Coming Out - Effects of Coronavirus on a small business

So after stopping the Blog on day 51 of going into lockdown I am restarting it for a number of reasons. Firstly because a number of customers have asked me to and also because it is a good way of communicating with everyone and I think it helps me keep focused as well.

The reason for stopping the blog on Day 51 of lockdown was quite simple. I started the blog as I was worried about sales for contact left and I thought it would be a good marketing tool, what happened is our sales nearly doubled and it almost became embarrassing seeing so many people being put out of work, business’s closing and ultimately people dying and some customers were contacting us wishing good luck and buying stuff just to help keep a small veteran business going. I will never forget the help and support those gave. But I couldn’t continue to blog to market at that time because we were doing so well.

In the last 15 months or so to give you the quickest of explanations, after being worried we would have to shut, sales went through the roof, a lot of buckles and fabrics being sold as people were at home making things, especially Fidlock buckles. Loads of Coffee going out the door, alongside shooting targets, Modestone Paper and the ever popular AustriAlpin buckles. The Sodapup dog toys established themselves as a market leader in the states and pet products never stopped selling and just got bigger.

The above is the good but while this is going on we have the worries of covid and everything that comes along with a business, I wont go into detail as you all know exactly what I am talking about and probably been through the same if not worse. What happened is the team at Contact Left, my team really pulled together, we never closed for one day, 7 days a week we worked including Christmas day and Boxing Day. I don’t tell them enough but every last one of them have been fantastic.

Then Brexit hit and no word of a lie every penny we made with the increase in sales was literally stripped away, with the borders shutting before new year and then all the problems with tariff codes  we lost 10’s of thousands of pounds with lost parcels and returned items, this went on for months. What did come out of it was how much support the European companies we work with were willing to give us including lines of credit and business support even though the UK brought this upon ourselves. It’s worth mentioning Fidlock here again as right from the start of the pandemic they have constantly offered support and advice including weekly zoom calls (normally on a Friday evening with beer) but again Modestone, AustriAlpin and most of the trade customers we supply in Europe have been great, especially Yanniek sending us some nice beer. I could write for hours about the negative effects of Brexit but one thing is for sure it’s shown me how much our European brothers, sisters and friends havnt forgotten us.

Then as we are dealing with all this Contact Left’s founder and my business partner/mother passes away, this is after beating covid. Its something from a business point of view I should have been prepared for but I wasn’t, didn’t think it would happen. It left us like a ship without a rudder and in some ways we still are but again our suppliers rained down offers of help and support and so did our customers. This is at a time where I know just about everybody is dealing with losing somebody close, it was and is so humbling the support and help that we have been given and I have been given. Again everyone pulled together here and even though I probably have the worlds shortest temper everyone keeps coming to work and grafting like 10 men. I wont mention names as its everyone, I think I could write a full blog about how great everyone has been.

So with Marie passing I took over accounts, payroll, etc etc. I never knew how much work she actually did and my mistakes have been horrendous including paying a supplier £24000 instead of £2400 and loads of our suppliers still being nice to me when I haven’t paid them at all. After advice and persuasion I have now got help from the accountants and they have been great.

For the last 12 months we have been working on a new website which in itself should be easy but we run 2 websites from it, Contact Left and also www.cldistribution.co.uk so everything needs to be in sink. Although we are running off this platform now it is not complete, I will let everyone know when it is, but as ever please give us any feedback you have on it.

We have now started distributing YKK Zips, Duraflex/National Mouldings buckles, we are more embedded with distributing the KONG climbing gear, we are now exclusive distributors of the AustriAlpin Climbing gear in the UK, Modestone Waterproof paper is smashing it, Sodapup dog toys are getting bigger everyday. We exhibited at the Outdoor Trade Show and London Textiles Fair both a success and from a retail point of view added loads of new lines.

Right now going forward I want to thank you all for all your help, I am going to continue the blog, on a weekly basis as this will allow us to hopefully entice you to buy lots off us J, share are distribution site to shops and manufacturers . More importantly we need your ideas of what to stock and distribute, you need to tell us what we are doing wrong, how we can improve and critique us. In return we will give you a candid look at what its like for a small family run business coming out of the pandemic, an insights into the mistakes we make, the highs, the lows and the parties. Also access to discount codes and special offers. I am thinking of maybe doing a podcast?

Hopefully I have not bored you too much with this needed blog before I can start getting on to interesting stuff. I know every one of the readers here have been through trauma over the past 15 months. It won’t be an easy ride out but let’s hope things are on the up.

Thanks David

P.S The website although running on the new platform and taking sales as normal, we are still making improvements before announcing it going live.