Loyalty from an unexpected source is what kept Launceston cafe Sweetbrew from closing down during the height of the pandemic.
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Cafe owner Archana Brammall said she had always kept tabs on what was going on around the world and as such heard about coronavirus long before it hit Tasmania.
She said when it did, the virus was swift and forced Sweetbrew to go into survival mode, but they learned to adapt to what they had and be successful.
"I have always been aware of the power of social media and the importance of telling a story," she said.
"But for us, it was about survival at the beginning...often some of the greatest and kindest business ideas have come from difficult situations."
Mrs Brammall said her connection to her customers was what kept them going through the day, but the pressures of low sales were taking their toll.
She said they had to stand down staff members, who were eligible for government assistance but there were particular staff members for whom she felt responsible.
"At the time I had four Indian staff members, and it was clear that they would not be able to get any government assistance for their visa," she said.
"We, Tim and I felt, we had loyalty towards them and wanted to help them if we could."
Mrs Brammall said because she is "not a follower" she decided to try something new that Sweetbrew had never entered before - street food.
"I took the idea to them [the staff members] and said, let's make Indian street food, like our mothers taught us. They were not chefs, but we did it, and we made it work."
Mrs Brammall said her day customers began coming back at night to support their new endeavour, a move she said helped keep the business afloat during the toughest times.
"It was that emotional buy-in, they supported us during the day, and then we found they wanted to come back to support us at night too," she said.
Coronavirus has decimated many small businesses, and some won't recover, but Mrs Brammall said she would not have changed the lessons she learned during the pandemic.
"If there's one thing coronavirus has taught me, it's that we, as small business owners, we tend to lie to ourselves, about how well we are doing in business," she said.
"COVID-19 taught us that we just couldn't afford to do that anymore."
Mrs Brammall said small hospitality businesses like Sweetbrew relied on the ability of people to spend money, and the pandemic had forced her to reevaluate every part of her business.
She said they would never go to the numbers they had before, and stick to smaller sizes, living more within their means, which is why, she said, she was thankful for the pandemic.
- Mrs Brammall shared her story with the Launceston Global Shapers Group as part of its Outside the Bubble video series. Outside the Bubble is a partnership between The Examiner and the Shapers to showcase Tasmanian and international guest speakers to highlight creativity and ingenuity.