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.

Steffie Tomson

Covid has made our model even stronger. Women have historically tolerated pain for beautiful shoes, and to some extent we still do. But for day-to-day, day-to-night regular wear, women remember the daily Covid comfort of sneakers and slippers. We just don’t have patience for what the fashion footwear industry has to offer anymore. Read more>>

Audrey Gebhardt

Originally, we were a large scale catering company making enormous charcuterie boards for corporate events and weddings. Pretty much overnight it seemed like that disappeared, we had dozen of emails in our inbox cancelling events. We sat tight for a few weeks and then decided to turn our home into a micro wedding venue, realizing how many displaced couples there were that still wanted a special wedding experience. We ran that for two years (@treehauscolorado) and will be either closing that down this year to focus on the catering business that has come back to life via our new restaurant, or moving it to a different location that’s larger! Read more>>

Ciceley & Cynthia Miles

The way Covid impacted our business model was it changed the way we saw physical offering services for our clients. Being we were out of work for a little over a month with no pay, we realized what if something else happened that permanently kept us from doing what e love. What would we do to make money without having to really “work.” This idea allowed us to bring storm ideas on just how we could make money and other streams off income with working in the salon or not at all. Covid was definitely an eye opener to get creative and think Outside of the box. Read more>>

Janylle Radden

Covid had a major impact on our business model. We work directly with restaurants to bring food allergy and dietary restriction information to consumers. Without a doubt, the hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. Many were forced to close their doors and pivot on their offerings. With so much uncertainty with regard to the recovery of restaurant revenue, we placed a temporary halt on payments, offering restaurants to join MenuMD for free so they could still benefit from being featured on our platform without having to worry about when they may fully recover. Read more>>

Nikolas Kennedy

Working for an environmental non-profit that is focused on in-person group engagement, the rise of the pandemic completely changed the way we operate. As of late 2019, I organized and led large public cleanup events around the region and welcomed 100+ volunteers to divert litter from the environment. Read more>>

Marlie Wuntch.

It was January 2020 and our year was BOOKED at Let’s Pardi! Three months later a pandemic rocked our world and we had to put the Pardi on hold. Events were postponed or completely cancelled and we were quarantined for the foreseeable future. It was a big blow to the event planning industry and times were definitely hard. Read more>>

LAUREN MONITZ

I had the foresight to see pretty quickly I was going to be grounded for awhile with the shutdown. Since I couldn’t travel to clients to do campaigns, I pivoted to focus more on social media and content management and things I could do remotely. But with budgets being slashed and many in the industry losing their jobs, I ended up actually taking a job in-house with one of my clients and moving from Denver to Deep South Texas to have a little more stability and more of a safety net. Read more>>

Mac Magalindan

When COVID first started, I took on an initiative to giveback to the Medical Frontline by donating 10lb brisket to my family and friends that work in hospitals as nurses and doctors. I felt like was my way to show my appreciation to them as they work tirelessly to treat people around the clock. This led me to MEATING new people and the word-of-mouth referrals came in bigger waves. Read more>>

Ja’Quetta Webber

Covid has changed DazzleLynn Moments in a huge way! We still have been blessed to be able to provide event decor, setups in driveways and convert to drive by events and we even offer DazzleLynn Party In A Box. Party in a box is the Same custom Decor but can be Picked Up, Delivered, or shipped and you are able to setup yourself. Still has same custom features being able to customize it any way you want for your event, Covid has allowed us to spend more time on branding and creating content for advertising and engaging with some of our amazing supporters while being in Quarantine. It helped create connections without having to be in person and we love it! Read more>>