11 November 2021
By Effie Tan and Jeevana Kalaithasan
Eight home-based business owners share their thoughts on how COVID-19 affected their businesses both positively and negatively.
PHOTO CREDIT: MAX HO, GLADYS SOAWANE, VIDHI MODI, CHELSIA GOH
Jobs were lost, hobbies were born. With an excessive amount of free time on their hands, many Singaporeans found creative ways to fill their days. One of which was starting their own business online.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, Singapore noticed 207,200 registered micro-business, up from 199,300. Why might this be so?
We talked to some home-based business owners ranging from nail salons to pet treats to get their thoughts on how COVID-19 affected their businesses.
Success despite trying times
“Success is not given. It is earned” - Unknown.
It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to run a business, and to run one successfully can be even more challenging. Despite starting a home-based business in the middle of a pandemic, both 21-year-old Vidhi Modi and 20-year-old Amy Chowdurie managed to gain a loyal customer base and grow their business into something bigger.
Vidhi Modi, the owner of a well-known jewellery store, XVXIIbyVidhi started her home-based business just as the pandemic started to worsen.
With the circuit breaker put in place, Vidhi found free time on her hands
and thought that it would be a good opportunity to start a business.
PHOTO CREDIT: VIDHI MODI
Vidhi started her business on Instagram and relied on TikTok for marketing and found that she was able to reach her customers well. She thinks that the pandemic has benefited her business as she gained more exposure with people opting for online shopping due to restrictions.
“With the pandemic, people are not going to retail outlets anymore, they prefer online shopping and as my home-based business operated online, we were able to come into the public eye.”
Despite being an online store, Vidhi still had to take extra measures for the safety of her customers.
“We had to take measures on our brand’s side when we were packaging orders, we had to ensure to sanitize both our hands and work surfaces and wear gloves wherever possible.”
With plenty of hard work and dedication over the course of a year, XVXIIbyVidhi gained tremendous success and was able to open a retail store at Haji Lane in August.
However, Vidhi faced many challenges along the way. One of which was finance. Sustaining a business with no finance was extremely difficult for Vidhi as she struggled to get customers and had very little income from the business at the start.
To overcome this, Vidhi had to work three part-time jobs while also running the business. She had to constantly re-invest the income back into the business to keep it afloat.
“I had no money in my bank. It was zero dollars. Whatever I was earning was being put back into the business.”
Vidhi also shared that to run a business, one needs to be prepared to have financial difficulties for the first few months. However, it will get better over time.
Unlike Vidhi, Amy did not have many financial issues. However, she was faced with challenges in marketing.
Being a polytechnic student meant that Amy did not have much time to put into her business, Maybeearrings. She started this online accessory store in November 2019.
In the beginning, Amy said that she was extremely inconsistent with her postings on her Instagram account and thus, could not connect with her audience well. Over time, she learnt to manage time better and could figure out who Maybeearrings was as a brand.
It also took a lot of “trial and error” to reach her audience on Instagram.
One of Maybeearring’s most popular collections included the Sesame Street collection.
PHOTO CREDIT: Amy Chowdurie
Despite marketing being a challenge for Maybeearrings and business being slow at the start, Amy managed to gain a loyal customer base and have multiple collections sell out. This would not have been possible without her perseverance and constant hard work.
“A few collections that I had stood out. The response was quite overwhelming. I had to remake a few pieces for the demand.”
However, she feels that without the pandemic, there might have been more opportunities for her to set up pop-up booths and gain more exposure.
Despite having a rough start, Vidhi and Amy now run their business with a loyal following. With insufficient customers no longer being a huge challenge for them, these businesses can focus on bringing unique and high-quality products into their stores.
Overcoming challenges through innovative solutions
Hard work, dedication and marketing are not the only things needed to make a business stand out. Innovation and creativity play a vital role in setting a business apart from its competitors. Gladys Soawane and Kesley Young are two people whose businesses did just that.
20-year old Gladys Soawane's home-based nail salon started as a hobby. During the Circuit Breaker, she felt bored at home and thought that turning her hobby into a business would be a great idea. That was how ShapedbyGladys was born.
What sets ShapedbyGladys apart from other nail salons is that Gladys offers a mobile service where she goes to her client’s house to do their nails. This was extremely effective as many people chose to stay home due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
Gladys first started her hobby when phase 2 kicked in and she could not go to her usual salon to get her nails done, so she decided to try doing it herself.
PHOTO CREDIT: GLADYS SOAWANE
To protect herself and her clients, Gladys takes extra precautions when providing her services. These include frequent washing of hands and sanitization of tools.
“It (taking extra precautions) was a priority for me as sometimes I have to reuse the tools and sometimes I have back to back clients. Also, making sure that my clients have their masks on at all times.”
ShapedbyGladys offers both manicure and pedicure services.
PHOTO CREDIT: JEEVANA KALAITHASAN
Gladys thinks that the pandemic has benefited her business. With not many other nail salons providing a mobile service, ShapedbyGladys stood out, making it a top choice for many.
She added: “I go over to my client’s houses and 70% of my clients really like that, especially those who have to work from home and I don't think it would be as popular if the pandemic wasn't around.”
Similar to ShapedbyGladys, thekes.co also offers unique services that make the business stand out.
As an avid manicure fan, 19-year-old Kesley Young, started her home-based nail salon, thekes.co in 2020. She has always found nail salons to be overpriced despite having mediocre services. Hence, she started a home-based nail salon in hopes to provide affordable manicure services while earning some side income.
Her business was initially stable until more COVID-19 restrictions rolled out. As more people stayed home during phase 1, Kesley had fewer customers than before. She then had to find a way to save her business.
She made press on nails (artificial nails which are applied onto the natural nails with glue) which were then mailed to her clients.
“With Phase 2, Phase 3 and then the Heightened Alerts, it became very hard for customers to come down. Everything became press on,” Kesley shared.
Adapting to the COVID-19 restrictions, it is almost impossible for Kesley to provide face-to-face manicure services. PHOTO CREDIT: KESLEY YOUNG
Furthermore, customers grew more cautious about their safety and were emphasising on the additional sanitisation of the products.
When customers enter her house, Kesley would provide hand sanitisers for them to use and have them keep their masks on at all times.
Kesley added: “I’ll have them wash their hands and feet before going to the nail station. All my equipment like nail files and everything, I’ll have them washed and cleaned before any customers come to my place.”
Both Gladys and Kesly found hygiene to be extremely vital during this period. They put in extra effort in caring for their customer’s health and safety while evolving their business into something that stands out.
Securing finance for the future
Just like everyone else who is in a sea of struggles, both Max Ho and Mohammad Amir Bin Abdullah were attempting to find jobs during the pandemic.
Back in October, former National Serviceman Max and his friends were discussing their post-National Service plans.
“I was looking for some jobs but because of covid, job opportunities were quite limited,” Max recalled.
With an interest in baking, Max resorted to a temporary bakery business, oozebakery.sg, offering yummy burnt cheesecakes.
Insufficient job opportunities also affected 22-year-old Amir.
He started his home-based business as a film camera and servicing store owner after covid affected his part-time job. As he comes from a lower socio-economic background, he needed to look for more ways to earn money, thus he began WinkWonkCameras.
The business wasn’t always smooth sailing for Amir but he had to press on and overcome the obstacles to earn some income. This was when he felt that his store would have been more successful if not for COVID-19.
“Without covid, I think my business would be able to gain more exposure. There would be more people going out and taking pictures and there would be more demand for my services.”
For a good cause
Ever since the pandemic hit, most people started using social media platforms as an outlet to support themselves financially, but things were different for Chelsia Goh and Natalie Ee. In fact, both of them used these platforms to set up their businesses in the midst of the pandemic, with initiatives to do good for the community.
What started off as a food case competition for 21-year-old Chelsia Goh and her team turned into a unique and creative home-based business.
Starting pawfoo.co in August this year, Chelsia upcycles surplus ingredients from local food manufacturers and transforms them into a variety of pet treats.
Pawfoo.co’s meaningful initiative is to reduce the food waste problem in Singapore.
PHOTO CREDIT: CHELSIA GOH
However, COVID-19 made it challenging for her team to promote and push their products to consumers because of the lack of exposure.
“We can’t have roadshows so we can’t go out and meet people to push our products. We were really sort of forced to be creative with digital marketing only.”
Furthermore, Chelsia’s team was relatively inexperienced in digital marketing hence they had to draft campaign strategies through trial and error.
Chelsia imagined more roadshows and opportunities to communicate with the public about pawfoo.co’s pet treats without the pandemic.
She added: “Maybe it’s even more possible to find our first few customers because you’re able to build trust with your consumers in real life as compared to just online marketing.”
On the other hand, 19-year-old Natalie Ee started her own social enterprise with an initiative to raise funds for the migrant workers who were affected by the pandemic.
Ever since she began her mini business, ungliestrings on Instagram in June 2021, Natalie has been designing and selling a myriad of arts and crafts products such as clay rings, coasters, accessories and more.
Natalie’s products revolve around customisable and personalised designs which she felt would be more meaningful to her customers.
PHOTO CREDIT: NATLIE EE
However, setting up ugliestrings to earn some cash was not at all Natalie’s priority.
“I started this (business) because I saw in the newspapers that there’s this problem about the migrant workers and their working conditions. This wouldn’t have happened if not for the pandemic. In a way, the pandemic was both a blessing and curse, depending on how you look at it,” Natalie shared.
With 50 per cent of all proceeds going toward the migrant workers, Natalie plans to give her best and continue raising funds for them as the pandemic transitions.
Many of us may associate the pandemic with misfortune but others look at it as an opportunity and make use of it to start up a home-based business.
Due to the advent of social media, home-based businesses are starting to increase and grow throughout the pandemic. More and more functions on social media including the hashtags #supportlocal and #supportsmallbusiness are widely used among the community, allowing light to be shed on home-based businesses.
With continuous support, there is no doubt that home-based businesses in Singapore will flourish.
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