We’ve all seen the widely varying differences in how families and businesses are experiencing lockdown and COVID-19, wherever they are in the country and however their life used to be.
Local Worcestershire business woman, Sarah Watmore, has, like many of us been on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. “My brand, Miss Milly, reaches its eighth birthday this week and a 99% drop in sales is not how I was expecting to celebrate,” she says wryly. “I was in fact headed for my best year yet, due to hit record turnover come the end of my financial year on 31 May.”
Miss Milly is an established supplier of jewellery and accessories to retailers throughout the UK, from gift shops and clothing boutiques to garden centres and visitor attractions. Summed up, all the non-essential shops that have been forced to close.
“We launched our Spring/Summer collection in February and were expecting extra stock in March to fulfil a bumper crop of orders. But lockdown arrived just before the stock and those orders have all been cancelled,” Sarah continues. “I was an absolute wreck and by the end of the first week, I was struggling to get myself out of bed in the morning. But thankfully I had my daughter with me to keep some sense of normality going.”
A tiny 1.5% of the business was direct sales to consumers via the website and Sarah started to focus on this as a means to continue getting some income whilst also chasing late payments from suppliers and hoping for government support. “Cash flow really is king,” she explains. “And with a wholesale business
it is all about balance. We buy our stock upfront and then we launch it to retailers and take their orders. We fulfil these and get most of the payments 30 days later. I’m due to launch the Autumn/Winter season in July so have already committed to that stock and am about to see a huge drop in the bank account as we pay the balances for that. And I am not eligible for grants or the self-employed income scheme.”
The only way Sarah could get financial support is to furlough herself and be paid £800/month from the government. But this means she has to mothball the business, an idea that horrifies her. “I need to come out of this raring to go if I have any chance of survival and not being able to work is not an option. When times are tough, you don’t stop marketing. The government has now launched the Bounce Back Loans and these would be a very last-minute thing for me, the idea of taking on debt with no idea of when or how we are going to come out of this is not appealing.”
So, Sarah has had to come up with new ideas to generate sales and help Miss Milly survive. The first is Letterbox Loveliness, a lockdown gifting offer. Visitors to the website at www.missmilly.co.uk/letterbox-loveliness can order an item, supply the details of the recipient and a personal message, and it will be gift-wrapped and posted in hand-decorated packaging. Delivery is free to all UK destinations.
“In those first few weeks, spending the evenings colouring in was very therapeutic,” she says. The packaging is all decorated by Sarah and 13-year-old, Milly, at their home in Hallow. “It’s amateur but cheerful and positive and hopefully brings a smile to the recipient as well as the postie.”
Miss Milly’s second initiative is a Pay It Forward campaign via Crowdfunder. “I watched a Small Business Saturday webinar about the process of selling products or services to generate cash now with the purchases fulfilled at a later date,” explains Sarah. “And I immediately thought about a jewellery party for Christmas. Last week I launched the Christmas Gifting Party, selling tickets to attend in Hallow in November if you’re fairly local or to have a treat bundle sent out at that time for yourself or as a gift.”
Nearly 40% of the target has been reached with those buying tickets saying how nice it is to have something to look forward to. The campaign runs until 25 May and you can find out more at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/christmas-gifting. Should social distancing still be in place in November, an appointment-based event will be arranged.
So where is Sarah on that emotional rollercoaster now? “It is definitely still rolling but the dips are not as bad. I have set myself a target of generating enough sales to match what I would get if I furloughed and am there or thereabouts,” she replies thankfully.
Adding, “Spending is down to the minimum I can get away with, both at home and for work, and I am still hopeful that the government might give parity to the 1.8 million of us small limited company directors to match what the self-employed are receiving whilst allowing us to continue working. The murmurs are that we may come out of lockdown at the end of May but it will take much longer than that for businesses like mine to recover. Retailers are sitting on lots of unsold stock with empty tills and the customers won’t be flooding back in straight away.
“Can I finish by asking your readers, the ones that are still gainfully employed, to please support small businesses like mine and others where you live. It’s only with the help of customers that we will get through this.”
