Five years since COVID: What have small businesses learned?
The first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the United States happened five years ago this month.
Businesses big and small were eventually halted by the pandemic, so they had to adapt to the new world.
Whether it getting their business online or creating new ways to connect to their customers, businesses had to do something to keep themselves afloat.
Businesses such as Ivy's Home and Garden in Chillicothe, Ohio struggled at first, according to owner Melissa Huggins, as they had just purchased the store from the original owner two years prior.
"We were scared because we had to shut our doors for fifty-six days," Huggins said. "We had to send our employees home, we couldn't have them here. But we still had bills to pay, we were new business owners and we were scared."
But Huggins said that something good came out of COVID for them, as Ivy's started selling their products online.
"We started scouring the store, we have this basement here and we had time to really clean the basement," Huggins said. "We started going through and finding all of these treasures down here that JoAnn [the previous owner] had for years and years, and they were just down in our basement."
Huggins said that they started posting the products they found on a Facebook group that they called Club Ivy's.
"We started posting what we called 'buried basement treasures' on our Club Ivy's page and we started selling them just like that," Huggins said. "We started going live with a sale on Facebook where people could see what we had in the store, and they could claim it there."
And while everything eventually reopened, Huggins said that they kept the sales on Facebook going.
"Our customers on the live sales were like 'Hey, don't stop that, we love those'," Huggins said. "So, we have been doing them now since COVID, once a week. So we are getting ready to do our 250th Ivy Shopping Network."
Other small businesses in town, such as Picture This, had to step into the 21st century and go online as well.
"Our business has changed a lot," Owner, Lynn Berry said. "It made us get online, thank goodness we have internet. When we started [the business], we didn't, I mean, not like it is now with Facebook and everything."
Berry said that she and her husband had to start doing door service, where they would go out and deliver their handmade frames to customers in their cars.
"Just like everybody, it was a struggle but we got through it," Berry said. "I don't know how but we did. I mean, every year is different — now it's the economy and the big box stores. The online store has been helpful. A lot of people that don't want to get out anymore, especially like in the winter and the cold."
Berry is thankful for her customers and how they've supported Picture This through the years.
"I wouldn't be here without them," Berry said. "Our city is amazing, how they support you and that's how I stay open. They're good friends at this point in my life, and I love meeting the new people that come in. And so business is good."