Business Impact – Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected almost all businesses globally in one way or another, including ours, a small New Zealand based local business. In this blog I would like to give you a brief insight into how it has affected Sole Shoes NZ.
For the months of February and March, we have had very few orders, only a handful. In saying that, I am extremely grateful we’re still receiving orders however I am also very weary of the fact that as the months go on and the long-term effect of Covid-19 on all will mean less and less sales until everyone recovers. This is a fact for numerous businesses around the country and the world and is extremely worrying knowing our business may not make it through this time. The uncertainty and the unknown are exceedingly troubling.
Other than the obvious effect on sales, our suppliers overseas have also closed their doors due to a global lockdown. This means the factory producing our shoes is closed until the virus is controlled. This in turn means we are not able to visit our factory, place orders for new designs or even produce the next line of styles due to be released in winter 2020. This is a massive set back i.e. no winter styles released for 2020 and will potentially impact our Spring and Summer collections also.
On the flip side, these unprecedented uncertain times have taught us as a business and world to better future plan, to ensure we’re ready for times like these and perhaps even ensuring we are always a season or two ahead so something like this doesn’t affect the businesses entire year.
These are just two of the impacts this Covid-19 pandemic has had on my small local NZ business. I can only imagine how it is affecting everyone else in similar ways, if not more. This is all miniscule in the scheme of this global crisis but nonetheless, it is something a lot of businesses are facing and going through so continuing to support these businesses is crucial. We will get through this as a country and as a people, the million-dollar question is when...