow time to crumble and then go again. Though there was an overwhelming amount to do and learn I was confident that people would support me.
Connections. Never underestimate the importance of keeping up to date with people.
Lerato Cookery School & Kitchen
Already well known in print and media as a Great British Chef, Lerato was anticipating a hectic summer. Her B2B operation provides experiences for major corporate clients and she was expanding her offering by running open cookery schools in Eastbourne. A great and personable networker, Lerato has to ensure events are relaxed and informal with plenty of facilitated interaction. Losing face to face connection due to lockdown was going to be a major challenge.
Lerato did what successful entrepreneurs do when facing adversity; wipe the tears away and get on with transforming her business model! Her insights are instructive:
Communication. It’s key. Be open. Tell people when you are having a great time as well as when you are not!
Agility. Changing or abandoning the business is an option. You might find as I have that it considerably expands the geographical spread of clients.
Its been a really interesting series of interviews which attracted a global audience and a number of requests from people to be added to the list of interviewees.
Each interview has exemplified the power of positivity and perhaps we’ll leave it to Lerato to conclude with this quote when asked what she does:
Feeding people with happiness.
Now there’s a happy thought!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this series and found it as inspirational as we have.
The Bees Homes Team
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