COVID-19: From Sunny Office to Home Madness

What a rollercoaster it has been for all of us...! After 8 weeks of being at our homes and shops closed, there seems to be finally some light at the end of the tunnel. Stores are slowly opening up again and we are cautiously adjusting to this 'new normal' that everyone seems to be talking about. While we cannot speak of 'the end' of COVID-19 just yet, it is clear that we find ourselves in a different phase of 'fighting this war' as the Americans like to call it.

I often catch myself wondering, how we'll think about this pandemic in one year's time? Some people experienced a sense of relieve to have a break of all social events that used to block their calendars for months in a row. Whereas for others it has been a very stressful period, frantically keeping the plates spinning and wanting things to go back to normal as quickly as possible.

For us, we are still getting our heads around the impact COVID-19. Like for many businesses, April was a disastrous month in terms of turnover. Online sales continued steadily, but as all retail shops closed we missed a big chunk of our monthly turnover. Suddenly you realise how vulnerable you are as a small business. But hey would who have guessed that a global pandemic would hit the whole world in 2020? 

I was still in Australia, when Scott Morrison announced a complete lock down. The original plan was to fly two weeks later back to Europe in order to get ready for another summer season for Sunny Cords. Within no time I was on the phone with Emirates, desperately trying to change my flights to make sure I'd still make it. It was literally throwing some clothes into a suitcase while rushing to Sydney Airport. It turned out that it was indeed one of the last flights, before everything went into lock down. Just on time to say the least...