EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine May 2020 | Page 25

SPONSORED BY HALIFAX HEALTH
Jeremy Craig
“The first couple of days it was on our own dime, but then
the community really stepped up,” Craig said, with donations of
money as well as bottles to put the sanitizer in and extra help.
“We had a bunch of volunteers come to help us out,” he said. “It
has been great to see, actually.”
Craig said the while the company is still selling distilled spirits,
the sanitizer is all being donated.
“We’re able to do that because of all the donations we are
getting,” he said. “We’ve been able to produce a heck of a lot more
than if we had to do it on our own.”
Craig said Copper Bottom Craft Distillery is in the hand
sanitizer business for as long as necessary – and possible.
“We’re going to do it as long as there is a need and as long as we
possibly can,” he said.
NEW BUSINESS MODEL
Over at The Bake Shop in Edgewater, the problem owner
Heather Harrison faced wasn’t coming up with a new product to
solve a new problem. For her it was coming up with a new business
model altogether.
So the southeast Volusia bakery has become an online business
offering safe and secure delivery.
“It’s basically a different kind of business,” she said. “So we
have to operate on a completely different level.”
Instead of visiting the bakery, customers go the store’s website
at thebakeshopnsb.com to place on online order.
With protocols in place for safe delivery, Harrison said the
business is gaining momentum.
“Within the first week I was making a quarter of my normal
revenue,” she said. By the end of the second week it was up
Heather Harrison
to half. And
Harrison sees
that trajectory
continuing.
“I think by the
end of this we’ll
be exceeding our
normal revenue,”
she said. “I’ve
got my fingers
crossed.”
Harrison
said she made
the decision
to change the
business model early on, after hearing customers joking about the
pandemic.
“I could hear clients were not taking it seriously,” she said. “I
cannot get sick because if I get sick, there goes my business.”
Closing to in-store customers in mid-March, a website was
quickly built and a plan for doing online deliveries was set.
The idea has worked so well, Harrison said she is going to keep
doing it, even after the pandemic threat abates and life returns to
whatever the next “normal” will be.
“I’ve found you can’t start something and then stop,” she said.
“I think this is going to change how we do things in the future
dramatically.”
For now, Harrison is focused on keeping her business afloat and
providing some bright spots for residents riding out the viral storm.
“I am very grateful that I have a job to go to and to get out of
my house every day,” she said. “I will do what I have to do and
hopefully share a little bit of comfort with other people.”
Aaron London is a reporter and columnist who has
covered business and economics for 27 years. He has
worked for newspapers in Ohio and Florida and is
also an adjunct professor of journalism at Daytona
State College.
This content is sponsored by Halifax Health. Halifax Health is on the
front lines of care in the fight against COVID-19, and is proud of the
way the business community has responded in providing items needed
for personal protection.
MAY 2020 | 19 |