Meet 11 Business Owners Pivoting to Survive and Thrive Amidst COVID-19

Businesses of all sizes are struggling amidst COVID-19. While some business owners are taking a step back and hoping they weather the storm, others are getting creative and pivoting to other streams of revenue, even using their talents to give back to their clients and communities. They're in the midst of an awful pandemic, forced to comply with shelter-in-place orders and other such restrictions, yet somehow still see an opportunity to take action. It's inspiring to witness this and so I really wanted to highlight some of our favorites in hopes of their stories inspiring you as well! From bakeries, to tent companies, to stationery designers, to event planners...they each have unique business models. But their commitment to their clients and the survival of their businesses beyond this pandemic remains consistent among them.

Steph B. & Co.

Your company name and what you do? 

Nook (playatnook.com, shopatnook.com, @playatnook). We make space for young families to play, learn, celebrate, and shop. Currently we operate three play spaces in the Metro DC area. 

How long you've been in business? 

We launched our Mosaic District location 1.5 years ago and we have opened at Ballston Quarter, our flagship, and most recently at Bethesda Row. 

How Coronavirus has impacted your primary business model? 

We operate spaces designed for families to gather. So the impact of the novel coronavirus on our business was early and immediate. A large differentiator for us is maintaining a very clean space and maintaining a fairly low capacity for Open Play, but regardless, we saw the impact as early as late February. We decided in early March that if our mission is to serve families, it was imperative that we closed our Open Play operations to protect the health of our broader community. So all three of our spaces have been closed since March 12th and we won't reopen until it is safe to do so.

How you've pivoted and why?

A young startup is always pivoting and at any juncture we are always coming back to our mission of supporting and celebrating families. We know that during this crisis it is our responsibility to stay home as much as possible, and that is extremely challenging for any family with young children. We immediately did a few things to continue the dialogue with our community. First, we created a digital space where you could find all the latest updates related to our COVID-19 response (link). Second, we created a platform for our wonderful staff to connect with our families who may need some childcare support at home (link). And third, we created a digital space where we could curate some resources for families to play at home that we update regularly (link). 

Then, we used our existing ecommerce platform and retail shop as our primary channel to continue serving our families through The Shop at Nook. At a time when going out to stores is not really an option, and even Amazon is lagging in deliveries of non-essentials, we realized we could really fill a need by providing a local place to order toys and play things for your kids. We also recently launched Toy Rentals of some of our larger toys that would normally be part of our play space so that you can bring home a piece of Nook for a period of time. Our team cleans and sanitizes the toys before and after rentals according to CDC guidelines. To facilitate a safe, contact-free operation, we have launched weekend Grab n Go pickups for rentals and purchases. Our families put a lot of trust in us and we take that responsibility very seriously. And at this time, that means we have had to become lay experts on disinfecting practices!

What behind-the-scenes work had to happen in order to pivot and how long did it take you to introduce your new product/service/method to the market?

Thankfully our ecommerce platform shopatnook.com has been in place since last winter, so we weren't creating something from scratch. But any significant and abrupt change still requires a lot of work on the back end. Also, we have had to make significant changes to our work streams, and reconfigure responsibilities across our team to make this all possible. Our team is small, but so multi-talented and we are grateful to have such proactive entrepreneurs on board who are able to take on new challenges.

How are you marketing the pivot?

We rely heavily on our email campaigns and social media to get the word out about our new offerings. And of course, having our digital platforms aligned on messaging has also been critical.

Your company name and what you do? 

Sweet Root Village, Event Floral Design in Alexandria, Virginia serving the DMV and beyond!

How long you've been in business?

We are coming up on ten years in business in just a few months! 

How Coronavirus has impacted your primary business model?

Being that all our business is focused around weddings and events where you almost always need more people present than the number currently allowed to gather –– VERY MUCH SO. Every event for the next 2+ months has postponed! 

How you've pivoted and why?

We are just pushing all our Spring events to the Fall currently, and using this "down time" to dive deep into our business, fine tune it, and prepare for a VERY busy fall. Some of that prep is looking like a refresh of our a la carte floral shop Simply Sweet Root which we hope will be a great option for smaller events as emerge from this pandemic. And then we had already been preparing and pushing to do a bit more by way of floral education this year, expanding our subscription platform, Patreon, to more business related content for fellow florists. And now we've been dropped heaps of dedicated time to work way ahead and really refine it! We'll take it!

We did have to immediately pivot when this whole thing broke out initially as we had heaps of flowers arriving to the studio with nowhere to go due to last minute canceled or postponed events. It would have been unbearable to see them waste away or get tossed in the trash. We thought to pass off the blooms to an awesome donation company in our area who could spread the flower love. But then it dawned on us that we could get DOUBLE use out of them by SELLING them as a donation! So we set up a drive-thru flower fundraiser (so we could be socially distinct and responsible) to sell small arrangements and see the flowers loved on, but then donate all of the proceeds to non-profits and food banks that were hustling to take care of our community. We raised about $7,000 that first day! And we got so much coverage and so much interest, we were able to work with two local wholesalers (DVFlora and Potomac Flower Wholesale) to get a whole new batch of product (graciously donated) that we could arrange and sell in a second day! We raised about $6,000 on day two! We didn't expect it all to go so far! It was totally surreal!

What behind-the-scenes work had to happen in order to pivot and how long did it take you to introduce your new product/service/method to the market?

For the fundraiser, at first, it was just a ton of chatting with our team, formulating what the best course of action was for the flowers. Then we split forces, Lauren ordering vases and to-go boxes and planning the drive-thru; Elizabeth and Hannah worked on finding a great food bank to support; Rachel worked on instagram marketing and preparations! Then we ALL worked together to design and setup the outdoor station. Complete team effort and it was a blast to work together on something we felt so good about. It took us about two and a half days from when we decided to cancel our in-house event (leaving the flowers homeless) to when we hosted the drive-thru. Super fast turnaround!

Now that it's over, we are just working on pivoting with our team to working from home and still staying connected and motivated. We are reading business books together and discussing. We are trying to do daily video calls as a team to check in. And we have been each building project lists to tackle that will further our business and make the most of this time we have been handed. We are still THANKFULLY actively booking new clients for the fall, so we are splitting up video consultations and just adjusting each day to work more efficiently together and as well as individually.

How are you marketing the pivot?

Everything so far has been on Instagram. We are just talking more, interacting more, sharing our blogging more, etc. So many people are home and so many people are craving the interaction that they can get over social media, so we are hoping to stay on top of that and be a small way people can fill that need. It feeds us too! 

Your company name and what you do?

Cotton & Reed is DC's first-ever rum distillery and cocktail bar. We distribute our rums through bars & liquor stores in DC, MD, and MA.

How long you've been in business?

Coming up on three and a half years now.

How Coronavirus has impacted your primary business model?

Our bar is closed due to Coronavirus, as are all the bars and restaurants that normally buy our products. So the market for our normal ethanol products has almost completely dried up. At the same time, there's a global shortage of ethanol-based hand sanitizer. So we, like many other distilleries around the country, have shifted the bulk of our activity over to hand sanitizer production. We're selling and donating sanitizer to healthcare companies and workers, government agencies, individuals, and just about any organization you can think of.

How you've pivoted and why? 

We started the pivot by repurposing high-proof alcohol we had on hand, preferring to use alcohol not destined for our core products, such as alcohol we made as part of experimental runs. We're now looking into buying high-proof spirits in bulk, which our distillery permit allows us to do, because as a small distillery we actually can't produce alcohol fast enough to keep up with soaring demand.

What behind-the-scenes work had to happen in order to pivot and how long did it take you to introduce your new product/service/method to the market?

In addition to alcohol, we need appropriate bottles & caps, glycerol, and hydrogen peroxide. We immediately scrambled to buy as much hydrogen peroxide and glycerol as we could get our hands on, which was not much on short notice. We had a few hundred small bottles on hand that we normally use for sales samples. We filled them all and they were gone within a week. Ever since, we've been scraping together small bottles wherever we can find them while waiting for bulk orders of our packaging and ingredients to arrive. After about a week in the sanitizer game, we just made a 100-gallon batch and are about to produce a 1000 gallon batch now that some of those supplies have arrived.

How are you marketing the pivot?

We kind of fell into a bunch of press coverage, which has driven a ton of inquiries. The sister of one of our bartenders has quite a Twitter following (shoutout @emorwee!!) and she kindly did a post about our sanitizer efforts, which then led to a segment on NPR's weekend edition among other stories. We haven't been advertising bulk sales of sanitizer, but nonetheless we have received requests for huge volumes of sanitizer from organizations around the country.

Your company name and what you do?

Scott Team International with Long & Foster Real Estate, DMV realtors 

 How long you've been in business?

Scott Team International was established 10 years ago and consists of 6 agents with a collective 43 years of experience.

How Coronavirus has impacted your primary business model?

One of the many premier things we offer our clients is Mega Open Houses. We provide catered lunch, extended open house hours and invite neighbors to come by too. We usually have groups greater than 10 come to gather and we have therefore had to cease offering these for the time being.  

How you've pivoted and why? 

In the early days of Corona, we modified by offering hand sanitizer, gloves, and closed snacks only. As the Corona situation has evolved, we started offering virtual open houses. The agent will go to the property and make him or herself available by Zoom video to answer questions, tour specific aspects of the property, etc. We already provide a virtual tour of each property too, which is helpful. Agents have also had to find new ways to help our clients and communities. Alecia delivered pizzas from Flippin Pizza, a locally owned pizza restaurant, to people in our community on a random basis. What soon became an uplifting gesture and brought smiles to a lot of faces. Our other agents then followed suit. 

What behind-the-scenes work had to happen in order to pivot and how long did it take you to introduce your new product/service/method to the market?

We reinstated our morning gratitude video calls. This provides for an opportunity for the team to remain focused on what we are grateful for in these tough times, and share ideas on how we can pay it forward to our community.  

How are you marketing the pivot?

Alecia has made a number of Live appearances on Facebook. Sometimes sharing and offering thoughts of gratitude, offering to lend a helping hand (offering to go grocery shopping for people), Instagram stories visiting another local business (the Family Room in Laytonsville) offering curbside pick-up from their shop & delivering puzzles purchased from there to kids in our network. 

Your company name and what you do? 

Ever After Floral Design, we are flower storytellers. Specializing in event floral design production and educating aspiring florists. 

How long you've been in business?

April 2020 makes 13 years! 

How Coronavirus has impacted your primary business model?

Quite significantly, our business is at a halt. Most of our events from March- June have postponed their events. Luckily for us, we have only had one couple decide to cancel their event. We also have had to temporarily let go of our team. 

How you've pivoted and why?

Yes! We are making lemonade over here. Although this is a great time to reflect this is also a great time to get on your feet and get to work. How often do you have enough time to do whatever you want? Sitting around and waiting this out is not an option for us. Being productive helps to keep our business healthy, our audience engaged and offers another revenue stream. We made a list of the most requested offerings we don't usually have time for. The first one that came to mind was workshops. I knew that getting a group of people together was out of the question so I decided on doing something virtual. Using Instagram as my platform has helped not only advertise my workshops but engage others to interact, learn and sign up for upcoming classes.

What behind-the-scenes work had to happen in order to pivot and how long did it take you to introduce your new product/service/method to the market?

First, I needed to figure out if I could still get the product I needed. Secondly, I needed to organize logistics. Keeping up with the ever-changing government restrictions and the CDC's guidelines has been challenging. Lastly, I needed to brand this extension of my business, build the market place online and build the audience.

How are you marketing the pivot? 

I have only ever paid for ads or online marketing a handful of times years ago. I don't pay for Instagram or facebook ads and I only use an email marketing service that I use only my organic subscribers for. I think it's important to reach your organic audience first when you are building an extension of your brand. Marketing in a mass way can seem in disingenuous. We want to build trust and loyalty with our existing audience. As we continue to grow our Virtual Workshops we begin slowly advertising.  

Magnolia Bluebird

Magnolia Bluebird design + events 

We plan and design weddings, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, corporate and social celebrations.

How long you've been in business? 

9 years

How Coronavirus has impacted your primary business model? 

In general our business model has stayed the same. We have however; had to shift ten events that were taking place between March 21st and May 23rd to dates later this year or early Spring 2021. We also just recently moved into our new studio and office space which was working very well for the growth of our team. We’ve had to close the office for the time being and learn to lean more on technology for meetings, and interaction. 

How you've pivoted and why?

With closures and shutdowns our events couldn’t physically take place. We’ve had to focus all of our attention on the immediate triage of checking dates, availability and shifting over 225 contracts. During all of this we are staying on top of the shifting doors that seem to be closing and opening regarding rules, regulations, mandates and recommendations. We are also actively keeping our clients up to speed with the information we have as it continues to evolve. 

What behind-the-scenes work had to happen in order to pivot and how long did it take you to introduce your new product/service/method to the market?

We are actually still in the thick of it. Every day is different, every hour is different. One minute we can feel on top of it and then a state may close and we are back to triage. There are so many moving parts for each and every one of our events that it is hard to articulate just how much we are doing behind the scenes. There are also so many layers to each piece that we can spend a whole day just fixing one piece to the massive puzzle.  

 The process so far seems to be: 

- assess the date 

- notify all vendors of postponement

- check new dates with the venue, entertainment, photographer 

- confirm matches 

- review contracts; understand legal ramifications; check “policies” Or concessions versus signed agreements; discuss with vendors and clients 

- confirm the movement of the date 

- request all contract amendments with updated date; contract notes 

- adjust budgets, payment timelines, production timelines, deadlines 

- have contracts mutually executed 

How are you marketing the pivot? 

That is actually an interesting question. With all of the movement happening it has actually created a significant amount of scarcity for the Fall/Spring. We have reached out to outstanding clients to let them know, particularly if they have significant dates. We’ve confirmed three new clients in the last few weeks. We still strongly encourage our clients to move forward. 

Party Plus Tents + Events

Company name: 

Party Plus Tents + Events

How long in business: 

26 Years.

How Coronavirus has impacted your primary business model?

COVID-19 has literally stopped our Party + Rental Business in its tracks!

How you've pivoted and why?

We have pivoted by using our tents for drive-thru testing stations, walk-in testing stations, and triage tents. Why? To help keep the lights on in our small business and help keep our work family working and providing for their families.

What behind-the-scenes work had to happen to pivot and how long did it take you to introduce your new product/service/method to the market?

It did not take long to pivot as we have the items in our inventory, it is just a matter of thinking outside of the box and utilizing the items in another fashion.

How are you marketing the pivot?

Any way possible. I spent 4 hours today emailing every newsroom of every single newspaper in the Tri-State area. We have called every hospital, emailed every government agency from The Presidents’ Office, The Governor's Office, FEMA, MEMA, CDC, WHO, all the way down to small local organizations. Scouring every article, finding the reporter and emailing the reporter. We just started marking to local restaurants, pubs, and bars to help them have a curbside drive-thru. 

Heirloom DC

Company name: 

Heirloom DC. We're a creative catering company that crafts yummy thoughtful menus for special events that are stylish, delicious and beautiful. All personalized and custom-tailored to each client's vision, tastes and style overall. We love to think of it as a cohesive experience, between the food, decor, and presentation.

How long in business: 

Since April 2015! (Marigold & Grey did our welcome packets for our launch party!) Since then, we’ve grown exponentially, but wisely, keeping overhead as low as possible given the requirements of running a successful catering operation for high-level corporate events and luxury weddings. 

How Coronavirus has impacted your primary business model?

Stage 5, Code Red. It’s crazy how you can go from thriving & growing at an increasing rate to quite nearly obliterated overnight. The business of gathering people has become obsolete (for the time being) so all current Spring/Summer events have been canceled or rescheduled to 6 - 12 months in the future. With current inquiries at near non-existence; where we had dozens of qualified prospects coming in per day. We built that! As a business that books future events, deposits maintain your overhead and operating funds, so without those, you're in deep waters. With having always been about process and maintaining good profit, we are generally in good shape but when nature comes through and just creates a complete void in your industry, it's rough. Really rough.

How you've pivoted and why?

We immediately switched gears and have focused on making a positive impact by creating elevated yet comfortable menus for meal delivery to people’s homes. Essentially food people love, are nutritionally dense but delicious & artisan delivered safely to your front door. We have three main goals; to ease the overall mental and physical load. We are encouraging people who can swing it to gift a week to a hospital, healthcare professional, teacher or someone in need. Second, to keep our core employees working in a safe environment and help them remain productive & happy. And finally, to use a portion of these meal sales to purchase groceries for the hourly employees who have been severely impacted. The people who rely on each paycheck and are completely out of work.They are the foundation of our businesses and we are more than obligated to take care of them. 

We've heard from many of the families and couples using the service that it's helped so much and that they love the food! Which really makes us feel good.

What behind-the-scenes work had to happen to pivot and how long did it take you to introduce your new product/service/method to the market?

Additional products and equipment to put in place including:

-extra sanitary measures

-specialty orders from vendors to help cut costs and help our core suppliers gain some revenue

-lots of handpicking (with fresh gloves of course) of specific ingredients

-additional airflow systems to increase oxygen flow

-extra high-temperature measures of cleaning/sanitizing hand towels

among many others!

How are you marketing the pivot?

Washingtonian wrote an article, Instagram stories, Facebook Ads, Collaboration with Event Industry Colleagues who are helping spread the word, etc. Neighborhood/Community Groups. I live in Willowsford and posted it to our group of about 4k people and got a lot of great responses. Facebook & Insta ads. So far so good and we are incredibly grateful to everyone sharing this to their own social channels. We’re all in this together!

While we're on the topic, and considering I'm a business owner too, I figured I'll take time to answer these questions along with everyone else! Remaining positive and innovative during a crisis is one of the most important things you can do to survive something like this, whether it be a pandemic, a natural disaster, or any other type of setback. We learned some pretty important lessons back when we had our building fire and flood and I'm definitely applying them to this crisis just six months later.

Marigold & Grey

Company name: 

Marigold & Grey

How long in business: 

5 years

How Coronavirus has impacted your primary business model?

The bulk of our revenue comes from large scale corporate events and luxury weddings requiring custom welcome gifts ordered in bulk. When events began getting canceled and postponed, our revenue came to a screeching halt! Almost overnight, we went from a bustling studio with gift production underway to almost an eerie quiet. 

How you've pivoted and why?

We first focused on reassuring out clients that we would reschedule them for later dates at no additional charge to them. At the same time, we began focusing very heavily on the other part of our business which is our e-commerce shop. In the shop, people can order ready-to-ship gifts and have them drop shipped to clients, family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues without having to order in bulk. They can simply order one at a time! By focusing on this part of the business, it's really grown this portion of revenue significantly because with people stuck at home and unable to socialize and celebrate together in person, they're now using gifting as a way to remain connected. We needed to not be ashamed to remind our existing social media audience and email list that we not only do custom gifting in bulk but that our online shop was still very much open for business. This pivot in focus has paid off and is allowing us to weather this storm for the time being.

What behind-the-scenes work had to happen to pivot and how long did it take you to introduce your new product/service/method to the market?

Since we already have an e-commerce shop and have for years, it didn't take a lot to pivot. Granted, we're working on a skeleton crew to remain fully in compliance with state and local ordinances and look out for the safety of our team and community, but we are still very much cranking out gifts as quickly as our clients are ordering them! We've come up with specific gift collections that we feel will be most useful to people in today's climate: quarantine gifts boxes, self care gift boxes, snack boxes, and even a new 'Immunity Boost' gift box we recently launched after getting inundated with requests for it. 

Aside from the online shop, we are spending time generating education content including ideas for ways people can gift even when their events are cancelled. We have several custom projects going on right now in fact, for clients who have shifted from in-person corporate conferences to virtual conferences and they're very successfully and creatively using gifting to create hype surrounding their virtual event. We love coming up with creative ways for our clients to adapt and help them remain impactful with gifting. It doesn't necessarily have to happen in-person only! Several ideas for adapting your plan for gifts if your event is canceled are right here.

How are you marketing the pivot?

First of all, don't be ashamed to reach out and let you audience know you're still in business and selling. There is absolutely no shame in doing whatever you can to keep your doors open and your employees on payroll!

We've shifted around some responsibilities internally to be able to focus more heavily on marketing. More time is spent emailing our list. More time is spent being consistent and strategic with social media. We spend time on Instagram Stories and post to our feed. We use Pinterest. More time is spent communicating with our audience and letting them know that we're here to help them gift. I take time to reach out personally to some of our regular clients to thank them for supporting us. It's all about NOT hiding from this and focusing outward rather than being fearful and focusing inward! Your business has to adapt to whatever conditions it's facing and this means that as an owner, you do too! 

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I hope you all have found this list of business owners inspiring If you've been afraid to make changes, don't worry, the changes don't have to be sweeping. You don't have to change your entire business model overnight, nor should you. But as you can see, almost all of the business owners featured in this post have made moves that allow them to continue generating revenue during this downturn and even generated some new ideas. When forced into situations like this, people often rise to the occasion and this list a prime example of this! How are YOU pivoting in your business? Let us know, we'd love to hear from you! In the meantime, hang in there! We're rooting for you!

Image Credits: 

Steph. B & Co: Rebekkah Emily Photography

Nook: Abby Jiu Photography

Sweet Root Village: Images courtesy of Sweet Root Village

Buttercream Bakeshop: Images courtesy of Buttercream Bakeshop & clients

Cotton & Reed Distillery: Maya Oren & Jordan Cotton

Scott Team International: Irene Abdou Photography & Scott Team International

Ever After Floral Design: Katie Rosado Photography, Provoke Photography, & Ever After Floral Design 

Magnolia Bluebird: Eli Turner & Geoff Chesman Visuals

Party Plus Tents + Events: Images courtesy of Party Plus Tents & Events

Heirloom: Jennifer Chase Photography, Jodi Kurt Photography, Heirloom, Renee Hollings Photography, & Angela Newton Roy Photography

Marigold & Grey: Lissa Ryan Photography