Update : Melissa's Latest At Big On Shoes

There were so many things that hit hard as a small business owner back when Covid first started and I think over the initial few months things found a new normal. For us we have been so very lucky that even though we have been hit and found a major loss in customers due to the Covid impacts around Australia, we have been able to continue to trade and keep most of our team as we go through this journey.

The biggest and hardest impact for us was closing our Mackay store last year at Christmas but the harsh honesty of that decision was it saved us and allowed us to still be here today. Being based in regional QLD there has definitely been some major benefits for us with only a small lockdown at the very start and some small impacts on staff when they have returned from holidays.

Our shoe buying trips now involve lots of zoom calls and Facetime to checkout the range and every now and then we score with a rep visit or being able to meet reps in Brisbane to see the ranges. Out of everything the biggest impact for us has been the impact on the on going development of our in-house brand Jacob and Therese. Katie and I literally got back from China the same week as Covid just started to make the international news and must admit there was a few nervous weeks as we watched it all unfold. Since then we have continued to work to develop our range and have had our 2020 Summer collection hit it out of the ballpark and have just received our Winter collection for 2021.

I think every industry is currently feeling the impacts of freight and logistics as the world comes to cope with the major international changes in this space as well as continual lockdowns. For us this meant the town our collection was to be shipped from was in lockdown for a long period, then there was the backlog of freight to get out, then some short delays once they landed in Australia but they are here.

This week I was part of a series of interviews for GW3 (Our local economic development agency for our region) and I was asked the question how technology has allowed you to continue to develop your business and I think putting a shoe collection together without being able to travel there has been the best example of the changes in this space. We have used WeChat, sent emails, we have called and messaged our factory directly during this time to make sure it was all on track. We have worked with the 'on ground team' to source the right leathers for us and then chatted through every decision on video calls.

While we could not physically be there, we have still virtually been there every step of the way and logistics beside we have just had our best collection land to date that has achieved everything we set out to achieve along the way. Now to finalise the last bits of our Summer Collection (also a little delayed) but in the grand scheme of things it is the new normal and we are just rolling with it.