For the past month, I've been at home with my family. We began our quarantine the day after the first case of Covid presented itself in Trinidad - not because we were paranoid individuals (although sometimes I question the behaviour of my 'doomsday prepper' husband), but because this case was a parent of a child at my kids' school. What a way to start!
It has been quite an adjustment period for me as a business owner who works from home. First of all, my house is now full during the day. I have a 2 year old, a 7 year old and an 11 year old and a husband who has taken over my home office at least 3 days a week. As soon as we started quarantine, the school that my two older kids attend immediately kicked into gear and daily work was being sent via email and online classes began. My 2 year old was and has been super ecstatic to be at home with mummy, daddy and his siblings so he has been bouncing off the walls except for nap time which I look forward to each day.
One of the main services that I offer is event coordination, planning and management. I've had clients who were working with me cancel their events as a result of the pandemic. I've also been working on the annual Travel Meets Trinidad trade show and well, as you would imagine, we've had to postpone that. I went from working on marketing this show everyday and seeing more registrations from hotels and tourist boards from the region come in, communicating with sponsors who were interested in partnering with us and liaising with all the vendors involved to calling and emailing everyone to notify them of the postponement.
On a more positive note, my retainer client who hosts at least one or two events per month and who has contracted Smartserv to manage these as well as their operations remotely, has moved all their events virtually. She could have cancelled everything, which would have left me in a very sad situation, but thankfully she's not a quitter and began offering two weekly online sessions. I've had to therefore adjust my regular way of managing events to managing them virtually. We are now responsible for building the events on virtual meeting platforms and managing them online while they are live in addition to our usual responsibilities of marketing the sessions to their target market and via social media. I've been extremely grateful for this opportunity!
This time though has made me realize that it's not a time to give up as a business owner but it is a time to think, rethink and reset. I am using this time to figure out ways of doing things differently for my business. Revenue may not be coming in as before or it may not be coming it at all but it's not a time to let this pandemic get the better of you. It's time to be present with your clients, check on them to show your compassion, check on your fellow small business owners and collaborate with them. It's also time to be present with your family. We've been given an opportunity to be at home until this blows over and we have no idea how long that would be. Play games with your kids, chat with your spouse or significant other, laugh with your parents and siblings in person or online, read a good book, have a virtual happy hour with your friends. Use this time to the fullest!
As people, as mums and dads (even though we feel like we are going insane at times ) and as business owners, we're all in this together so see this time as an opportunity and don't give up! This too shall pass.
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