Has your business done well during covid and if so what is it?

[mintich]

I was thinking about my friendship groups, and we have had quite a few redundancies, but some of my self employed friends have done well! Surprisingly the ones who have done well are businesses you would think of as luxuries.... a balloon business, an events business ( were very quick to change to virtual events), luxury biscuits.
If you have done ok during covid, what do you do?

I've been a tutor for 7 years now. Never been busier. I feel very fortunate because my husband isnt able to work

My sister in law is a tutor and she said she had a lot of requests. She had to push them on to other people as she also had 3 kids at home to home school.

Yes. We do mainly Commercial Cleaning.

We've gone from being something sites think of once they're wading through mud indoors, to something that's top of the list for the QS.

We've taken on more staff with more recruitment to come in the new year.

Yes. We are an embedded software company specialising in IoT.

Had a very quiet January and February this year which we was likely due to Brexit. Since March we have never been busier and have recently taken on another member of staff.

Our local park/playground has a Mobile
Coffee can, they have done amazingly and haven’t had to shut once .

Dh has a business that creates high end cookware/cooking equipment/kitchen bits (hard to be more specific as it's quite niche and would be outing to anyone who knew me). Normally he sells about 80-90% to the restaurant/catering industries, but it was pretty easy to switch back to selling mostly to home cooks. He hasn't had a chance to breathe since March, it's been so busy.

But, yes, you are absolutely right. There are plenty of people who are very financially comfortable who have not at all been affected by COVID (financially, I mean), many of whom have spent more time sitting in front of a computer, with less time commuting, and more time for family and leisure and those people have been doing a lot of shopping this year.

My business (childcare) not done well. We had to shut for 5 months and opened again in July with reduced numbers - fewer parents need us as their working patterns have changed, but also we have to meet the new restrictions on numbers in bubbles and can't take any new customers on.

My OH (IT) has kept working throughout, from home. As a household we've probably had a net benefit, despite me losing my income for half the year, from vastly reduced costs. We haven't paid for transport, holidays, days out, meals out, clubs etc.

I realise this isn't exactly what you asked, but your post did make me think about where we have been spending money differently. Our kids have both had birthdays during lockdown so we couldn't do parties or activities with their friends, but we did make a bigger deal at home - balloons. And we've been trying to spend with smaller local businesses, so little luxury bits here and there that I wouldn't normally buy.

We have a bike shop. We have never been so busy.

Not my own business but we have been saving for building work for several years. Sadly (due to covid) I came into a small inheritance in the spring that meant we could go ahead. We started looking in August and still haven't found a builder/joiner/plumber / electrician who can all fit us in before the middle of next year. They say it's a combination of backlog when they couldn't work, limited access to materials and people spending their holiday refunds on their houses. All the trades round here say they can't work enough hours to cover half the work they're being offered.

DH and I work in ecommerce. We’ve been extremely busy.

Not self employed but I am someone who has benefited financially from covid, although I’m not sure that the stress has been worth it. I work in an NHS hospital microbiology and virology lab. Since we started testing for covid earlier in the year, we’ve been stretched so thin trying to do as much a possible and meet government targets while also providing a good service. I’ve racked up plenty of overtime and worked more weekends at enhanced rates. Coupled with not having much opportunity to spend a lot, it’s looking good for our bank account.

I consider myself very lucky though. I have family members who are freelancers in the entertainment industry who have found themselves with nothing and had to apply for any minimum wage jobs they can get. A family member who is a tradesperson reliant on going into people’s homes who has seen his work massively reduced (although this is also due to not being able to source materials). A friend who works in aviation engineering who has been made redundant. Despite the stress, those of us in healthcare are lucky to have the stability.

Vets surgery sold a months worth of flea treatment on the first day of lockdown. It hasn't stopped since.

Freelance writer/editor/proofreader here. Wasn't sure how it was going to go at the start of lockdown, but has turned out to be one of my busiest ever years. Most of the work is coming from the US/Australia rather than the UK though.

@sparklyfacemask we are actually about to start looking for quotes for an extension, looks like we might be waiting a while!

@kolo we also had two birthdays during lockdown and paid for decorations for the house etc but saved on what we would have spent on a birthday party. We also got afternoon tea delivered from a local business that I've never used before but have now used a few times since.