I’m writing this blog to explain how having covid affected my small business in August and September 2021. I’m starting this blog on Tuesday 31st August and I found out yesterday morning. Although super exhausted right now, it seems important to document this for future generations to understand how small business owners in the jewellery industry are affected by the corona virus.
Extremely Vulnerable Status
We conceived Lexi in December 2019 on holiday with Hakun’s family in the Faroe Islands. I had no idea how having covid affected my small business or how it would affect the world the way it has but I’m not convinced I’d have chosen to be pregnant in 2020 if I’d had any inkling. The pregnancy was straightforward but I missed a lot of the social aspects and milestones I’d had with my older two. I did pregnancy yoga on Zoom but it wasn’t the same; the kids would barge in and I wasn’t relaxed any more.
I isolated, only going out for hospital appointments. It wasn’t till after Lexi was a few months old, when I was no longer isolating I had a letter saying I was extremely vulnerable. I went back into lockdown and had my first jab within a week, not long after my mum. My husband, Haks, had his vaccination a couple of months later and we’re both fully jabbed now.
Getting Covid
I felt it was really unlikely either of us would pick up covid after having both vaccines. I went for a few days to help a friend after her baby was born and her partner went back to work. Once I got home I had a message from her telling me he’d tested positive for the virus (even though he was double jabbed) his first day back at work in a care home – I expected to get it then, but it came back negative. It wasn’t till my husband and I took the kids to London this weekend just gone that I suddenly felt ill on the train home. I did a test and when I got the second line I booked a proper home test.
How Having Covid Affected My Small Business
At the moment we’re really struggling as a family financially and emotionally. I don’t share this much but we’re currently homeless. We own a house, yes, but it’s got tenants in it which we wouldn’t evict even if we could. We literally can’t call it our home and we’re at the mercy of my mum till our house purchase completes. We’re used to having our freedom because Hakun works full time as a systems developer and making keepsake and breastmilk jewellery has always given me a fantastic income even part time. The silver lining of living with my mum is that she has Lexi for me every day. But with covid I can’t go in and my husband is too sick to work.
If I really think how having covid affected my small business, the worst part is letting my customers down. I’m pretty emotional typing this (my head hurts and I keep coughing, every time I cough I panic about my bladder!) and I’m sad that I can’t do much more than sit on the laptop. Without the energy to do a tutorial video all I can manage is a bit of SEO. Don’t forget, I still have to pay my shop bills even if I’m not there so there’s no retail therapy on the horizon.
My silver lining is Joanna, who’s shipping what she can from Norwich, on the other side of the country. You’re still welcome to order from here but you might find it faster to order from our Etsy shop here!