Riding the Rollercoaster in Style: Adapting our Small Business to Covid
We don’t like to dwell on the negatives so I usually say it’s been an unusual year. At Fig1 the pandemic has meant a constant process of adaption – adapting to new rules, adapting the way we reach customers, taking advantage of empty retail space to try new things at our Quaker Friars shop. It has been a fast, sometimes exhilarating and often a little scary roller coaster ride but even if you don’t like roller coasters, if you’re on one you may as well try and ride it in style.
A Shared Experience: Small Business During the Pandemic
Life is often about the connections you make and we’ve really appreciated all the suppliers we’ve worked with over 14 years. Many of them are small businesses too and are staffed by people who have become friends as well as colleagues. During tricky times we look for other people’s stories to share to help understand things and I’ve spent many an hour chatting to suppliers on the phone during lockdown to catch up with their personal stories, what difficulties they’re facing and what ways they’ve found to overcome things. In these odd times these chats are more than business – they’re shared experience.
So whereas we adapted to buying over zoom and from catalogues, it was quite a change to be back in person visiting suppliers at trade shows this Autumn. It’s been a year of so much change that the opportunity to meet new people and catch up with our current suppliers seemed like such an amazing and exciting thing.
A Great Team: Growing Our Business During the Pandemic
Covid has come with unusual opportunities for us. As a small business we rarely have a spare minute and the lockdown periods, for all the scariness of the unknown, provided opportunity to see business differently and to take a step out of the day to day chores. Opening our new shop at Quaker Friars was partly a way to keep our staff employed and to offer jobs to new people at a time where we felt this was a good thing to do, but there have been great benefits to myself and Luke by growing. Jobs that I always thought only I can do have been slowly shared with our wonderful manager Emma and our new marketeer Rosie, who has just graduated from the apprenticeship we’ve put her through to earn the new title Marketing Guru (currently we’re trying this title for size but it seems to work). Both Rosie and Emma visited a trade show with us this Autumn and it was good to introduce them to suppliers and hugely beneficial to have their input into the buying for this season. Luke and I are immensely proud to employ 8 people now and to be helping them in our careers and buying season has been crowned off by a “harvest festival” of sorts this week. We had the staff all together for an evening to see all the new products but also to share food and stories and a drink together. After all, we want to run a business that is about and for people.
Our Favourite 3 New Finds
Here a some of our favourite new finds and the stories behind the people who make them:
Please and Thank You Soap
A small company started as a lockdown project, the husband and wife team behind this new brand put quality and ethics at the forefront of their product. For each soap bought another is given to a person in need. The soaps are triple milled so they last longer without losing their form and the formula is entirely vegan. They come in beautiful boxes and smell divine – what’s not to like?!
Hydro-Herb
Made from recycled wine bottles, these herb planters come with all the ingredients to grow your own plants on the windowsill. Julian spent a long time researching the best way to put these together and the concept has been a labour of love but we think it’s totally worth it. Peat free, a small tablet of compacted compost becomes enough soil for your plants when rehydrated and a “wick” of capillary matting brings water from the reservoir in the bottle base to where your plants need it making super easy to keep you plants happy.
Gingko
Made from sustainable good and Tyvek, these beautiful rechargeable book lights close shut to turn off and open to produce a clean and beautiful light source – they’re perfect for using as an alternative to candles. Pack them down to take with you on your travels or leave them plugged in by the bed for an easy and comfortable night light.