Retail business thrives in the face of COVID

It’s not all doom and gloom for East Anglian businesses. Hand-drawn greeting card company, Bewilderbeest is one of the many local success stories from 2020, increasing its wholesale sales and creating a flourishing online sales network.

Bewilderbeest has done much more than survive lockdown, it has thrived and owners, Iain and Maddy attribute much of this to the expert input and guidance of their Business Coach, Phil Budd and their participation in his Business Growth Programme.

During 2020, Bewilderbeest as a business grew by more than 82%.

“When we first went into lockdown Phil organised extra sessions and was really great at helping us  stay positive and focused.” Says Iain.

“The main lessons we took from lockdown were to focus on what we could actually control and how to adapt to the situation, take our offering online. This has actually been really good for the business and we now have a busy ecommerce site as well as a successful shop on Etsy.”

Phil also encouraged Bewilderbeest to pursue building their wholesale order book and, after focusing their efforts on who to approach and how to do it, the wholesale side of the business is now ten times what it was before, despite COVID closing many shops.

As well as the support to help them pivot and navigate this last year, business coaching also gave them a multitude of useful and necessary skills to deal with the day to day running of business.

“When you first start a business there are all of these new terms and processes to think about, cash-flow projections, finances, measurables, and so on. Phil’s course has really helped us to understand how to run the business and why we need all of these processes in place.” Iain explains.

So now that they’ve completed the coaching programme, what now for Bewilderbeest?

“We are feeling so positive about the future.” Iain confirms. “As a small business, I wholeheartedly recommend getting a business coach for the extra support and guidance. We really benefited from Phil’s help to improve our perspective so that we can see our business from the outside. If you can’t do that you will just stay with the daily grind and things won’t progress the way they could.”

To find out about Iain and Maddy’s business visit www.bewilderbeest.co.uk

Business Coach Philip Budd’s 2021 Business Growth Programme is aimed at businesses who want to take their business to the next level. The next group is launching shortly. To attend one of the FREE taster sessions during February please visit https://businessgrowth.philipbudd.co.uk or call Philip directly on 07585784183