The pandemic may have broken many things, but it did not break the resolve of our people. We have been blown away by the countless stories of small business owners, artists, creatives and folks in every profession. The resilience and the ability to pivot to survive has been beyond inspiring and below we’ve shared stories of how folks have adapted their business models and ways of operating.

Brandonn Tinner

First off, my condolences to everyone who lost there lives or loved ones due to Covid-19. Covid-19 actually slowed things down at first and allowed my to restructure my business and craft and become bigger and better. It also made business boom more as time progressed. Fortunately i don’t have to be face to face to make my Clients vision come to life and i love to satisfy all my clients and supporters any way i can. Read more>>

Judy Hoberman

My business is based on my strategic triangle-speaking, coaching and training. I use this model so I stay focused. As entrepreneurs, we tend to be shiny object people. Knowing that I have 3 important services that I provide makes me stay laser-focused on what I do. When 2020 rolled in I was really excited. My calendar was already full and I had more speaking and training on the books for the year and it was just starting. I always have a word for the year and for 2020, it was “SHIFTING”. It originally meant I was shifting into high gear…and then March 13th hit and I realized how relevant that word was going to be. Read more>>

Bridgette Jones

At the beginning of 2019, my business partner and I were prepared to start major movement in our beauty business, The Queendom Beauty Bar. We had recently purchased a bus, gained an investor, and found our contractor to move forward with the project, and then the unthinkable happened… COVID-19. COVID-19 halted the projected and caused us to lose our investor; however, instead of being defeated, my business partner and I pivoted to provide opportunities to not only our business, but other black and brown women owned beauty brands that were struggling. Read more>>

Rachel Havel

If there’s one thing we’ve all likely experienced as we’ve navigated the difficulties of covid, it’s that we’ve really gained a lot of clarity about what really matters and what doesn’t. When your world comes to a halt suddenly, and everything hits the wall, you’re left standing there looking at the mess trying to salvage pieces of what was. Parts of our lives that we lived before were completely decimated and there was no way to resurrect them, simply because our world wouldn’t allow it. So we had to wait. We could grab what we could, and hold onto hope that we would eventually get back to “normal”. Read more>>

Alexa Carlin

Before the pandemic my company, Women Empower X, was solely an event business. We hosted large conferences in select cities attracting 2-3,000 women per event. Once the pandemic hit we had to make a huge pivot because our business model was no longer feasible. While we hosted 2 virtual conferences we saw a bigger opportunity to pivot our entire model from an event business to an educational platform for women entrepreneurs, authors, and creators. Read more>>

Mary Smith

Covid has forced me to go from a full-time Paint Party business to incorporating multiple streams of income. We’ve changed our model from “DIY” to “DIY or Buy”, adding handmade decor for sale. Facebook Live Sales are a regular part of our business now. We also offer take & make kits for children and adults to create at home. Read more>>

Jason Schrampfer

JimPa’s is a family-owned restaurant and catering company in Kennesaw, GA. We had been operating as a small take-out place for 8 years with only a couple of dine-in tables. At the end of October 2019, we opened in our current location and went from 3 tables to 17 tables. Things were going great until three months later Covid shut everything down. At first we were panicking. How would we survive? How long would this last? What’s going to happen? Read more>>