EFFECTS OF THE CORONAVIRUS ON A SMALL BUSINESS - DAY 13 (29/03/2020)

It seems like seconds ago that I was writing about the end of our busiest ever week on Friday and even though busiest it didn’t mean profitable as such but the wages were paid.

The unit opened at 0800hrs today for selecting the 2 days’ worth of orders and packing it all up, I spoke with a couple of companies that deal with military gear that may be able to help with the orders that are coming in that we don’t usually deal with

The main problem now at Contact Left is actually finding anything, last week and the week before we panic bought everything we could so the whole place is covered in boxes and it’s a struggle to find what we need. We have a 6000 square foot unit, half is supposed to be retail space for footfall customers but we never get many anyway and it’s just piled high with boxes and some rolls of fabric I bought a while ago.

If I was to plan for this week I would say that we will sort out all the boxes of stuff work on the stock management software, try and get listed some of the stuff that is not visible online.

We still want your ideas on any items that you think we should stock or make, the face masks are doing okay but due to half the staff being off there isn’t really anyone to reroll to make them so although they are listed online and selling we would struggle if we were to sell hundreds in a day. I still have one item that we have made from an idea that a reader of the blog has put forward we just need to fine tune this and advertise. Initially I thought on starting the blog sales would completely dry up as people would all be at home and not buying and we would struggle to keep staff employed, but although sales have slowed they haven’t completely dried up and staff are off anyway due to various reasons, thankfully no confirmed coronavirus cases.

I really don’t know what this week will bring to Contact Left but I will be surprised if its not interesting.

Take Care and Stay Safe David