The mother of REINVENTION

WHEN TIMES GET TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET INVENTIVE. MEET THREE QUICK THINKERS WHO, WHEN FACED WITH THE BLEAK-ONOMICS OF LOCKDOWN, DID AN ABOUT TURN

story anne schauffer pictures sally chance and supplied

While the rest of us were meditating, live streaming yoga classes, attending yet another Zoom motivational meeting, and wondering how to make one bottle of wine stretch for seven days, others were digging deep …. some to generate funds to pay staff, and others focused on their fast disappearing income. Whatever their reasons, they just did it – whether they were one man bands or fully fledged companies like Roger and Matthew Fitzsimons’ BigEye Branding group, specialising in the trade of mobile eventing equipment, advertising/marketing hardware, and point of sale across Africa. Under that umbrella, Craig Stubbs is general manager of Promobasket, which supplies branded apparel and corporate gifting to small/ medium businesses.

Craig says they saw the writing on the wall very early: “Many of our businesses involve travel and export, and these were some of the first channels that the Covid noose ensnared.”

Pre-shutdown, they ensured all staff were enabled to operate remotely, evaluated expenses, implemented cost reductions, and secured debtors payments.

“When lockdown was announced, we didn’t know what we were going to do, but our business founders have a strong entrepreneurial mindset so, as a team, we sought out opportunity. No doubt PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and sanitation/hygiene related products were going to be in demand, but whatever stock was available was mainly being traded as a commodity, not marketed to end users. We saw an opportunity – and within a few days, we settled on a full e-commerce model whereby businesses/consumers would have access to Covid-related solutions via an easy to use online shop.

“We had the Happy Hygiene website built speedily, and sourced stock. One of the core fundamentals was to have stock on hand, ready to dispatch. A few days before stock was due to arrive, we did a ‘soft launch’ to judge appetite. This stretched us to new levels. Site traffic was through the roof and orders came flooding in.”

RIGHT: Christy Snyman went from making wedding gowns to face masks. FAR RIGHT: Photographer Sally Chance used her creative skills to come up with a decor idea. BELOW: The Happy Hygiene team – keeping us safe.

Craig says they learnt more in a week than some business people learn in a lifetime: “This exponential take off would have been difficult even during normal operating circumstances, but shutdown took it to a whole new level. Staff was called on to take on totally new roles, or change thinking within their own roles. They were hugely adaptable.” He says, “Who knows, Happy Hygiene may cease to exist, but the learnings we made will never disappear.”

Christy Snyman is home-based Christy Ellen Designs, a one-woman band with three industrial sewing machines, designing and sewing exclusive outfits for weddings, matric dances, and more. When Covid-19 hit, her income ceased. Christy’s initial concern was not being able to source quality masks for her one-year-old son and husband Jared – and then, realising others must have the same problem. With some left-over fabric she sewed three masks, and posted photographs of them on her

residential estate’s WhatsApp group: “I never expected the volume of orders!” She bought more fabric, and started sewing: “In essence, I began this to help people – I only charged R25 a mask to make them really affordable.” Initially, husband Jared did all the running around, and caring for their son: “I could never have done this without him.” Then when he returned to his own work and large orders began pouring in, her sister and a friend stepped in to help.

When her fabric was finished, Christy researched, then sourced scuba fabric for her masks. Working round the clock she supplied companies, individuals, and donated to a children’s charity. It was seriously labour intensive, and eventually she bought an

I have the means and talent to help people,” and now … has invested in a vinyl cutter and is creating a new children’s clothing range

electric fabric cutter which enabled her to cut 100 masks in about 10 minutes.

Through all this, Christy has completely rethought her business. She began with the thought “I have the means and talent to help people,” and now … she has invested in a vinyl cutter, is creating a new children’s clothing range, has taught herself lino printing on to fabric, and plans on expanding Christy Ellen Designs by employing seamstresses and marketing agents to help her grow her business.

Sally Chance is a professional photographer, and with lockdown, no chance of working. Prior to this, she’d seen wooden blocks cladding a shop wall, and had a decor idea which would incorporate her own photographs. She sourced a range of different wood offcuts from a furniture factory – ash, oak, blackwood, ofram, teak, weathered wood – and created a wood- block collage. Sally transferred or printed some of her photographs on to the wood offcuts, as well as doing some pyrography – wood burning – on some of the pieces: “It was very experimental to start with,” she laughs. “It’s a very-time consuming process doing the layouts. The colours need to work next to each other, and I had to cut lots of blocks to fit the ‘puzzle’.”

Sally had an enquiry from someone who saw a sample, and wanted some of her old family photographs incorporated. It worked beautifully. From there, it’s been word of mouth, and orders are coming in steadily. Aside from customised collages, she’s planning themed collages around nature, wildlife, the sea/beach: “They’ll be great at a beach house,” she says.

Sally decided to keep the first one she made, for herself. A grin, “As a memory of the 2020 lockdown.” Not everyone wants that memory, but hers is certainly a highly collectible and attractive version of it. *