Local business suffers due to COVID-19 pandemic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhpIM6qYM

 

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has not only affected the hopes of people but also some of the businesses in Windsor, too. That includes the owner of a local house maintenance business, which is struggling to stay afloat. 

People who own small businesses are facing hardships during this period because of the empty streets and fewer face-to-face interactions. The business owners are not only incurring losses but are also having a hard time paying wages.   

Nicholas Waldram, the owner of a local business Eavesafe-Gutter protection, has suspended his door-to-door sales for his business due to the COVID-19 outbreak.   

“So over 85 per cent of Eavesafe yearly sales come from door to door marketing and from trade shows local trade shows. What’s more, is 50 per cent of our yearly sales come in between the mark months of March and April,” says Waldram. “With door to door being halted and all trade shows being canceled during that time. We’re only expecting to do about 50 to 60 per cent of what our original 2020 sales goal was.” 

Although Waldram is worried about losing revenue, he also believes society must do its part to stay home and slow the spread of the virus. 

“Door-to-door marketing program was to first protect the safety of my employees and then second to protect the safety of my potential customers. I plan on keeping my door-to-door marketing campaign closed until social distancing recommendations by the federal government are relaxed. Hopefully, that’s as soon as possible,” adds Waldram. 

Ibrahim Chaudhry is an employee of Eavesafe and he’s really concerned about international students who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

“Our door-to-door operations has suffered a lot of course. The compensation, door-to-door wise, is dependent on being a door to door, right?” says Chaudry. “For the international students or for individuals who may be relying on this kind of position, it’d be very tough for them to kind of maintain their income and resources.”

Waldram has suggestions for his fellow business owners. 

“I would recommend refocusing budgets on online marketing. So, any budgets that you would have had otherwise for your physical marketing, kind of redirect those to online avenues,” he suggests. 

“I would recommend reducing crew sizes so like at Eavesafe, we’ve reduced our crew sizes to one–man crew, just to reduce interaction between employees. Additionally, I would recommend that businesses explore accepting online or remote payment methods as well. That’s giving us a lot of success as well,” recommends Waldram.

The current COVID-19 outbreak is one of the most challenging experiences in modern history for the public and businesses alike. Health experts say the only thing that we all can do is stay inside and hope for a better life.