Are You A Small Business? Are You Trying To Adapt?
This past week has without a doubt been one of the most uncertain, unsettling, and anxiety-inducing weeks that we can remember at Bag N Box HQ. It has taken us a bit by surprise but we are doing our best to cope with this new reality and trying to move on as best as we can.
We have many friends, family members, and loyal customers all directly affected by the situation, restrictions, and knock-on effects, and we really feel for those businesses and workers affected. We are in this with you all.
Of course, we are more concerned for the many people infected, and the family and friends of those that sadly have passed away.
Many of our customers are small businesses or sole traders, and we recently launched a Free Postage voucher code to help anyone who may need or want to use the code.
We have customers from almost every industry you could think, but the core of our customers are split into two industries: Food and Gifts.
Many in the food industry are now offering takeaway food in order to survive and to reach customers. Terry Andrews, the Managing Director, has a daughter who owns a restaurant / café in Banbury and has seen her sales plummet since Tuesday. After quite a bit of work behind the scenes they are now offering takeaway and home delivery meals, and sales have started encouragingly well.
In the gifts sector, we have many customers who have their own shops, attend craft fairs, events, or have their products in other people’s shops. With the restrictions in place they too are all seeing a huge downturn in foot traffic. They are turning to selling their goods online through websites such as Folksy, the UK version of Etsy.
We have also seen customers that have not been affected as much by the current situation but have committed to helping their customers. We were approached by a company called find me a driving test who were after a bespoke postage solution. We helped them with this solution and now they have postage bags that they can send to their customers with their products. The company has been helping users find driving test cancellations during the pandemic and wanted to expand and adapt their brand. If you have a brand that you want help with, then feel free to get in touch!
In an attempt to make things easier for clients – existing and new – we have created two brand new sections on our website where we have taken the effort to list all the appropriate products for these two industries. We urge you to look through these categories before you pay for items on Amazon, your local supermarket or cash and carry to see just how cheap we are in comparison. In most cases you will find our ranges are cheaper, better, and made in the UK!
Our brand new Takeaway Supplies and Mail Order Supplies pages lists many of the things you need in order to be able to adjust to the situation.
Further Help
The Federation Of Small Businesses have released this blog post showing help and advice for this specific sitation we find ourselves in:
- Coronavirus (COVID-19): Advice and guidance for small businesses and the self-employed
Caroline Foran, author of the “Owning It” podcast and book, released a special podcast on the subject, and we highly recommend giving it a listen. It doesn’t take long, and her entire series are well worth a listen.
- Owning It: Covid19 anxiety coping skills
That’s about all from us on this subject, we are working hard behind the scenes on our stock levels, and hope to be at full capacity in the coming days and weeks. Most of our products are unaffected, however.
Just a reminder, or if you didn’t click on the podcast link above, this isn’t forever. Better times are ahead.
Stay safe, and look after each other.