Small businesses across the country may have felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic the harshest. With a new national lockdown imposed last week, small businesses are in a precarious position.
On November 5th, all non-essential shops/businesses were forced to close. Many major supermarkets remained open, with some restaurants and take aways remaining open on delivery only procedures.
According to statista.com, 24.3% of businesses in all industries have been forced to close due to the pandemic, with six million of this percentage being small businesses. This leaves 16 million jobs in the small business sector under threat.
Small businesses generated 52% of the £2.2 trillion turnover last year proving to be a vital part of the countries economy.
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Below are two small Salford businesses and how they adapted to new national lockdown.
Salford Roasters
With restaurants and cafe’s having to close, business owners are starting to use various methods to promote their products. With the use of social media and other online outlets, Nik Storey has almost exclusively turned his Coffee Shop to an online service.
“We were trepidatious and nervous”, says Storey.
“We’ve made the switch in March to effectively 90% online. Prior to lockdown 90% of our business was B2B (business to business). So when these businesses had to shut down, we don’t earn any money. So we had to flip that ratio so that most of our sales go online. We’ve had to considerably develop that online presence”.
Salford Roasters is a coffee service based in Worsley, Salford.
Storey has also increase his businesses visibility a lot more through social media by promoting new products and keeping things up-to-date.
“This lockdown we’ve carried on upgrading the website. We’ve continued to put new products online, like new plastic free coffee cups and a new collaboration with SAGE home espresso machines.
“Were always up to date with the best coffee promotions and then putting through our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIN”.
Introducing our all new Single Origin – Guatemala (Finca Bremen)
Our new exquisite Organic Guatemalan coffee roasted on a medium-dark profile for the winter months.
Shop here https://t.co/INFOkCDUCr pic.twitter.com/FBkI2NvFQN
— Salford Roasters ☕️ (@SalfordRoasters) November 3, 2020
To support Salford Roasters, click here
Abbey’s Kitchen
Abbey has just recently started her own business after being furloughed in March in the initial lockdown.
However Abbey has used this to her advantage, using time to put into her business and using non-contact ways to deliver her bakery products.
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