Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - May/June 2020

26 The calm after the storm As COVID-19 affects small gift brands the world over, Charlotte Gillan from Classic Canes shares her quiet reflections on the recent crisis, and, most importantly, how it could be better for business in the long run Classic Canes is a 38-year-old family business. When I was a little girl, my parents founded it and ran it on their own for some years, until it was viable to employ people to help in the packing department and in the office. The coronavirus crisis seems to have brought us full circle. Until COVID-19 made it necessary to furlough all the employees, I had lots of help in the office, finance department and the warehouse. At the time of writing I am doing it all almost by myself. Our financial controller is helping me untangle the financial chaos, and my mother, who is 72, is helping with the packing of the orders. This takes her back to the old days and has made her feel very useful at a time when so many people are feeling so under-utilised. My parents’ house and Classic Canes are on the same site, so I can put packing notes in the warehouse for her, beat a retreat, and then she can come in to pack them, without anyone breaking their isolation. On Thursday 19 th March it became obvious that the incoming orders had all but dried up. We pored over cashflow forecasts, feeling steadily grimmer as it became obvious that even the one showing a 90 percent drop in sales was wildly optimistic. The next few days were a whirl of laying off the employees, paying all the suppliers, and making sure I had all the passwords and instructions I needed to take over everyone else’s work. The bank manager informed me that we weren’t eligible for the interest-free loans the chancellor has promised: banks don’t have to give them if they feel the company in question can support an interest-bearing loan or overdraft. We can for the moment, but for how long? In any case, our bank, a well- known Scandinavian bank that caters to SMEs, is not affiliated to the scheme so we would not be able to access the funding anyway. Needless to say, I was pretty cross that night. Positive future However, by the following Wednesday, all the employees were at home and I came into work to the novel experience of a silent workplace. After a few minutes I decided I rather liked it. You can get a lot of work done with no interruptions and the sun was shining brightly. I felt myself starting to relax after the strain of the last few days. I opened the smart chocolate biscuits that we usually save for visitors and sat down to make myself a list of my daily tasks. A couple of orders came in and I did all the administration and