Lessons from Businesses that Opened During a Pandemic

There’s no denying that the coronavirus pandemic has been a huge blow to many businesses, with both small and large companies shutting their doors for good over the past 18 months. However, a select few have spotted an opportunity, capitalised on the crisis and dared to open a business when it looked like the tide was firmly against them.

These entrepreneurs bravely took the plunge, made the new normal into business as usual and are now reaping the rewards.

Turning Lockdown Baking into a Thriving Business

A lot of us turned to baking to pass the time and cheer us up when the first lockdown hit, to the extent that flour was as difficult to get hold of as toilet roll and hand sanitiser. However, one enthusiastic Cardiff-based amatuer became so passionate about baking that she quit her job and turned professional. 

Rhian Jones, who lives with her parents in the Heath area of the city, was working in retail prior to the pandemic and was furloughed when lockdown began. Rhian decided to make the most of her free time by baking, a pastime she’d always been passionate about, and set up an Instagram account called Elyse Bakes to showcase her creations. The orders began rolling in and Rhian quit her retail role after realising that she couldn’t manage another job on top of the high demand for her cakes and cupcakes. Rhian currently supplies two cafes and is hoping to open her own premises soon.

Rhian told Wales Online: “This time last year I didn’t think I would have left my job and do this full-time instead. I thought ‘Let’s use this time wisely and do something I enjoy’, not expecting it to grow, but it really took off from there. For me it was a benefit going into lockdown. I tried to use my time wisely and it really worked out for me. Instagram has played a massive part in being able to reach out to people. I’m lucky a lot of my friends who did marketing at uni were able to support me in how to reach an audience and it was important for me to get photos that are professional for people to think I was serious about the business.”

From Welding to Doughnuts

The lesson new business owners can take from Rhian’s success is that you can use social media to reach people and grow your business, even if you don’t have a bricks and mortar retail space. By making good use of the tools we have readily available and asking for help from contacts, you can bring your business to people’s attention even when they can’t physically visit you. This is exactly what Ash Parfitt did when he set up a doughnut shop called Cardiff Dough and Co. 

Ash, at the time a welder, put himself on furlough during the first lockdown as his dad was in a high-risk group. Inspired by a food truck he had visited in Australia, where people queued around the block for doughnuts, Ash decided to do the same in Cardiff.  He told Wales Online: “It took me a month to come up with a solid recipe. I started taking pictures of them and giving them to family members. Then they started putting them on Instagram and then my friends were saying, while you’re at home doing nothing, make me some doughnuts.”

The business quickly picked up Instagram followers and quickly outgrew his kitchen at home, so Ash started selling his doughnuts from a small stall in Corporation Market Yard, before opening a pop-up shop in Lakeside. The company has been such a success that they are now opening a doughnut factory and will soon have new premises in Cardiff City Centre. Within a year, he hopes to employ between 20 and 40 people. Ash’s success is a great lesson in what can be achieved if you are prepared to take a few risks. Opening a physical shop during lockdown, when so many were closed, could have been a disaster. However, Ash was offering a destination when there was little else to do, and was able to keep people coming back due to the excellent products he offered.

Making the Most of Your Opportunities

The Dropbar Workshop is a bike repair and alcohol shop based in Clear Water Way. It was opened by Neil Cowhey, who was a professional chef until lockdown closed all hospitality businesses, but had always wanted to open his own bike shop. When lockdown led to a boom in cycling and a huge demand for bikes, Neil and his business partner Ben Kingham decided to take advantage of the opportunity. The pair approached the Development Bank Wales who gave them a micro loan of £25,000 and the shop opened in November 2020. By spotting an area of demand and creating a business that could provide for it, Neil and Ben were able to create a thriving company at a time when many other businesses were closing down. 

Food delivery apps were something else that boomed during lockdown, an opportunity that Paul Reed and Helen Bressington of Eleven Ten Pizza made the most of. The couple had a catering trailer built in 2019, intending to sell pizza at festivals, weddings and markets, all of which got cancelled when the pandemic hit. When they realised they would have nowhere to sell their food, they signed up to Just Eat. After some time spent finding drivers to do deliveries and figuring out the logistics of how they were going to operate as a takeaway business, they soon found their feet and have developed a large customer base. By grasping an opportunity presented by the pandemic, the pair have made a huge success of their business and have now opened a thriving takeaway shop in Cardiff City Centre.

By following their passions, making use of social media, and recognising opportunities amongst all the problems of lockdown, these people have made a triumph out of a difficult situation. Necessity is the mother of invention and businesses should hold onto the important lessons learned during adverse times, even as things begin to improve.