Key findings and quotes from interviews
| Theme | Example findings and quotes |
|---|---|
| Coping with Uncertainty | |
| Concern for funding/making up for losses | “[I] have lost over $2 million of revenue in an 8-week period and the government gives [me] a $47,000 check to pay for 8 weeks of revenue in the industry that everybody knows is going to rebound last.” (P5, travel agency) |
| “Our weekday revenue was down around 50%. Our weekend revenue was down about 75% but we did just open our lobby back up on the 14th of this month.” (P14, restaurant) | |
| Concern for survival of business | “So by September 1st – by Labor Day things have to be turned back around or this is going to be a very, very, very tight.” (P6, cabinet manufacturer) |
| “My business is down just over 30% since all of this has occurred. I closed the storefront on March 18 and from then up until April 15, compared to timeframe before that, the business is down 30%…” (P1, boutique) | |
| Concern for general economy | “I don’t think people realize how long in the future this is really going to affect the economy.” (P7, insurance agency) |
| “It’s just the unknown and being apprehensive about what is coming next and how long is going to last and how the affects will last. Just a little unsettling.” (P13, daycare) | |
| Assessing Resources and Strategies | |
| Taking inventory of resources | “Here’s all the tools and the resources I have, what would motivate people perhaps in the future to travel and what would help reach my internal dream or goal.” (P5, travel agency) |
| “I told myself I can’t spend any more money right now because I don’t know if I will get a return on investment so I looked at the resources I had.” (P15, digital media) | |
| Identifying resources that could be redeployed or eliminated | “I’ve done travel since I was 18 and I was thinking about maybe having a call center here at night, like maybe an after-hours answering service. I might still do that. I have to come up with something.” (P5, travel agency) |
| Participant 11 (bakery/restaurant) tried curbside pickup for a short period of time, but mentioned “We had no system in place for that so we’ve been throwing out ideas and a bunch of different ways that we can change the original business plan and what we can do to make it work as a bakery or if we need to just switch it up completely.” | |
| Identifying New Creative Opportunities | |
| Identifying changing needs of others | “We are seeing opportunities that we hadn’t been seeing and it is likely going to save our business because if we didn’t have that, depending on how long the restaurants are shut down and a majority of our business is located in an area that has been highly affected by COVID-19 we just don’t know how it will turn out.” (P3, local food wholesaler) |
| “What can we do that's going to be a good thing for people?” (P11 bakery/restaurant) | |
| Remaining relevant | “I’ve tried to be relevant and post more to social media. Trying to just get my name in people’s heads since they are spending a lot of time online.” (P4, carpentry) |
| Short-term profit/survival | “One of the things I did – is I did have time to actually sit and think about what I needed to do. Not only to survive the unknown but to also put in place the things I had wanted to do for some time.” (P15, digital media) |
| Adapting Strategies to Increase Flexibility | |
| Adapting processes | |
| New mode of delivering products to customers | Participants 1 and 3 (food wholesale company and boutique) began offering free local deliveries |
| The local food wholesaler (Participant 3) discussed restaurants that shifted their model and began doing drive-up farmers market and retail stores that sold products through restaurants or websites to try to make ends meet or have something new to draw people in | |
| Converting processes to virtual | The real estate agency owner (Participant 2) and her team no longer operated from the office every day but began having virtual calls multiple times a week as a team |
| Changing employee processes | “So I wanted to open up. And I knew we would be a lot slower, but that has given us time to work out our kinks to get faster and say ‘This is working good, that’s not. Ditch that. Change that. Fix that.’” (P12, restaurant) |
| “We only actually had three that wanted to work from home. And we were able to make that happen but it is a huge inconvenience.” (P6, cabinet manufacturer) | |
| Changing product offerings | |
| Changing demands | Participant 1 (boutique owner) shifted product offering with changing demands after noticing people weren’t purchasing the same things |
| Changing regulations | “We had a buffet and with that we had to get rid of everything: the buffet, salad bar and dessert bar. And we had to make up a menu that we thought people would like to go strictly to menu and we may never – it may be – we have no idea how long we will have to do that or if we can ever go back to a buffet.” (P12, restaurant) |
| Collaborating with other businesses | “…then also trying to collaborate with some other local business owners that I work with.” (P1, boutique) |
| Participant 3 (local food wholesaler) began to offer products of other local small businesses on their website | |
| “Trying to bring some of the businesses together because it not only is feeding people but with the money we bring in, we purchase some of the meals from a local business and it’ll be kind of at cost, but they are still going to make a little money and it is going to feed people.” (P11 bakery/restaurant) | |
| Targeting new customers | |
| Identifying new customers | “We have pivoted and changed our sales in that we looked at other areas of revenue – and that would be our private buyer side. Instead of selling to restaurants looking at the market and seeing that for several weeks [larger retail stores] and all of that – nobody had ground beef. We did. So, we began to sell to individual families. Two days a week, [we] are making local deliveries.” (P3, local food wholesaler) |
| “Hospitals are scared that the patient will contract COVID and a lot of hospitals have seized all outpatient procedures…so I’ve actually gotten contracts because I’m willing to go to the home and if a patient who has difficulty swallowing contracts aspiration pneumonia in the nursing home, it” (P10, endoscopist) | |
| Pursuing new goals | Participant 5 (travel agency owner) began working on a humanity travel program for travelers wishing to help others while in other countries, similar to mission trips |
| Creating and Strengthening Relationships | |
| With other business owners | “We reached out to other farmer’s market vendors and offered to offer their products to our customers at no additional cost to them.” (P3, local food wholesaler) |
| Participant 8 met virtually with other local preschool owners and directors to discuss actions taken to move forward stating “the whole thing has actually made us a little bit closer” | |
| Participant 5 (travel agency owner) formed coalition with other female business owners to help one another | |
| Participant 11 (bakery and café owner) worked with other local small business owners to come up with new ways to function under the new circumstances and to help the community | |
| With clients/customers | Participant 9 (property management) reached out to tenants and homeowners to discuss possible delay in payments |
| “Myself and the other owner both work in the preschool classroom so we have done recordings of us reading books on YouTube and have sent the link the kids so they can watch it of us reading different stories and things like that.” (P13, preschool) | |
| With community | “I’ve been doing a lot more social media and marketing and posting, activating a LinkedIn account. I have a Facebook business page and am getting ready to launch an Instagram page.” (P10, Endoscopist) |
| “As a team, we are doing everything we can in the community to be involved. So being a resource.” (P2, real estate) | |
| “We have donated pizzas to both hospitals – not just the doctors and nurses but the custodial staff and people you wouldn’t normally think of. We also have donated to blood drives.” (P14, restaurant) | |
| Participant 7 (insurance agent) also utilized social media to connect with the community by purchasing gift cards to local businesses and giving them away on social media | |
| Several participants discussed the local Chamber of Commerce and other community programs reaching out and providing information about financial assistance available | |
| Theme | Example findings and quotes |
|---|---|
| Concern for funding/making up for losses | “[I] have lost over $2 million of revenue in an 8-week period and the government gives [me] a $47,000 check to pay for 8 weeks of revenue in the industry that everybody knows is going to rebound last.” (P5, travel agency) |
| “Our weekday revenue was down around 50%. Our weekend revenue was down about 75% but we did just open our lobby back up on the 14th of this month.” (P14, restaurant) | |
| Concern for survival of business | “So by September 1st – by Labor Day things have to be turned back around or this is going to be a very, very, very tight.” (P6, cabinet manufacturer) |
| “My business is down just over 30% since all of this has occurred. I closed the storefront on March 18 and from then up until April 15, compared to timeframe before that, the business is down 30%…” (P1, boutique) | |
| Concern for general economy | “I don’t think people realize how long in the future this is really going to affect the economy.” (P7, insurance agency) |
| “It’s just the unknown and being apprehensive about what is coming next and how long is going to last and how the affects will last. Just a little unsettling.” (P13, daycare) | |
| Taking inventory of resources | “Here’s all the tools and the resources I have, what would motivate people perhaps in the future to travel and what would help reach my internal dream or goal.” (P5, travel agency) |
| “I told myself I can’t spend any more money right now because I don’t know if I will get a return on investment so I looked at the resources I had.” (P15, digital media) | |
| Identifying resources that could be redeployed or eliminated | “I’ve done travel since I was 18 and I was thinking about maybe having a call center here at night, like maybe an after-hours answering service. I might still do that. I have to come up with something.” (P5, travel agency) |
| Participant 11 (bakery/restaurant) tried curbside pickup for a short period of time, but mentioned “We had no system in place for that so we’ve been throwing out ideas and a bunch of different ways that we can change the original business plan and what we can do to make it work as a bakery or if we need to just switch it up completely.” | |
| Identifying changing needs of others | “We are seeing opportunities that we hadn’t been seeing and it is likely going to save our business because if we didn’t have that, depending on how long the restaurants are shut down and a majority of our business is located in an area that has been highly affected by COVID-19 we just don’t know how it will turn out.” (P3, local food wholesaler) |
| “What can we do that's going to be a good thing for people?” (P11 bakery/restaurant) | |
| Remaining relevant | “I’ve tried to be relevant and post more to social media. Trying to just get my name in people’s heads since they are spending a lot of time online.” (P4, carpentry) |
| Short-term profit/survival | “One of the things I did – is I did have time to actually sit and think about what I needed to do. Not only to survive the unknown but to also put in place the things I had wanted to do for some time.” (P15, digital media) |
| New mode of delivering products to customers | Participants 1 and 3 (food wholesale company and boutique) began offering free local deliveries |
| The local food wholesaler (Participant 3) discussed restaurants that shifted their model and began doing drive-up farmers market and retail stores that sold products through restaurants or websites to try to make ends meet or have something new to draw people in | |
| Converting processes to virtual | The real estate agency owner (Participant 2) and her team no longer operated from the office every day but began having virtual calls multiple times a week as a team |
| Changing employee processes | “So I wanted to open up. And I knew we would be a lot slower, but that has given us time to work out our kinks to get faster and say ‘This is working good, that’s not. Ditch that. Change that. Fix that.’” (P12, restaurant) |
| “We only actually had three that wanted to work from home. And we were able to make that happen but it is a huge inconvenience.” (P6, cabinet manufacturer) | |
| Changing demands | Participant 1 (boutique owner) shifted product offering with changing demands after noticing people weren’t purchasing the same things |
| Changing regulations | “We had a buffet and with that we had to get rid of everything: the buffet, salad bar and dessert bar. And we had to make up a menu that we thought people would like to go strictly to menu and we may never – it may be – we have no idea how long we will have to do that or if we can ever go back to a buffet.” (P12, restaurant) |
| Collaborating with other businesses | “…then also trying to collaborate with some other local business owners that I work with.” (P1, boutique) |
| Participant 3 (local food wholesaler) began to offer products of other local small businesses on their website | |
| “Trying to bring some of the businesses together because it not only is feeding people but with the money we bring in, we purchase some of the meals from a local business and it’ll be kind of at cost, but they are still going to make a little money and it is going to feed people.” (P11 bakery/restaurant) | |
| Identifying new customers | “We have pivoted and changed our sales in that we looked at other areas of revenue – and that would be our private buyer side. Instead of selling to restaurants looking at the market and seeing that for several weeks [larger retail stores] and all of that – nobody had ground beef. We did. So, we began to sell to individual families. Two days a week, [we] are making local deliveries.” (P3, local food wholesaler) |
| “Hospitals are scared that the patient will contract COVID and a lot of hospitals have seized all outpatient procedures…so I’ve actually gotten contracts because I’m willing to go to the home and if a patient who has difficulty swallowing contracts aspiration pneumonia in the nursing home, it” (P10, endoscopist) | |
| Pursuing new goals | Participant 5 (travel agency owner) began working on a humanity travel program for travelers wishing to help others while in other countries, similar to mission trips |
| With other business owners | “We reached out to other farmer’s market vendors and offered to offer their products to our customers at no additional cost to them.” (P3, local food wholesaler) |
| Participant 8 met virtually with other local preschool owners and directors to discuss actions taken to move forward stating “the whole thing has actually made us a little bit closer” | |
| Participant 5 (travel agency owner) formed coalition with other female business owners to help one another | |
| Participant 11 (bakery and café owner) worked with other local small business owners to come up with new ways to function under the new circumstances and to help the community | |
| With clients/customers | Participant 9 (property management) reached out to tenants and homeowners to discuss possible delay in payments |
| “Myself and the other owner both work in the preschool classroom so we have done recordings of us reading books on YouTube and have sent the link the kids so they can watch it of us reading different stories and things like that.” (P13, preschool) | |
| With community | “I’ve been doing a lot more social media and marketing and posting, activating a LinkedIn account. I have a Facebook business page and am getting ready to launch an Instagram page.” (P10, Endoscopist) |
| “As a team, we are doing everything we can in the community to be involved. So being a resource.” (P2, real estate) | |
| “We have donated pizzas to both hospitals – not just the doctors and nurses but the custodial staff and people you wouldn’t normally think of. We also have donated to blood drives.” (P14, restaurant) | |
| Participant 7 (insurance agent) also utilized social media to connect with the community by purchasing gift cards to local businesses and giving them away on social media | |
| Several participants discussed the local Chamber of Commerce and other community programs reaching out and providing information about financial assistance available | |
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