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.

Jorge Parra | Commercial and Fine Art Visual Artist

I have said in previous interviews for Voyage that my both life and work have gone through massive changes in direction, a true life alchemist, as I started my adult life as a professional with 2 university degrees in Chemistry, working in basic research in Neurochemistry and later in Electrochemistry, and I left behind that life as a scientist to become a Photographer and Visual Artist. A true transformation and reinvention, a real alchemical process. My personal and Fine Art work as a Visual artist has also been linked to transformations and reinventions, and now, with the massive paralysis introduces by the pandemics last year, and still tinting the new year with slow growth, a new set of alchemical processes, new reinventions are coming my way. Read more>>

Fernando Andrade | CKO Kickboxing Area Developer

On March 16th, 2019 we became deeply affected by the pandemic. We lost a significant amount of members, we were unable to operate at the gym for a few months and we even lost relatives due to Covid. We were not sure about the future of the economy but we were certain more than ever that our Kickboxing classes would be needed to help battle anxiety, depression and obesity. We were confident that our service was a solution to many people that couldn’t find fitness or emotional support by themselves. We were blessed to discover that our core members stayed with us through the hard times. Read more>>

Erick Pineda | Artist

Being in a band post-Covid has been a huge challenge. When the lock downs happened, we needed to pivot to an online only model. We ended up doing some live streamed festivals and those presented some technological challenges that we had to figure out. How could we play together if we weren’t in the same room? We released our album COLLIDER in March of 2021 with Lolipop Records and we could not support it with a tour or any shows. We ended up driving to L.A. and recording/filming the whole album live at the Lolipop Records studio. Read more>>

Debbie Ray | Director of Events

COVID has changed our business in many ways. The most significant I think is the level of uncertainty creating less predictable forecasting and planning. All businesses experience risk but COVID injected a day to day change in how we needed to respond to customers, our stakeholders and the government. Early on we didn’t know from one day to the next if we could be open and serve wine or if it was “to go” only, or if they could sit inside but with mask and social distancing or not at all. We closed a location that was highly depending on foot traffic because people simply weren’t getting out. If they could, we couldn’t sample wine and after 5 months, we simply had to shut down. Read more>>

Erin Jachimiak | Photographer

I didn’t want to pick a question related to Covid because well, I am so tired of talking about it. I am physically, mentally and emotionally TIRED. With that said, as a photographer of expecting mamas, the tiniest of humans and young families, the last 2 years have been a literal rollercoaster. Their safety is always of the upmost importance and having to stay up to date on the ever changing restrictions and guidelines has been challenging. We had to shut down for quite some time during 2020. That was a struggle on many levels. Read more>>

Angela Vannett | Local Coffee Shop Owner

When we began our coffee business, we were mobile and would take our trailer and our truck out around AZ to do events and catering of all kinds. After awhile of working from our garage, we were able to get into a small shop which acted as a home base for our mobile operations. In 2020 when the pandemic hit, we lost all of our events and jobs that were scheduled on our calendar. We knew we had to act fast or we would sink. We decided to park our trailer inside our shop and pop open the window for the public to come inside and order drinks.. We invested in some seating and decor to transform our workshop into a small coffee shop where we could share about the culture of Costa Rica! Read more>>

Tricia Arce | Marshmallow Maker

We were a dessert place that people came in for the experience. You’d bring in your friends and family and watch us toast a gourmet s’more for you and then you’d sit and enjoy that dessert. With COVID, being shut down for a year of in door dining and then the ongoing surges of the virus and people not really coming in and sitting in big groups the experience is almost non existent. So we had to start thinking of new ways to bring customers in without the trick and pony show. So we’ve started to refocus on our brand and trying to become more of a candy and dessert shop. We’ve now introduced cupcakes into our menu because everyone loves cake and there is always something to celebrate. Read more>>

Sherron Elise | Author and Podcaster

At the beginning of 2020 my writing career was on a fast track and I had a couple of public author appearances scheduled but it was cut short when the world shut down due to the pandemic. I no longer had the opportunity to meet new readers and promote or sell my books face-to-face. It was then that ZOOM video conferences came into dominance I had to do my best to promote and market my books through a digital space. It has its pros and cons. Video conferences allows authors to still connect with readers through virtual book club meetings and live discussions. But there is nothing like having face-to-face connections. Read more>>

Julie Gilbert Pollard | Artist – Author – Art Instructor

Covid changed the world and I’m no exception. I’ve used technology for a while of course. My first book for North Light Publications was at the beginning of that company requiring its authors to use digital images rather than film. This required new photo equipment and a learning curve which turned out to be part of my tech education, though the words “tech education” imply a much higher level of digital competence than I possess! In many ways it seems that our growing dependence on technology has been preparing us all along for this time. If I hadn’t been becoming more and more technically able, I would have been “dead in the water” when the pandemic arrived. Read more>>

Jahn Kirchoff | Chef & Entrepreneur

For 32 years we were a full service restaurant then COVID hit and everything changed. First we were open for take-out and delivery only, those components of our business were already in place thankfully. As the gradual opening began I worried for my limited staff that they would be at tables taking orders from patrons that had removed there masks(which was allowed). I implemented a new system where folks would come inside masks on and place their orders at one of 3 stations, staff also wearing masks and plexi dividers installed. They chose inside or out, placed their orders and were given silverware and a number(in a table tent) to display on their table. Read more>>

Natasha Parker | Art Instructor and Entrepreneur

Prior to Covid we had a studio space in Marietta, GA. When Covid hit we closed for a few months and reopened for two months to have a summer program. Being creative, I only used that to my ability during our downtime to restructure the way we provided our services and roll out programs that I had sitting on the back burner, or really was second, and third guessing introducing to our market. After our summer program, we decided to close our location and focus on mobile. This was the peak of our “Covid” business because most families were still quarantining, but wanted to be able to have something for their families to do. Read more>>

Diane “Sunny” Goodwin | Teacher/Tutor

Before Covid19, 100% of my tutoring was in person. After Covid19, we had to move to Zoom and Skype online tutoring, which we did seamlessly for all of our clients. We were even able to make it work for children as young ad Kindergarten and First Grade. We did find, that once the school reopened, however, parents wanted to return to in person tutoring. That being said, we are able to do online tutoring now any time a student or family member must quarantine waiting to see if they develop Covid after being exposed somewhere, or when they are at home recuperating and feel well enough to work on the computer. This way kids stay much more current with school work and do not get so behind due to isolating at home. Read more>>

Philip Vann | iFix Owner & Electronics Technician

Covid for most business has been devastating unlike our business. Our business is an essential business in many aspects. We repair smart phones, computers, electronics which are the lifeline of our society. Children that have been schooled from home their computers were in need to be in top performance we helped many parents keep their children’s ipads in top performance. We are all in need of our smart phones when a phone is dropped and a screen breaks people are frantic, we repair screens in 20 minutes or less. We have many customers that refer family and friends which is the greatest thank you that a person can give us. Read more>>

Paul Byrne | President of Razoyo, Software Development

The effect of the Wuhan SARS COV2 pandemic hit us early on. Until mid-March 2020 we all worked together in an office space and felt it gave us an advantage. Within a few days, our company had gone remote, completely remote. We left our office and moved everything that wasn’t already in the cloud to the cloud. Our employees liked the change so much that we decided to make it a permanent change. It introduced new challenges to us but also created new opportunities. The challenges included onboarding new employees. We found we had to plan for that more carefully and deliberately. We had to be more purposeful in communicating with and checking in with employees. Read more>>