Self-employed during the Coronavirus.
Hey I’m essjay and I am Self-employed during the Coronavirus. I’m an entrepreneur and permanent makeup and skin aesthetic clinic owner, my days are spent treating clients every day. Even though I always stick to the highest levels of hygiene in my clinic I chose quite early on to shut my clinic, here’s why.
I first caught wind of the severity of this virus through my brother in-law who works as a paramedic in London. Like most people I was comparing it just to a flu and didn’t realise what this virus was capable of. That was until my brother in law told me a few facts.
The thought of this for everyone was going to be catastrophic not just medically but financially. For the self-employed who physically have to touch a client to earn their income………. It was not worth thinking about.
Forced to close my clinic.
Even before Boris announced businesses to close I had so many cancellations due to people having to self-isolate. I could see my income rapidly going down and was starting to feel sick to my stomach. However, I knew I had to close. I did shut my clinic quite early when Boris announced all the pub and restaurant closures, I knew I couldn’t stick to this 2-meter distancing rule. How could I do an eyebrow procedure and still stick to the guide lines.
After I announced my closure, I had nothing but positive feedback from my clients which was amazing, but how is this gonna pay my bills………… arghhhhhhhh not going to lie I was petrified.
Feeling sorry for myself.
After a few days of feeling sorry for myself and reading so much negativity for the self-employed in the media and on socials I decided I had to sort myself out. This was going to either make me or break me and my business and I was determined I was not going to be broken.
I quickly set up an office at home in my living room, I couldn’t work in my buisness but I for sure could work on my buisness. I was ready for this challenge and wanted to make sure that when the curse is lifted, I will be hitting the floor running.
What have I done so far.
I have always been very active on social media and didn’t want to stop this so I continued to offer live face book feeds in my private group #touchedbyessjay. I wanted to still be there for my clients and offer them advice on how they could treat them self at home. They have been the main part of my business for all these years, they deserved my time and efforts. I started offering video-consultation and recommendations as well as free homecare kits. I have also massively thrown my self into the digital side of the business, creating blogs, content, working on my website and planning for the future.
Time to embrace this time.
I am really embracing this time the pandemic has given me and frankly I have got so much to be doing on the digital side of my business. I don’t know if I will have enough time to do it all. If I could give any advice to other self employed businesses out there I would say. There is no point spending hours and hours getting sucked in to all the doom and gloom. You will get what your owed from the government. Dwelling on this is not going to save your business. Working on your business and taking advantage of this free time you have been given is going to save your business.
I am so excited for what the future holds with my clinic. I hope other businesses out there can take advice and inspiration from this story. Together we can make sure our businesses will be stronger on the other side.
