INNOVATION
How can small businesses respond during times of crisis? Fiona Bennett, Head of Finance and Systems at Sussex Innovation, shares a few key takeaways from an unexpected success story
SEXTECH AND TOILET ROLL During the Covid-19 pandemic, a period that brought huge financial challenges for many businesses, the sex toy industry experienced 200% sales growth worldwide. What are the key lessons that aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners can take away from this unprecedented success?
❛❛ During the
Covid-19 pandemic, the sex toy industry experienced 200% sales growth worldwide ❜❜
Most companies will instinctively consolidate and try to weather the storm during times of crisis, but in fact, this is exactly the time when small businesses most need to be brave, take risks and seize opportunities. Sometimes these opportunities are obvious – as anyone selling toilet roll or hand sanitiser in the spring of 2020 can attest – but in many cases there will also be secondary markets that emerge because of the upheaval. Earlier this year, I was part of the team behind Sussex Innovation’s TV series, Sussex Pioneers. During the filming we went around the county speaking to growing businesses with inspiring stories of innovation. I heard first-hand
Calandra Balfour (Lust!) and Emma Brown (Knude Society) in the Sussex Pioneers TV show
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from two local entrepreneurs about how a combination of different trends in the SexTech industry came together, leading to the rapid growth we saw during the pandemic. Calandra Balfour, founder of the independent high street retailer Lust!, and Emma Brown, of online women’s sexual wellness community Knude Society, pointed out how lockdown was the catalyst, accelerating a societal shift that had been gradually growing for more than a decade. In the 1990s and 2000s the conversation around sex changed, with once taboo subjects becoming more visible in popular culture. As internet access grew, those barriers were broken down even further, and the mass market was primed and ready to embrace SexTech more widely. At the same time, this conversation led to increasing awareness of the emotional and mental benefits of a more open and healthy sex life.
