This interview was conducted with Lauren Dunne, co-founder & CEO of D.C.-based Varnish Lane.

Founded in 2014 by Lauren and her mother, Varnish Lane became one of the first nail salons in the United States to go completely waterless, creating a completely new standard for health practices in the beauty industry. By removing water from the cosmetic process for pedicures or manicures, Varnish Lane has been able to significantly reduce the risk of disease transmission as well as cut back on harmful chemicals that may wash out during the polish process. Lauren and her team exclusively use more natural products that achieve longer lasting results for clients, requiring fewer trips to the salon and fewer harsh chemicals.

In addition to their innovative approach to cosmetics, Varnish Lane has developed a loyal fan base in Washington due to their well-designed interiors, curated customer service, and overall top-notch client experience. Their popularity has resulted in recognition by multiple publications in the region, and a lengthy waitlist to get a seat at one of their three salon locations.

COVID has completely disrupted the retail cosmetics world forcing the closure of almost all salons. The direct contact between client and technician required to deliver services begs the question: how can salons and spas reopen, yet still meet CDC guidelines on social distancing?

This interview provides a personal perspective on Lauren’s life before the pandemic hit, her experience weathering the challenges of COVID, and her continued fight to open Varnish Lane’s doors once again.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

My name is Lauren Dunne, and my business is Varnish Lane.

Describe what your business was like before Covid-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

We're a waterless nail shop that provides services in a beautifully designed space, and elevates the standards for nail care. We have three locations. In the DC area: we have Friendship Heights, West End and Mount Vernon Triangle. On any given day we're doing hundreds of nail care services across our three locations. Clients also use our space for community gatherings, renting out the space for bridal showers, baby showers, and birthdays. It's a relaxing space for nails but it's also used to catch up with friends or co-workers.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened?

I remember hearing about it across the globe and it didn't even cross my mind that it would affect my business.

It's definitely worth noting that Varnish Lane is a business that prioritizes sanitation and cleanliness - which kind of goes against the nail industry’s typical stigma for being unhealthy or transmitting diseases. Our whole business model is focused around creating a really safe, clean, healthy place. This actually is something that we're naturally used to dealing with. We sent out an email right when this all started, even before cases really hit D.C., just letting clients know that we would be extra cautious, and we got N95 masks for our nail technicians and put hand sanitizer everywhere.

The first thing we did was run out and get a bunch of extra cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer. We're used to going overboard on sanitizing, we have a hospital grade autoclave for all of our instruments. Sanitation is part of our daily routine and our clients know that as well. The decision to close happened really quickly, within the span of a week. At the beginning of the week, we had no idea we would close by the end of the week, but within two days we made the decision to close - right before the government shutdown.

We felt that for the safety of our clients and staff, the best thing would be to close.

‍When this all started, we thought, “Two weeks, three weeks, we'll be back and over it.” At the time I don't think any one of us in a million years would have guessed that we would be in this position three months later, still closed. We closed  before the stay at home order was put in place. It was interesting business-wise up until we closed. People slowly stopped going to restaurants, but in our case, we actually saw a huge swell of people trying to get in because they were like, “This will be my last pedicure for who knows how long!”

Up until the very last day before we closed we were 100% booked. We were super busy, and then boom, we closed.

How has your assessment of the potential impact on your business changed over time as this situation has unfolded?

I don't think we could have ever anticipated being closed for three months, and it still really feels surreal. In that sense, my initial assessment of what was going to happen is wildly different. And I also never imagined sort of planning to reopen in such a methodical way. I don't know why I thought, “Okay, this happened, we closed and then we'll just reopen.”

I didn’t anticipate all of the new procedures that will be put in place and what we would have to do in order to reopen. I think there are still a lot of unknowns as far as the full impact, like not being able to host events and clients not sitting right next to each other. It's really hard to tell how long that will persist and it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Definitely my initial assessment has changed drastically as far as where we are today.

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period?

I actually founded Varnish Lane with my mom, which is amazing. It's definitely a family business and we've had each other to lean on throughout this.  I live really close to my parents and having that family support, every day, it’s been huge. We've been amping up our e-commerce sales by shipping at-home manicure kits. My dad goes out to ship them every afternoon, and it's really been all hands on deck - I've even had my little sister help with putting boxes together. It’s been fun to do that together as a family.

As far as the other resources go, we did receive a PPP loan in the first round, right at the beginning of April, which has been a huge relief for our staff. We also received a grant from D.C. and a few others I applied for. I was very careful to make sure I knew what all was out there. I tried anything and everything.

Before we knew that PPP was going to be an option, we hosted a GoFundMe for our staff. Unlike a restaurant, we can’t offer takeout, we're not able to perform any kind of services.

We have a team of over 50 amazing women, who can’t do any kind of work now and they have always been our top priority.

We've also had an amazing financial agency partner called Stage 1 Financial. They've been a huge help for managing cash flow, modeling out what the future is going to look like at a lower capacity, making sure that we're analyzing what the financials are going to look like moving forward, and navigating the government programs which, to be honest, have been very confusing and hard to figure out.

What resources are missing?

More clarity from our government would be great - I think everyone would appreciate that. I understand this is the kind of thing no one has ever experienced before, but the entire PPP process was really stressful and confusing for a lot of people. The whole time I was applying for it I was thinking about all of the other people that may not have had the resources I had to help navigate it all, and how they were able to get through it.

I wish there had been more guidance and more support, especially from the larger banks.

I was fortunate to have a helpful banker from a small bank, but that was not the norm and I just don't think the loans were handled well for a lot of people. In general I wish there had been more support for small businesses. I would have loved to see more resources for specifically minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

How has this experience changed Varnish Lane as a business?

At its core, Varnish Lane is an experiential brand. We're a nail salon, but at the end of the day, we're selling the experience and how clients feel when they're in the shop.

Before this, our focus was creating a really beautiful space for clients to relax, unplug, and socialize with friends. Not being able to have our clients in the shop or see them in person has been a complete 180 for our business model.

We've really had to shift to engaging with our customers in other ways. The first thing we did was creating these ‘at-home manicure kits’. They are custom kits made from surplus supplies from our shops. Our clients basically email what they want in the kit, we build them and ship them out. We actually had a ton of people send kits to their mom for Mother's Day. That's been a way to send a little bit of Varnish Lane to clients at home. They can still use the product and feel like they're connected to us.

The other thing is really ramping up our online dialogue with our consumers. We started coming up with creative ways to stay connected to our client base - doing manicure and nail art tutorials on our Instagram.

While we can't see them in person, we’re figuring out how to give our clients a piece of Varnish Lane while they're at home.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

Our staff has been the number one concern because they haven't been able to work at all. We have a team of 50 women and a lot of our time during this period has been spent on how we can support them.

PPP was a huge relief, but we need to reopen soon because that money only gets us through the end of May, and then that's it.

The other frustrating thing is that right before this all started, we were heading into our busy season. We were doing really well and were outperforming our financial targets. Varnish Lane was planning to leverage the massive growth we’ve experienced, which didn’t happen overnight. It took years of tiny steps to get to that point. We were even planning our next location. So for all of that to suddenly stop, I don't even think I've fully wrapped my head around it.

I know we'll get back there, but it's going to take a lot of patience, more hard work, and generally just more time. I'm anxious to get back to where we left off, but I know I need to be patient and we'll get there eventually. A lot of our business has to do with momentum.

I know in the long run, this experience will make us stronger. For example, being forced to get better at online engagement will improve the business. In the moment it’s hard to realize, especially since our clients seem like they are ready to be back. It'll be interesting to see, with the social distancing requirements and capacity levels, what kind of ramp up period we’ll have to get back to full steam.

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

To stay sane throughout this, I had to think about the silver linings.

As I mentioned, it's forced us to streamline our e-commerce and shipping process, which has been great. Believe it or not, I really feel like this has brought us closer as a team. Even though we haven't been able to see each other or we haven't been able to work together in person, we've stayed in really close contact. That's been nice and heartwarming to see.

This situation has allowed me to take a step back from the daily operations and grind, especially going into the busy season, and give me a bird's eye view of the business, and think about the areas that we want to improve. I've really tried to use this time before reopening to explore how we can make an even better Varnish Lane. To improve for both our clients and staff. I want to use this time to work on areas that I probably would have put off for a lot longer.

I’m trying to be mindful about creating positives as opposed to just waiting for the positives to happen.

Have you been following the reopening process in other states, how does that make you feel?

We are following very closely. On the one hand, it makes me feel really impatient, seeing other states and businesses open, but that’s the passionate business side of me. Thankfully I have a logical side as well that knows how important it is to be patient and reopen in the safest way possible.

The last thing I want to happen is to reopen and then have to close again.

I actually think it's best that we're on the later end of reopening. We're able to see what the other states are doing and how other businesses are reopening; what's working, what they're doing wrong, and what we can do better. D.C. has been non-committal as to when we can reopen, especially nail salons, so we're using it as a chance to see what other businesses are doing and see how we can reopen successfully.

The community of this new wave of natural nail salons, salons committed to providing safer services, has managed to remain really tight knit and we’ve all been in touch with each other. It’s a very supportive and collaborative community, and we all share information and discuss what’s working for our respective salons.

I've just been trying not to worry about the things that I can't control. I can't control when nail salons will be allowed to open. In the meantime, I'm just going to worry about what I can do to make it the safest, smoothest process possible - whenever that day comes.

How has your business changed, or will change, for when you reopen?

Something to note about our operations is that you actually stay in one service chair while you get your manicure or pedicure, which is great because you're touching fewer surfaces and you're not moving around the shop. When we reopen we’ll have plexiglass guards that we had custom made that'll go in between each chair. That'll create a barrier between clients.

Varnish Lane was founded on strict principles of cleanliness and sanitation, and an all around safe environment. Our space was designed from the beginning to operate at a much lower capacity than what our space can actually hold. We are going to follow all of the guidelines for capacity levels - but what’s great is that our space has always been designed to not be overly cramped. We won’t have people standing in line at the front desk, or crowding any areas.

The plan is also to sanitize service stations in between each service and to clean surfaces regularly throughout the day. Clients and staff will wear masks through the entire service. We'll also be doing temperature checks of our staff before every shift. We'll increase contactless checkout as well. Most of our clients already have credit cards on file, they’ll just walk up to add gratuity, and we’ll use the card on file to close the transaction.

The main reason Varnish Lane offers waterless services is because water is the main source of infection when getting your nails done. By offering waterless services, it's much safer than most other salons. I think this is a great opportunity to continue educating our client base about the health and safety benefits of waterless nail service.

What have you learned from this experience?

I've really learned the importance of communicating with your consumers and clients. Varnish Lane normally depends on more face to face interactions, where our team and clients talk about why our services are waterless, why we use natural products, and how it's better for you. A lot of that dialogue happens in the shop organically, between the front desk, between the nail technicians, seeing the signs in the shop. We've had to move that whole conversation online, and I've learned how important it is to engage customers on other platforms.

‍We’ve learned a lot, like how much our clients love the manicure tutorials, they love the nail art instagram posts, things like that. It's really forced us to be better at engaging with our customers online. When our staff goes through training, the analogy we use is, “Imagine you're having a friend over for dinner.” That's the kind of hospitality we want you to treat the clients with. Make them feel comfortable, make them feel at home. Personal connections are going to be critical now more than ever. We want to make sure that when clients do come back, that they still feel just as safe at Varnish Lane as they would if they were at home. That's going to be the goal of reopening and, and what we're going to have to navigate.

The other thing that I've realized is just how lucky we are to have such amazing staff and clients. My appreciation level has just skyrocketed from the GoFundMe donations. We've received dozens of messages and emails from clients checking in on their favorite nail technician and seeing how we're doing. Even just seeing our team members support each other has made me so happy.

It just makes me feel really proud of the community that we’ve built.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

The biggest challenge when we reopen is going to be when people are at Varnish Lane, we want them to feel like they're at home. We want them to feel like they walk in; they don't even realize they're at a nail salon. It just feels like their friend's living room. And it's going to be tricky to create that normalcy of a really relaxing environment while they're wearing a mask, and have a sneeze guard barrier up, or if they come with a friend and have that barrier between the two of them during their service.

As a team we're going to have to work hard to provide the same, relaxing, Varnish Lane experience as it was before. It’ll be a tough and interesting road ahead. I love our business though - clients instantly feel better when they get their nails done, whether it's just for themselves, for work, or for an event. It's just something that makes you feel better.

We're excited to be able to provide a service that helps people relax and feel better.

People often see our services as the one hour that they’re allowed to have to themselves, to really administer some self care, and that's why we started Varnish Lane. We think getting your nails done shouldn't be a chore, it should be something that you look forward to. And if you're paying for it, it should be an amazing service. We want it to be something that people look forward to and use as an escape. That's the goal.

This interview was conducted with Sim Khan, founder and CEO of D.C.-based Brimble & Clark.

It’s no surprise that in a town like Washington, suits and formalwear are a regular staple in almost every wardrobe. Sim initially started his career as a lawyer, before translating his passion for bespoke suits into a full time endeavor. In [2012] Sim dedicated himself to the sartorial tradition of producing custom menswear, founding Brimble & Clark.

Today, Brimble & Clark is renowned in D.C. not only for the high quality and design of their products, but their legendary clientele as well. In addition to providing custom suits to a notable array of the region’s top corporate executives, Sim’s client list also includes dozens of professional athletes in the NFL, MLB, NHL, and even iconic pop stars such as Diplo and DJ Snake. The popularity, quality, and critical acclaim for his products are only surpassed by the surprising relative size of his company with just two showroom locations - which has only served to elevate Brimble & Clark to a rarified luxury product in the D.C. retail landscape.

It’s difficult to find any professional meeting conducted in D.C. without a gaggle of people in blazers or ties. With the impact of COVID and mandatory social distancing, almost all work meetings have transitioned into virtual hangouts where standards of attire are often relaxed. This of course has had a direct impact on retail sales, particularly for entrepreneurs like Sim who rely on consistent sales of formal attire to keep his business running.

This interview is a glimpse into his life before the pandemic hit, as well as the adjustments he’s had to make to his business to survive the current economic climate.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

Sim Khan, I own Brimble & Clark. We're a custom menswear business focused on tactical tailoring and tailoring for enhanced movement.

Describe what your business was like before Covid-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

Brimble & Clark is a suiting company with a very specific niche - featherweight menswear that moves in a certain way that other suits cannot. Our clients included people from government agencies and contractors, but also a lot of pro athletes and corporate execs. Just before this we did 16 players on the Minnesota Vikings including Washington’s former starting QB, Kirk Cousins. In total, we have 53 pro athlete clients in baseball, football, baseball, and soccer.

We have two locations, one in DC, and one in Baltimore, where people would come in for fittings - but now we are doing more virtual fittings than in-person sessions. Essentially we produce everything guys need to look good at work and flex on their friends after hours.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened?

Kind of right away. Before COVID hit, we were busy. We were growing steadily, and customers would always be coming in. Luckily, what's been helping us survive is the fact that we had a good number of orders in the pipeline before the virus hit. That’s provided a little bit of cushion. We were thriving as a business but when the virus hit, it knocked out production first.

The whole global supply chain got knocked out before the lockdowns actually happened. Italy was paralyzed, Asia was paralyzed.

People were worried about when their orders would come in, and then the lockdowns happened in the US. Now our production is back up and running at full capacity but, as soon as lockdowns happened, people couldn't physically go anywhere anymore so naturally new orders plummeted.

How has your assessment of the potential impact on your business changed over time as this situation has unfolded?

That assessment has changed a couple of times. Luckily, we had this buffer that provided a runway for some time.

During this time, there are two ways that you can react to a situation like this as a business owner; you can either look at the cash cushion you have and say “Hey, I'm going to conserve my my money until I ride this crisis out and hope that I don’t run out before I get pushed off the cliff ahead.” Or you can actually increase spending during the downturn and accelerate toward the cliff ahead of you, aggressively funding expansion to hopefully propel you into a bigger, badder and stronger company on the other side of this crisis. Sure, the latter approach could just end up accelerating you over the edge of the cliff. It’s a much bigger risk. But it’s also a lot more exciting.

So that’s what we’ve been doing, expanding product lines.

Because of that expansion, we have these new Coronavirus leather gloves that look cool, but help you stay safe. We also developed athleisure turtlenecks that cover your face to function as a mask. We also have mask hoodies, and even this sweatpant-fabric suit that I'm wearing right now. My strategy has been to grow or double down on growth, hoping that when the world reopens, we'll have the momentum already started during this COVID process to come out bigger and better.

That said, I don't think anybody can really predict how things will turn out. There have been certain adaptations we’ve had to make including expanding our virtual fittings. We learned to do virtual fittings for pro athletes because they get traded to different teams in different states. Now we are able to do that for everyone.

Navigating COVID has really been about adapting to reach the customer.

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period?

Luckily we had a good number of orders in the pipeline before the virus broke out. The revenue from that has been able to keep the lights on during that time.

I’ve been generally fearful of government loans and the implementation of those programs. Something that's categorized as a loan, that “may or may not be forgiven,” and the terms of which are very unclear as to their forgiveness, is a tricky thing to get involved with.

I'm a lawyer first. I was a lawyer for four years before building the business. If the terms of a loan are that murky, it opens the door for banks to say, “Well, we don't have to forgive this so we're not going to.” So no, I haven't been applying for any of those programs. It would be helpful if they had more clear guidelines as to what makes businesses qualify and how that application and forgiveness process works.

I fear putting the business in a place of debt that is worse than the initial cash flow situation.

How has this experience changed Brimble & Clark?

I have been preparing for a national economic downturn for the last two years, as speculators and experts have been talking about the U.S. being due for a market correction.

To account for that I started focusing the business on specialized attire enhancements for military and government agencies; providing increased range of movement and other functionalities in our clothes. When there's a downturn in the economy, military spending and agency spending tends to go up so we invested heavily in creating more practical / tactical / military applications for our suits. That said, I didn't expect the whole world to get paralyzed to the point where people would be unable to leave their homes at all.

Even with people staying in, they still want to buy things that make their lives better - and I like solving problems through design. A good example is that often when I’m at the grocery store during the pandemic, I’ll get frustrated because I left my mask in the car or even worse, at home. That’s where the idea of this dry-fit turtleneck came from; you can just pull up the neck to cover your face when you need to go to a grocery store. Integrating this additional functionality into the clothes makes people's lives a little easier during this outbreak. That’s a good example of how we’re adapting to the evolving needs of the customer.

‍‍I'm a big believer of the ‘adapt or die’ mindset and I love creating things that people want.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

The impact on my people. I want to make sure they're taken care of and that there’s no interruption for them financially. But this has been a real disruption, especially to their incentive-based compensation. It’s stressful.

The initial problem was that production was crippled for four weeks or so. Customers’ orders were starting to get delayed even before the lockdowns happened here. They would ask, “Where's my order?” because their weddings were still on and they were getting worried.

COVID wasn't real to them because the lockdowns hadn't started in the US just yet. In a sense, there was actually a little bit of a relief for us when the lockdowns happened here because customers understood that the whole world is paralyzed. Our production is back up and running at full capacity now, but that was an uneasy time.

Nobody was being derelict in delaying their suit orders. It's just that the world literally stopped production.

There's always going to be some kind of new challenge in business. There's always a new obstacle to figure out or risk to take. If you're not ready for that, then just don't go into business. It's stressful, but it's part of the fun of captaining your own ship. The ship sinks or survives based on your decisions.

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

Before this, we were solely offering business attire, from suits and tuxedos to overcoats and leather jackets. Our casual wear has really expanded during this crisis to cater to clients staying at home, and I’m excited that it’s presented a new market and revenue stream for the business. And who knows, maybe virtual fittings will allow us to expand our customer base.

Have you been following the reopening process in other states, how does that make you feel?

In a sense, I feel like either the whole country should reopen or nobody should reopen at all. I do feel that the economic impact of the lockdowns are worse than the virus itself. But, that's from the perspective of a business owner and lawyer, and not a doctor or scientist. Do I think we should reopen sooner than later? Yeah. If the southern states are doing it, then we should be doing it too.

What have you learned from this experience?

I’ve learned that people who work for you can be very loyal to your company, much more than I expected. That's been kind of heartwarming and it makes me want to make this growth strategy work even more. Because as we grow their compensation grows, and I want that for them.

I have found comfort in pursuing the grow-while-times-are-tough approach, even if it involves a serious risk, because it’s being proactive. That’s not to say there wasn’t a period of panic that I went through in choosing that path, but it feels good to have put that behind me.

I'll never stop fighting. Even in the worst possible circumstance, there's always something you can do to push ahead and come out on top.

This interview was conducted with Josh Phillips, the first Master Mezcalier and GM at Espita Mezcaleria in Washington, D.C.

Espita Mezcaleria is located in the bustling 9th St corridor of Shaw, an area teeming with some of the District’s most notable restaurants and nightlife spots including The Dabney and Columbia Room. Espita channels the dining and drinking traditions of Oaxaca, Mexico in its food and beverage offerings. In addition to being one of the city’s best Mexican restaurants, Espita is often recognized as having one of the country’s best mezcal lists with a focus on sustainable and ethically-produced mezcals.

Josh Phillips and his wife Kelly Phillips opened the doors of their restaurant to fanfare and rave reviews in 2016. Times have changed for Josh, his staff, and his business since March of 2020 when the effects of COVID-19 began to take hold of the city.

This is a glimpse into his life before the pandemic hit, as well as his continued fight in keeping his business alive.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

Josh Phillips, Espita on 9th Street. We make Oaxacan food, an upscale casual restaurant.

Describe what your business was like before Covid-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

So, before we closed we had about 55 people on board. On the busiest days of the week, we probably have about 30 or so of them working. Restaurant has about 150 seats including the patio, and before COVID-19 we were averaging about $75,000 a week in sales.

Wages were great - our front of house staff, made about $18 an hour and for service or bartenders, more than $30 an hour. Average kitchen wage was probably $17-ish an hour. In addition to that staff, there were five managers including myself. It was fun, it was busy, and we were actually in the middle of having our best year to date.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened?

We were lucky, we didn't slow down until the week before the shutdown. The week before, it actually had been one of our best weeks ever. And the week leading up to March 16th and the shutdown, sales dropped by about 55%.

Immediately after the shutdown, we pivoted to take-away orders. At first we were only doing around $9,000 a week. Right now, we’re up to about $17,000 a week. And we've just started a partnership with World Central Kitchen that's going to push us hopefully higher, which is nice. It was pretty dramatic and pretty fast.

I know a lot of restaurants were seeing a slowdown over a period of about three to four weeks, but for us, since we're at the Convention Center, we were actually very busy until the end.

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period? (From the federal government, state, family and friends.)

So beyond the World Central Kitchen partnership, we’ve taken out a PPP loan, which is the most confusing thing I've ever experienced in my entire life.

I don't know how they could actually distribute money without having firm guidance on forgiveness. Yeah, so that's something I talk with other restaurateurs about, like daily. Everybody has a plan as to how they think it's going to get forgiven, but everybody's afraid that they're going to spend the money, including myself, and then not have the loan be forgiven.

We got a fairly significant loan, but the idea of paying that chunk of cash back over two years is a pipe dream. Like, it's just not gonna happen. If we don't get the forgiveness, we’re not going to be able to pay the loan back. So we have 55 people on our staff and only about 22 of them are full time employees. Most of the servers and front of house people are making far more on unemployment. So they're all like, “Nope, not coming back.” And then you've got this giant pile of money that you've got to spend 75% of on, you know, a small number of people to hopefully get forgiveness. So we'll see if that happens.

We’ve taken out a PPP loan, which is the most confusing thing I've ever experienced in my entire life. The idea of paying that chunk of cash back over two years is a pipe dream.

I applied for one of the Economic Injury Disaster Loans for my parent company. We received that one and it is much more forgiving. That's a 30 year loan. So that was great. But the PPP one...it's pretty terrifying. It’s causing me more anxiety than if I hadn't done it.

We've had about 20 staff willing to come back, essentially all of the kitchen workers. Our strategy has been to give them all raises to kind of get through all the cash. So they're being paid fairly well right now, which makes me really happy and it's been really nice to see all their faces every morning. I don't know about most restaurants but we have incredibly loyal kitchen staff, everybody that we have currently working in the restaurant has been there for over three years now. This place is really a family, and it feels great to be able to give them a check as well as a reason to leave the house.

What resources are missing?

PPE

All of them, if I’m being honest. So we're operating on extremely small revenue numbers, and there's no agency in the government providing PPE for businesses that are open and running. With our lower revenues, our costs have gone up dramatically. Like providing masks for people. It's a $1 mask.

At first we couldn't even buy them, but now that we can buy them it's a $1 per disposable mask, and gloves aren’t cheap either. Back of house gloves were an existing expense, but front of house workers need them now too. You're supposed to be changing these things out constantly. If we could get free or subsidized PPE, that would be extremely helpful. Particularly in kitchens where we try and make sure everybody's at least six feet apart. We don't have any more than four people in our kitchen at any given point, but it's still impossible to avoid coming closer than six feet all the time. As much as we try and everybody's very conscious of it. It is impossible in the space we have.

In general, I think the guidance that people are putting forward for reopening is ridiculous. I think we need to understand what restaurants look like until there's a vaccine, not just until we reopen. Because in my view, there is no reopening until then.

We have no plan of reopening as a full service restaurant until there's a vaccine to be very blunt.

Rent

I think most people's rents in the city are outrageous in this current environment, even though I think our rent was totally fair. We had a fairly reasonable dollar per square foot cost before COVID hit, and it came to around 6% of our revenue which I think is fine. I'm not one of those people who are like, “My landlord is charging too much money!” Our rent was honestly fine.

That said, our rent is not fine now. We pay $18,461 a month, which is nowhere near affordable compared to our old revenue. We used to average well over $300,000 a month in revenue. So $18,000 a month in rent was not that big of a deal.

There needs to be some sort of acknowledgement from the government that if they're going to reopen us not at full capacity, then our fixed costs have got to change.

I don't understand how they expect us as a business to actually survive this. We're all kind of like playing nicely. I don't care how well anybody says they're doing in this environment. Nobody's actually succeeding.

Tax

So they deferred sales tax - which has been nice - but they only deferred it. When we reopen with no money, we still owe a giant chunk of cash. That's not realistic. Before COVID-19 on average we made north of $300,000 a month, that's $30,000 in sales tax that we deferred the first month the virus hit. The second month was a partial month. So let's call it another $15K. Assume the tax is now frozen and we don’t have to pay that amount - but do the math and that's $45,000.

And then when we reopen, our reopening costs are going to involve rebuilding inventory, which is going to take three days of labor plus the actual inventory costs. That's going to be another $22,000. We've got to assume that we're not going to get the full staff or even the same staff that we had before…so that means training  15-20 new people. The numbers just keep stacking, stacking, stacking, stacking, stacking...it's like opening a new restaurant. You know, you don't have any of the expenses of building out a restaurant, but we have all the soft costs of opening a restaurant.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

Probably the mental health aspect of this. I mean the finances are just math, you figure that out. And we've done a pretty good job of minimizing our expenses and we're at a point where we're sustainable for a certain amount of time. I don't know how long that lasts, because we still have to negotiate some longer term things like rent.

I've talked to a lot of other operators that are either breaking down mentally, or you can just tell visually they are way more agitated than usual or more sad than usual.

Mental health is a big challenge for all of us to stay in production. And I think that's everybody, not just restaurant people. It's just how do you deal with being home all the time? Or how do you deal with the fact that your life has entirely changed?

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

One thing that I think is pretty amazing is we put up a link on our ordering pages to donate to our team. Seeing the number of people who actually clicked that link every day still amazes me. I would have thought it would have tapered off but it’s still $1K every week.

It's always really nice because it's not enough money to give the whole team since if we divided it amongst everybody they’d be getting 30 bucks, which isn’t a ton of help, so every week we pick three people and just give a nice big check. That check does move the needle and at least gives them a little relief.

It's just nice to see these three staff and know that like for a week, at least one week, they’re doing okay.

And watching them come in to pick up the check, it's...just nice. I'm not gonna say gratitude, I certainly don't deserve gratitude, it’s our guests that deserve it since they give the money.

Have you been following the reopening process in other states, how does that make you feel?

Yes, it’s absolutely crazy. So the guidelines in every state are some version of the CDC guidelines, specifically the phase three opening, start with outdoor seating then go to six foot distance between tables. None of that makes sense. I'll explain why, and maybe I'm wrong or maybe I'm crazy, but in my head none of that makes sense.

So for proper social distancing, you need six feet between people wearing basic PPE. So if you're dining in a restaurant you can’t possibly be eating and drinking with a mask on - the mechanics just don’t work. The idea of somebody wearing gloves during dinner is also kind of silly because they should be changing those while they go through their meal according to the CDC. If they’re performing any kind of gesture towards their face, they should be changing those gloves.

So if tables are six feet apart, according to the guidelines your waiter is also supposed to be six feet away from your guests. If that waiter is six feet away from one table, then he’s standing on top of another table - you need to double up on distances between tables to 12 feet. Then you have food runners who need to drop off food at a table. So realistically, to keep the server safe you need like 12-13 feet between tables and to keep food runners safe, they would have to place food six feet away and have the guests collect it - which again, is insane.

If you do the math on our restaurant according to the CDC guidelines, by that I mean the distance rules, even if we maintain our same track record before the virus and had absolute 100% occupancy, which is not realistic in any way, shape, or form, our max out for revenue is $20,000 a week. That’s less than we do now, without anybody in our space.

It's absolutely crazy. Why would anybody open?

When I see these people reopening their restaurants and I get in my own head and think, “Have we done enough? Is there something I’m missing? Are you getting a subsidy that I don't know about? Who's making this possible for you?” No matter what you still have to pay rent, you still have to pay utilities, you still pay your business insurance, your sales taxes, all those things.

I’ve heard people compare reopening restaurants to grocery stores, but restaurants just aren’t the same. We all go into grocery stores and try and get in and out as soon as possible. We limit our contact with other shoppers and there are plastic barriers between cashiers and patrons. The same rationale is going to continue. People won’t all of a sudden be like, “You know what? I feel very okay being within a foot and a half of a food runner. I'm going to go eat out with my five friends for dinner that don't live with me.”

How has your business changed, or will change, for when you reopen?

We eventually plan on letting people sit on our patio and then eventually our dining room. We will not do that as a full service operation. You will still order at the counter and take your food away, just like it is now, but instead of going home you can sit down at one of our tables that are setup for social distance.

Hopefully, there's going to be a point where they have some sort of medicine to actually combat the virus itself as opposed to preventing the virus. That'll make me feel probably safe enough to open up inside to do the same thing, but definitely not for full service.

What does your partnership with World Central Kitchen look like?

We give them 250 meals a day and they pay $10 for each meal, it’s pretty great. You figure if you're donating to World Central Kitchen, you're actually helping two people. Every meal is not only feeding people, but also sustaining restaurants. So they're partnering with restaurants to keep us afloat, and in turn, giving the food to people who need to eat. It's a really powerful program. It's sustaining a lot of independent businesses.

Jose Andreas has been a better life line for restaurants than any government entity, federal or local.

Because of him we get to do 250 meals a day this week. We just started so we're getting $10,000 in revenue this week. That allows us to hire a few more people, to pay more bills, and helps me sleep at night.

When it comes to reopening, what are you most concerned about?

Safety. I think there's going to be a period where restaurants are going to make uncomfortable decisions when it comes to matching the number of staff to the demand of customers. And that's going to hurt two ways; it will hurt because there's going to be times where you overestimate the staff and you lose money. There's gonna be times where you underestimate the staff, and give bad service. I'm hoping during that transition period, guests are more forgiving than usual. Trying to make plans for meeting demand is extremely difficult without having relevant historical data.

Typically I know based on time of year, based on the day of the week, what volume of guests we’ll have within a fairly tight margin. We're going into uncharted territories - we're gonna end up buying too much food, we're gonna have too many staff, we're gonna throw away food, and we’ll end up paying a bunch of labor hours that we don't need

What have you learned from this experience?

This has made us better operators. We've always operated in a generous environment where there was plenty of money to cover margins. This pandemic has made us much tighter operators. It’s also taught us how to make the most impact with our products. How can we have even better food for less money?

There's much less waste at the restaurant than there ever was. Everyone is working for a reason and everyone's very productive right now. Everyone is also learning to do jobs that they have never done before. So I mean, that's probably the biggest takeaway - we have this kind of really thrifty attitude, are really interested in learning new aspects to the industry that are outside our traditional roles. We've definitely identified future leaders in our business, which to me, is very cool.

‍

This interview was conducted with Kelly Towles, a celebrated D.C. designer & artist with iconic murals that can be found across the DMV region.

Kelly’s art can best be described as seeing the world through his eyes - unorthodox interpretations that take the ordinary or mundane and transform them into the visually astonishing and fantastical. His art often features personified everyday objects, abstracted figures, and various representations of the many places or people that have influenced his life. Kelly’s murals featuring his trademark ‘bandit-style’ animations of objects, places, and people, seem to have escaped from his imagination and taken up residence in unexpected places throughout the city.

Kelly is also the Director of Pow! Wow! DC, an international arts festival that draws artists from around the world to design and install new murals in designated areas around the District. The murals vary in aesthetics, but are all breathtaking in scope and beauty. The festival provides group walking tours to each installation for the public to watch the artists work in real time.

In addition to the Festival, Kelly also runs a Creative Agency called Holy Bones, which features many of his custom prints and merchandise for purchase as well as a gallery space in D.C.

This interview is a glimpse into his life before the pandemic hit, as well as his continued fight in keeping his business alive and spreading positive vibes during these unprecedented times.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

My name is Kelly Towles. I am a D.C. based artist, designer, director of international mural festival, Pow! Wow! DC and director of creative agency, Holy Bones.

Describe what your business was like before Covid-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

I was working six days a week, and using the other day as a family day. 12 hour days, cranking away on paintings, designs, murals, and organizing festivals with just massive projects in April.

Middle of March, everything came to a halt.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened? Were you in the middle of planning the next Pow Wow?

We're on our fifth [Pow! Wow!] festival this year, and we'll see what happens. Last year, I had already pulled the trigger to move it to the Fall. Typically we have a lot of rain at the end of April and the beginning of May. Mother Nature is my arch nemesis when it comes to the festival, and I thought, “Yeah, I'm just going to take a chance and move it to the fall,” and I'm so happy I did. The amount of planning that goes into this event builds up over those months, and I would have already secured a ton of stuff for the event by March and April. To put it plainly, I would have been fucked.

Since I was able to move it and take into account the reality of everything happening right now, I'm looking at how we can pivot the event to support our community. The whole point of the festival is to beautify the community. We need to figure out how we can still do that without putting people in danger, and make sure we do it correctly in a way that supports our mission of making our city shine and putting the light of art out there.

That’s what we always want with our art and this festival, something that will give people more hope and positive vibes.

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period? (From the federal government, state, family and friends.)

Thankfully I've gotten a lot of support from a lot of people. From people just buying my work, to the D.C. government putting out a couple grants and the Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) - they gave out some money that helped as well.

It was really sketchy in the beginning, specifically the end of March and beginning of April because everybody was in the same boat saying, “Well, I don't know what to fucking do.”

‍But now, people have started to figure out how to make it work. My wife owns two retail stores; both of them had to shut down and she had to figure out how to make them function. Basically, she took them both into virtual shopping.

Us balancing each other, along with our eight year old son. And he's chillin' here in the studio right now, just hanging out, but to balance out how we can support each other, how we can sit there and homeschool him, and figure everything out. It's been pretty amazing to see people show up, especially where it could go south and go negative really quick, but everybody has really bonded together to figure it out.‍

MASKS & CREATIVE‍

I made some masks that were well received by the community. I'm trying not to flood the market on it and just have fun, create new ones, and space it out. Because at one point in time, I got really excited and put a bunch on online and all of a sudden there were a bunch of sales, which is amazing. And next I thought, “Oh, how am I gonna do this, how am I gonna do that?” and then people started emailing me and saying, “Can I change my order?” or “Can I do this?” because it's all virtual now.

Sometimes it's hard to stop when something's in the process of being made like my masks, but I definitely learned my lesson. Now I'm gonna pace it out a little bit more and see what happens. It's really cool because I've had other people hit me up about masks. I'm gonna try and do one for U Street Music Hall, and figure out how to help other groups with these mask collaborations because it's a lot of fun.

What resources are missing?

I'm in a much better spot than most. You know, I try to be as positive as I can. I try to look at situations in the best way possible. But, you know, there are people out there who don’t.

For example, my son goes to a really nice school. It's a public school and it's super nice. We found out through the social worker that checks in every so often on us to see how we're doing, that there are some kids in his school with families that don't have food.

Like, no food which is just heartbreaking.

I actually helped direct the social worker to people that are doing things like Chris Cardi, who's working with Maketto. They are doing a free pantry where you just go and pick up free food, so I gave her a heads up on that resource to tell these families.

Personally, I'm in a really great spot workwise and mentally.

People are still hitting me up for commissions, and for this, that and the other. Even for the festival, we always have at least 50 or 60 gallons of paint leftover every year. I've been having fun exploring with those, and seeing how I could just repurpose it, instead of having to go out and worry about being exposed at a store.

Yeah, I’ve really been good. I feel lucky.

How has this experience changed you as a business?

Obviously when this all happened a few of my clients ghosted, there's no festival happening any time soon, no art events, nothing at all really. The flip side of that is that I am actually very used to just sitting in my studio for 12 hours a day, by myself or with my son, and just working.

None of this isolating indoors for hours is new to me (laughs), I've been practicing this for years, and that's a fortunate thing in hindsight. I think for most artists it gives real time to hunker down, and crank out a lot of work.

I'll be very shocked if there aren’t 50 million solo shows that come out after COVID. Maybe we enter some sort of new Renaissance.

I think the only thing that's really changed is having to homeschool my son.

Beyond that, things are coming back, people are starting to contact us again about commissions, about work, and things like that. It slowed down, but I don't think my process or anything of that nature is going to change that much which I'm very happy about.

This virus really made me more introspective than I ever have been.

I've always tried to be happy and put work out there that makes people smile - this entire thing makes me want to do that tenfold now, but I’ve had to hold myself back like, “Slow down man!” But really not a lot has changed for me, I just continue crushing away because I'm a workhorse. I just work, work, work, work, work. If I wasn’t working on something, I would be really bored.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

Not traveling. This time of year we’d be getting ready to go to Mexico or Tokyo, and I know that is such a luxury complaint. It’s been such a routine for me to travel, work, and be very active, so not doing it just weirds me out. And like I said, that's a luxury complaint. It's not like “Oh, I'm spoiled and I want to be somewhere else.”

I mean everybody wants to be somewhere else right now. No one wants to be stuck in their house.

Even for me to be able to come to the studio, all I have to do is walk out my door, hop in my car, and drive into my studio which has a garage attached to it. I don't have to touch anything or even be around anyone - I just pull straight in the garage with a remote, and the door closes behind me. I have it really good compared to people that can't even go to their studios to work.

This didn’t come easy though and I've had to work really hard to be able to have a studio and work setup like this. ‍That said, it's saving my mental health being able to actually go to work and not have to deal with the virus and worry about touching anything, or having to disinfect stuff.

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

I would have to say one big positive is being able to concentrate more. Being introspective, having fun, going through and creating new work is a very positive thing for me.

People are coming up with the most wild, crazy, amazing, inventive ideas I’ve ever heard of in my entire life.

‍There are industries that have pivoted so hard, I mean good lord. And this is something I don't participate in, but strip clubs have had the craziest pivot. If you think about it, the whole purpose is to go and see people take off their clothes and dance, but that fundamentally can’t exist in our current reality.

So on the news, there was a strip club - I forget where - but to save its business it had a new idea for food delivery where strippers would deliver you your food, (laughs). No joke, strippers delivering food and of course they sold a ton! It's just amazing to be able to live through this time and witness what's happening with people, businesses, and just everything around the world.

People are learning, people are adapting, and eventually we’ll find our normal again. It's just gonna take a while.

How has your business changed, or will change, for when you reopen? Will there be changes made to how the festival happens?

To be honest most muralists in the festival practice social distancing anyways because when you're making a mural, you're either on a lift or you're against the wall, and you're not really talking to anybody. It’s easy for us to cordon off an artist to give them a safe space to work.

I thought of many ways we could make the mechanics work and we're lucky to be a part of the largest mural festival in the world, because all of our sister city festivals such as Taipei or Tokyo have their own directors and we’re constantly talking, exchanging ideas, helping each other, and figuring everything out.

The murals can definitely still happen.

The one thing that will have to change is the walking tours. When I usually do the festival, I take people on walking tours and we get 200-250 people on one walking tour, which is crazy. That is going to have to completely change, which does alter the dynamic of everything.

Beyond that, we can still do the festival in a general sense, we can still make it happen, we can still make murals.

What have you learned from this experience?

‍I'll say the first lesson was as a father. I found that my son is learning much faster while homeschooled than he was at regular school. I always thought I would be a horrible teacher and apparently I’m not. My wife's very good, too. Being able to see him cruise and excel has been a great experience.

Another thing I’m learning is figuring out artistically what I want to do with my business. I’m beginning to understand the challenges of what the future holds right now, figuring out how to be ahead of it all, which has been a pretty rad learning experience. Something like COVID is something you would never expect. It’s decimated so many industries and practices, a lot of people tell me that their careers have completely changed.

I've also seen other people pick up and completely rebound like 1,000%, figuring out how to translate their work into digital or virtual. It's pretty inspiring. I’m always figuring out how I can help and be a resource for the community because I think that's the biggest thing right now is everybody supporting each other. It makes me very happy seeing D.C. shine as much as we are right now. Number of cases are low, people are really taking this seriously, and everybody's in it for the long haul. I hope everyone keeps going, and stays safe. At the end of the day, I’m just really proud of our city.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I just want to put positive vibes out there. I hope people are happy and healthy, and staying safe.

This interview was conducted with April Johnson, founder and CEO of Happied.

It’s no surprise to most that the Federal Government has remained the largest single employer in the Washington metropolitan area. What does come as a surprise, is that as a result of government employment, almost every office in D.C. closes at 5pm - which has made happy hour one of the most popular social activities in the region. The prevalence and popularity of happy hours was an opportunity April Johnson couldn’t pass up, so she translated the D.C. tradition of after-work revelry into a startup.

Happied is a web platform focused on introducing Washington D.C.'s food and drink audience to new restaurants and bars via featured happy hours on their app. April’s startup was gaining traction with D.C. happy hour enthusiasts and starting to experience real growth when COVID hit. The sudden closure of all restaurants and bars in the region should have killed Happied, but where COVID presented an impossible roadblock, April found a way to innovate.

This interview shows what life was like for April and her business before the pandemic hit, as well as how Happied has adapted to survive in a world where in-person social events are all but non-existent.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

My name is April Johnson and the name of my business is Happied.

Describe what your business was like before Covid-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

Happied was a platform that connected people to the best happy hours and to each other. Our definition of happy hour is the certain times of day that restaurants and bars that have set prices on items at a discount or deal. We find the best happy hours, and connect people to those places for the best experiences.

A day in the life before COVID involved meeting with our restaurant and bar partners, sometimes hosting events for our platform members, and going to tech meetings where we work on our products.

We also did have an “extended happy hour” feature on Happied, in which we have members who pay monthly fees, and they got access to extended happy hours until 9pm at select places. Anyone who uses the app gets directed to hundreds of restaurants and bars in D.C. Our day to day was really focused on how we continue to provide value in that space, specifically how we were bringing customers to our bar and restaurant partners and how we were providing the best experiences for our users.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened?

Interestingly, we had a technical glitch and crashed on Monday, March 9. That week, we were very focused on fixing that glitch and getting the app back up and running. We were back up Wednesday, and we needed to send an email to our users, letting them know the issue was resolved. However, we realized our tone and messaging was evolving to encompass what was happening with COVID. That was the point when we first realized everything had changed.

We found ourselves in this position of wanting to tell people that the app is back up, but we didn’t want to tell people, “Hey, go out to restaurants and bars”, because we didn’t know if it was safe. At that point, the restaurant and bar industry were very much trying to tell everyone, “Hey, it's still safe, we're wiping down everything or taking extra precautions.” We followed the lead from our partners for that email saying, “Hey, the app is back up. This is what restaurants and bars are doing. It seems safe to go out.” And we got some responses back to that email, “I can't believe you said it's safe!”.

We probably shouldn't have said, “safe”, but we really were trying to make people comfortable based on what we heard from our restaurant and bar partners.That's when we knew that everything had changed, especially for our business as it’s entirely based upon getting people out to restaurants and bars.

We thought, “what are we even doing with the app right now?”

I think because we had that moment, right at the beginning, we were able to respond really, really quickly. Because we knew right then that this situation was bad.

How has your assessment of the potential impact on your business changed over time as this situation has unfolded?

We think our business has definitely changed for at least a year. Everything is still takeout and delivery only. We've seen the different phasing plans which call for social distance, outdoor seating, then the next phase that will allow for separate bar seating at 50% capacity.

We don't know what the future of happy hour looks like.

Connecting you to that restaurant or bar for its experience is a big part of what we do. And so we don't know if or when our app is going to be a relevant thing again. For right now, we've stopped focusing on that part of our business on our mobile app.

Our mission is to connect people to these restaurants and bars and to each other, we are just figuring out new ways to do that, given our current reality.

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period?

We have not had any financial support. We have had a lot of resource support.

We won a pitch competition back in 2018 called New Voices. They organized a session where all the people that won from our cohort came to share what's going on, and to provide resources to each other. That was extremely helpful.

We're also members of a group called the Black Founders Exchange, and we meet every two weeks to share resources. A lot of great business connections from these resources have helped us really dig into our pivot. Those have been the biggest resources for us.

We were not profitable before COVID, and we were not taking salaries. Unfortunately, we didn’t qualify for PPP or those types of programs because we didn't have a payroll.

What resources are missing?

I think especially for startups that are early stage, that don't have payroll, that are in that stage where we've made a big sacrifice and left our jobs to build something from scratch.

There's nothing really for us other than grants. We've applied for a couple grants and pitch competitions. We made it to the second stage of the We Funder competition.

Even though we weren't taking salaries, we were generating revenue that covered our expenses. Our entire revenue stream was cut, we went to zero almost immediately. We paused all of our paying memberships, so that revenue was gone. We had no potential revenue from restaurant and bar advertising. We didn’t want to charge them as they were already suffering. Immediately we went to zero.

I understand that it's a risk that we took as founders. I respect that.

We knew as founders that we were going to weather a storm, whatever that storm was, we didn't know it's gonna be this kind of storm, but we knew that it was not going to be easy, and that there would be a sacrifice.

While I wish that there were resources here for us, I also understand that it's a decision that we made to go into this type of business. It did just feel like a missing piece when there's all these resources for businesses, but there's no resources for early stage founders that aren't at the point where they're collecting a paycheck. Have we generated revenue? Yes. Are we profitable? No. We were not taking a paycheck, so we didn't qualify for really anything.

How has this experience changed Happied as a business?

The main thing is that it brought us back to our core, and we had to sit down and think about our mission.

If our app is not there, that's okay. If restaurants and bars are changing, that's okay. If we can still satisfy our mission to connect people to the best restaurants and bars and to each other through what we call the power of happy hour, that’s great. Happy hours, restaurants and bars will not open in their traditional sense, so what can we do to still bring people together?

We immediately thought of a virtual happy hour.

Everyone does virtual happy hours now, we get it, but we launched our first one on March 17. We were one of the very first to do it but more importantly, we wanted to host virtual happy hours to bring back social connection and to support the restaurant and bar community.

We structured our virtual happy hour with an entry fee. People come ready to make cocktails, with ingredients that we send to them as soon as they sign up. They have their ticket, they have their ingredients, they come to the happy hour, ready for a good time, ready to meet new people. They see their bartender, they're revisiting places that maybe they've gone before, or somewhere they haven't.

We get people from all over the country now. Guests will say, “oh, I've heard of this place. Oh, I can't wait to come visit them in DC.”

What was important for us was to make sure that we were providing true connections. We wanted to host it where people can see each other. We host them on Zoom right now. People can see each other, they can hear each other, we curate the whole experience. We make sure the bartender gets paid. The bartenders receive a share of the ticket fee, as well as tips during the event. But the bartender gets guaranteed income for each happy hour that they host. And so that was important to us. We also drive food sales because a lot of the places are now offering takeout food and drinks.

Our initial move was to host these public virtual happy hours. Then people started coming to us and asking, “Hey, I have a group, can you host some for our group?”. Corporate teams are looking to keep their people engaged. Because we started so early, and we had this model that was truly interactive and curated, we were able to package that. Now we can offer our virtual happy hours to corporate groups, law firms for their summer associates, and organizations that are just looking to host like an alumni event.

We've created this curated system that works for any type of group. On the tech side, we're building out a web app where anyone who's looking to book a virtual happy hour experience can simply do so. They’ll enter a number of guests, what type of drinks they're looking to make, what type of vibe, and then they can book it. We’re so excited about that.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

The fatigue of virtual experiences. At the beginning it was easy for us to do happy hours because it was brand new. I think the difficulty is people are tired of that. We still get new people every week, and the corporate bookings are really growing.

I think now people are wondering, “is this really what things are going to be like?” People are tired of hopping on Zoom all the time. We do what we can to make it as fun and as interactive as possible, but the most challenging thing is dealing with the uncertainty of everything.

The most challenging thing is dealing with the uncertainty of everything.

We don't fully understand how people are going to interact with restaurants and bars in the near and long term future, until a vaccine is found. So that's the biggest challenge for us, understanding what our market size is going to look like even in the virtual space. Are people going to just start having house parties? Our entire existing business model changes every time we adapt to the next thing and we wonder, “how much money and time should we put into this?”, when in two weeks we might be changing again.

Even though we're used to facing interruptions, as startup founders, it feels like it’s on steroids now. Say with the tech, we build out this webpage, which only takes a week or two, but there's a lot of time that goes into that. In a month are people going to say, “Oh, we don't do anything virtual anymore”?

Fortunately, we have been able to sustain ourselves with virtual happy hours. We've been very upfront from the beginning when we launched them that we do split the revenue with the bartender. The other share just covers our expenses and allows us to stay in business. We still don't take salaries or any money from the company.

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

Absolutely, both personally and professionally. Just having the time to stop and reevaluate how we are meeting our mission as a business, and for me to reevaluate what's important to me as a founder and in life. We were moving a mile a minute, before this really caused us to stop and ask, “What really matters? What is our Northstar? How do we continue to give?”

Our app crashed that Monday, came back up but Wednesday. We went through a transition on our team a couple months ago. We had let go of our prior CTO. It was actually a great thing for us, that we can’t use the app right now. We weren't in a position to put much more money or time into it. We were looking for another developer, so that was actually a good break for us. We did find an amazing developer who's now our new lead engineer working on the virtual happy hour booking site. It just really caused us to stop to reset.

Have you been following the reopening process in other states, how does that make you feel?

We've been following a few states, particularly ones that we see as potential next markets for us. We've been following D.C., Maryland, Virginia. We've been following California. That was another market we're looking at. We've been following New York. And a little bit of Georgia, we had identified Atlanta, Chicago, Houston as next potential markets for Happied. We’re just trying to get a pulse of what’s generally going on in those places. We are constantly reading news articles, and looking at restaurants and bars specifically.

‍We don't know what that means for us as a company and delivering our value. Are we just focused on places that are still closed? What do we do as more and more places start to reopen? What does that look like? The uncertainty and seeing how it's so different from place to place is a major, major challenge.

What have you learned from this experience?

That we were more resilient than we thought. We're used to stuff not going as planned, but it's reminded us that we’re ready to take on the unexpected when we have to. It's also taught us that people really value connection so much more than any of us realized. We have often taken for granted the “connecting people to each other” part of our mission, and just seeing how important that was to people and who we are. Especially in the restaurant and bar space, they love to see each other, they love to see their patrons. When we do the virtual happy hours, as soon as bartenders get on and they see their patrons, they light up and say, “Oh my gosh, I haven’t been around making drinks for people in so long”. That social connection that we just all like take for granted.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

We're going to be selling happy hour kits. Those are launching next week and we're excited about that. We realized that when we did our virtual happy hours, everyone who signed up to get a ticket also had to buy ingredients. So we thought, “why don't we just have kits to make it easier for people to get all the ingredients?”. We found a supplier out in Tennessee, who we're working with on our kits. Whether you’re attending one of our virtual happy hours or hosting your own at home, they include everything that you’ll need from glassware, to shakers, and muddlers. For us this is another way to help the community have happy hours, but also another revenue generating tool to help us survive.

This interview was conducted with Dionna Dorsey, founder of District of Clothing.

Dionna Dorsey started District of Clothing in 2014 as a way to advocate for the advancement of minorities, inspire social change, and embolden self-love through unique apparel. District of Clothing also features items designed to spread awareness of various social issues including racial inequality and modern female empowerment.

The global disruption caused by COVID-19 and the corresponding stay at home orders has been felt acutely by retailers, particularly small businesses facing a pivot or significant adjustment to their business model in response to rapidly changing consumer spending habits.

This interview explores Dionna’s life before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the decisions she’s had to make as a business owner, and her plans for adapting District of Clothing during an unprecedented shift in global commerce.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

My name is Dionna Dorsey and my brand is, District of Clothing.

Describe what your business was like before COVID-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

District of Clothing is an online retail business. We average about 100 to 125 visitors to our site daily. We would post online via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Not always, but hopefully once a day. Typically January and February are slower months, and sales start to pick up again around March. We were still in our quiet time, I would say from an income perspective. Instead of maybe having 125 to 200 shoppers on the site, we might have 75 or 100 per day this time of year. District of Clothing is my side business, but I try to give her an hour every day.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened?

I started to really feel the impact for my business in March. And here when I'm referencing my business, I'm referring to my full time business, Dionna Dorsey Design. It's a creative business, mostly a creative direction consultancy. Come mid March, I probably saw a 70 or 75%, slowdown of client inquiries and requests, but this allowed me to refocus on District of Clothing.

I needed something to even me out, and doing work does that.

I quickly realized that I needed a change. From a productive standpoint and just a mental wellness standpoint, I needed something to do and I was blessed to have District of Clothing to focus on. The sadness, the worry, the absolute terror and fear, the confusion, the brain explosion with homeschooling, the combination of all of those emotions, were creating different things for me creatively. I needed something to even me out, and doing work does that. I was constantly seeing what was happening on the news, and I needed a break from that and I also needed a way to contribute something positive to the universe during this time, and specifically to COVID-19 relief.

How has your assessment of the potential impact on your business changed over time as this situation has unfolded?

Initially I was just thinking that I had to find a way to remain productive during the season, which would help both financially and mentally. I wondered how I could use my business to hopefully help someone else out during this time too.

I pushed up a collection that was supposed to launch in August or September, the Common Purpose Collection. The goal was to create something to support COVID-19 relief.

It took me two weeks to reach out to our community and let them know what challenges we were facing. That several of our warehouses had shut down, that we had X amount of employees that were no longer receiving paychecks, because they weren't allowed to come into the facilities.

We just wanted to let people know that we were going to get through this.

I'm just trying to be as transparent and vulnerable as possible. I noticed that a lot of our community members on Instagram specifically were sharing very honest comments under some of the posts. I had more time to check in and thank our supporters, whether it was a DM or a comment. We just wanted to let people know that we were going to get through this. That connection, even though it was digital, was just what my soul needed. I hope that it was that for other people as well.

We have some items that are made locally. We also have some items that are made in our fulfillment centers. We have centers in Los Angeles for our west coast orders and North Carolina for East Coast orders. We also receive goods from various warehouses all over the country. And every week I was getting another email about warehouses closing or limitations on goods. For example, if I wanted a blue t-shirt, I couldn't get a blue t-shirt. There was just a variety of different things that we no longer had access to. It was stressful to get emails saying, “We don't know what's going to happen next. Stay tuned until tomorrow.”

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period?

The number one resource has been our community. I don't like to say customer. I like to say community. They've just been so responsive, sending emails, checking in on us, sharing our messages, responding to them. That in itself has just been remarkable.

I would say number two, my family has absolutely been so supportive and kind. My fiance has helped me every step of the way. I did apply for PPP and got approved by the Congressional Bank. Think Local First actually sent an email that said, “Hey, apply for PPP through this particular bank, and then reach out to this specific woman and she will be with you throughout the process.” And she was phenomenal, so much so that I've actually introduced her to several other local small businesses here in Washington, D.C.

Just seeing people be vulnerable, and honestly fumble their way through this has been encouraging to me, as I fumble my way through this experience too.

The Mayor has been incredibly supportive of District of Clothing since our inception. I don’t personally know her, but one rainy day while she was giving her daily COVID-19 relief conference meeting, she wore our 51 hat. We had a huge uptick in sales of that hat as a result. The number 51 references support of statehood for Washington D.C. That got really great comments and conversations going on our social media platforms as well.

What resources are missing?

I wish that I could have been on a Zoom meeting with a couple of my fellow entrepreneurs, especially here in Washington, DC who are going through the same thing. It would have been great to just throw something out there and get 20 different responses. That would be incredibly helpful.

How has this experience changed District of Clothing?

How has the pandemic changed us as a business? I don't know if I have the answer to that yet. I think maybe that's still in process. As of last night, we're still about 112 orders behind.

Every day is something new. Some days more people are able to come into our fulfillment centers. Things have definitely slowed down tremendously. But we are still trying to forge ahead. We're still trying to encourage our community and to be supportive of them during this time, just as they've been with us.

Our turnaround time has changed. Three to four weeks now. As of yesterday, we were filling orders from April 20 when usually we get things out of the door within two to four days.

I never wanted to have a brick and mortar.

We do occasional pop-ups during the holiday season, as well as during the summertime but primarily we are an online business. This situation has confirmed to me that I made the right decision to stay online, as opposed to expanding to brick and mortar.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

Obviously, from a pandemic perspective, it would have to be all of our friends, family and neighbors that have lost their lives. But from a business perspective, the delays have been challenging. I would say 95% of our community has been incredibly understanding. I let people know about delays once they place an order, thanking people directly for taking their time and spending their hard earned money. This is a really challenging time and we really appreciate their business. We also have a big banner on the website letting folks know, but there's always a few who are just not flexible with delays.

We just have to constantly remind people that we’re not Amazon, we're a small business, and we're working with humans.

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

We had a 250% increase in sales in April. And I have to check for May but I would say we're probably at least 200 to 210%. Putting more focus on my side business has led the way toward profit and productivity for District of Clothing. We've also increased our social media activity and now have over 11,000 followers on Instagram, which is great.

I’ve received a ton of thoughtful and kind messages, emails and DMs from our community. I had a Zoom party for my 40th birthday. There were 56 people on the Zoom. Everybody had something from the District of Clothing on and it was very heartwarming.

Have you been following the reopening process in other states, how does that make you feel?

I am a very cautious person. I value humanity. I understand that states have to value the economy, but I don't think the economy works without healthy people. I believe in a slow reopening. I also believe there's just a variety of ways that you could do it. Georgia scares me. Many states scare me, but I think Mayor Bowser and her team are doing a wonderful job being very cautious here. I think they've been incredibly supportive of small businesses, and communicative, which has been great.

What have you learned from this experience?

Our main message is about encouraging people to go from dreaming to doing, we want to encourage progression. This experience has reminded me to continue doing that.

Whether it was a lot or a little, it was enough.

I think as entrepreneurs we get so overwhelmed with the day to day, and it is okay to take a step back and be content with the work that you've done. Whether it was a lot or a little, it was enough. I think that was probably one of the biggest things that I've learned through this. This is a pandemic, this is not a productivity contest. You're doing the work, be content with what you're doing. You're doing the best you can.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Our Common Purpose collection is now supporting the efforts of the World Central Kitchen. Which as of yesterday, has provided over 10 million meals, fresh meals to actual humans. I would just encourage other business owners to be comfortable and content with wherever they are during this. Your productivity does not have to look like someone else's. So this is our story. This is my story, but I hope that whoever's reading this feels encouraged. I hope that comes through in a  positive and encouraging way, because this is really, really, really, really, really hard.

Wake up every day, brush your teeth at whatever time, you know, and try to get it done.

This interview was conducted with David Magida, the founder and owner of Elevate Interval Fitness in Washington, D.C.

David is a former collegiate runner, and became a world ranked competitive Obstacle Racer as one of the founding members of Spartan Race Pro Team. In 2014 he shifted his career path from management consulting to entrepreneurship and fitness, launching what would become one of the most iconic training facilities in the District with Elevate Interval Fitness.

Elevate is a boutique studio that offers a unique combination of HIIT, strength, and yoga workouts through specialized interval training. It boasts a highly accomplished team of coaches, trainers, and staff with two locations on 14th Street and Southwest.

Since opening their doors in 2014, David has grown Elevate into one of DC’s most reputable fitness brands. David and his staff now face an unprecedented sea of challenges as the complications of COVID-19 and its resulting social restrictions have fundamentally changed fitness as we know it across the country, and around the world.

This is a glimpse into his life before the pandemic hit, as well as his continued fight in keeping his business alive.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

My name is David Magida. And I am the founder of Elevate Interval Fitness on 14th Street and in Southwest DC.

Describe what your business was like before Covid-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

Elevate Interval Fitness is a boutique fitness studio, so it's all workout classes. We would open the studio at 5am and the first class would be at 5:30 AM. And we would run classes every 60 minutes, 5:30 AM to 9:30 or 10:30 AM, and then often a lunchtime class at 12:30 PM. Then the afternoons 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM, sometimes 8:30 PM. A lot of classes throughout the day with about 24 people at a time in each class.

Our operations have completely flipped from being this client-centered, in-person model where we're not just providing fitness, but providing a sense of community as well. It's people's social lives, in addition to their actual workouts. It's just kind of what they do for fun, so  we do events and happy hours and things like that. And for a lot of people, we're like their third space where they have work, they have home, and they've got their place to Elevate. Now, all of a sudden, they don't have that. So we’re their routine, you know, we’re their place they go every morning at 6:30am or every evening on the way home from work. So things really, really changed.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened?

A little over a week leading up to when the mayor started shutting things down is when we really felt it. We started getting concerned about it a few weeks out before the shutdown, and every day leading up to it things changed faster and faster.

I don't recall a pandemic in my lifetime that was this concerning. At first I was like, “Okay, everyone, no need to panic...right now the mayor hasn't shut anything down.” We kept telling our clients to try and go about your normal day to day, and emphasize that we've installed additional cleaning procedures and additional time between classes to clean things extra thoroughly for them, including wiping down all the door handles, etc.

It started with that - our gym becoming even more focused on sanitation. We already cleaned throughout the day but this turned into cleaning between every class, every weight getting wiped down, and every piece of equipment getting fully cleaned between every single class.

It got to a point where in addition to our cleaning staff, we now had sales staff and coaches cleaning like crazy.

We basically wanted to get to a point that we could just make everybody comfortable. Every day it was something new like, “Okay, no high fives anymore...we're going to do fist bumps.” Then it eventually became elbow bumps, then finally it came down to zero contact between staff or members. ‍

Every day we'd send a new message to our clients and staff saying, “We’ve changed everything again. And it's more extreme.”

It got to the point that on the 15th of March, which was the day before the mayor issued the closure order, we just kind of looked at the situation and how rapidly it was expanding. And I sent a note out to our members, which was probably the fifth note of the week about updates on COVID, and I said, “Listen, our objective is to be a leader in health and wellness. And it doesn't seem like we can do that. We cannot continue to operate because your health and your safety is the priority here.”

We closed on the 15th of March, voluntarily.

Initially, we were very sure we wanted to launch a digital program. So we had already been writing workouts. We recorded the first workout on Monday morning the 16th, and by midday Monday, we'd already posted it for our members. As of today we’ve done over 100 digital workouts, and we even made an on demand membership program: “Elevate At Home.” Every day, you get a new workout in your inbox and you can do that workout at any point during the day that you want. We also have a library of workouts clients can access which provides about two weeks of workouts at a time.

In addition to offering our HIIT workouts, we've also started offering two bonus workouts a week with dumbbells and kettlebells (if you have equipment) and two yoga - yin yoga and vinyasa yoga. So we want to give people a full range. We’ve also been sending members running workouts and other activities they can do outside on their own, to give people a really well rounded experience. Members can also join LIVE classes they can book, just like they did before with their account credits. These are all Zoom-based, so you're also with other people which provides  that missing sense of community.

For us, it came down to one question, “What can we do to survive?”

We can't charge as much for virtual workouts. We decided on a price point which is more expensive than the generic online workout that older companies have been doing for a long time. We are a little different since we're providing that routine our members love and that normalcy of being with the coaches that you know already. We decided to charge $59/month for this on demand membership, or about $2 per day. We told our members that if they’re worried about finances, just let us know and we could pause their account or convert them to a digital membership rate.

We also told our members that if they want to try and help us make it to the other side of this thing, we welcome anyone who's willing to continue to pay their normal membership dues for access to the on-demand workouts and the LIVE workouts. It’s created a tiered system and the reality is that a lot of our members were like, “Listen financially, I can't do it. I'm not getting paid right now, I'm furloughed.” That was fine, and we completely understood. A lot of our members also responded, “We’re with you, you know we love this place, and we want this place to be here whenever this ends.”

It’s made me happy to see we have a really strong community that's holding us together. I mean we're not doing great, but hey - we're hanging on.

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period? (From the federal government, state, family and friends.)

The mayor's office has been super helpful. We've been on a lot of the “Town Hall” conference calls with their team, just getting information from them. If you asked quickly, you might have been lucky enough to get a payroll protection loan, which we did. We’re really excited about that since one of our objectives was to continue to pay staff through the entirety of this thing and as of now, we are still able to do that.

As far as other things that have been helpful, we are hoping that we can get some assistance from the city in providing tax credits or something similar to our landlords, who hopefully will back down a little bit. Our landlord for our 14th street location is UDR, which is a huge national company, and they are pretty much stonewalling us right now. They refuse to even have a conversation with us about rent relief. Maybe the city council can help us put some pressure on them to at least talk to us about these kinds of rent relief options.

What resources are missing?

The biggest resource we need has to be support with paying our rent. The next big one is when we reopen, we may not be able to find things like wet wipes and hand sanitizer that we need in massive quantities. We want to ask the city to use it’s influence, finances, etc. to help small businesses access a larger scale supply chain.

Honestly I can't find cleaning stuff anywhere except Alibaba, where you have to buy a shipping container’s amount of wet wipes to get an order in.

It’s more critical for studios or gyms like us since we're going to be wiping everything down constantly, and we're going to need hand sanitizer for everybody who enters the space We’re going to need absurd amounts and I don't know where to source these aside from the little teeny tiny bottles you see at stores.

When we do make that step towards opening our doors, we know that we're going to have some people that feel safe and some people that don't. For the ones who don't, we're going to continue to provide online digital workouts for them so that they can have an alternative until they do feel safe. But I think it's important for the city to be vocal in letting people know when it is safe to get back out there.

I think what Elevate - and really any other gym or studio - is going to struggle with is with their customers being scared to be the ‘first ones’ to come back.

Even if it’s safe, everyone's afraid of another wave and that is totally fair. We will probably need some support from the city from that perspective, possibly financially with something like a tax relief program. We need something, anything, because we will likely lose money for what I believe will be the first maybe six months after we reopen due to high operating costs and low utilization.

Whenever reopening happens whether we’re at 25% capacity or 50% capacity - or whatever it is - we need the city’s help so we don't blow through what little cash that we have.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

Well, obviously, when you make a complete business transition from in-person to digital platform, there's a big learning curve there. We've tried to simplify the process by shooting it from a single angle with two different cameras, but initially we started with just a webcam. We brought in external microphones, but we made mistakes buying our first ones and then we had to get a lighting kit, and so on. We've essentially been building, slowly, a small studio.

This process has made us learn a lot of things like how to edit video quickly, trying to find ways to upload faster, and then figuring out basic things like, what's our distribution model? This is very time intensive, can we find a better solution? What do we do about people sharing this IP with others, is there a way that we can install a paywall for this so people can’t just steal it? This entire process of launching this digital platform has been eye opening, but it was the best short term solution to get things out to our members immediately with a pretty high level of quality.

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

The most positive thing from this whole ordeal has been the response from our members., Although you will have some people that will complain about everything, the majority of our people have been just so kind and positive. So many have reached out and sent the nicest emails saying things like, “Thank you, you're the best part of our day,” and, “...this is the only sense of normal that I have in a time of uncertainty,” and, “...I'm so lucky to be a part of this community.”

My favorite is probably, “Well, when I think back on my time with the stay at home order, I'm going to be thinking about my Elevate At Home workouts.” For us, all of this support has given us the motivation and the inspiration to keep on doing a good job and continuing to put out high quality content and to not give up.

Have you been following the reopening process in other states, how does that make you feel?

I feel that some of these states have moved a little too soon.

I know that DC will be conservative about reopening, and I want to be there when it happens - we want to be conservative as well.

That means waiting till the time is right, maybe opening at 25 or 50% capacity, and maybe even shortening the classes to allow extra cleaning time in between each session. We also want to limit the equipment used in each class so that we not only have less cleanup to do, but also  to limit contact between members. Other changes will likely be people queueing outside for class with six feet apart rather than waiting in the lobby like they used to. We will probably not allow people to use the showers after class, and direct them out of the studios after each class.

We are thinking about possibly changing the schedule so people are working out in the middle of the day since they're already staying at home. In that sense, we can have fewer classes congregated in the morning or evenings and offer more flexible class types. In general, we will probably have staff wear masks at all times to protect them. I don't know what the mask policy will be yet for members, a lot of this stuff is going to come down to what are the best practices advised by the CDC and from the city.

With that said, we are happy to provide our guidance and the best way to organize workouts and keep things safe and clean in our opinion.

When it comes to reopening, what are you most concerned about?

With reopening I would say it's mostly a financial concern. We're going to have a lot of work to do, we're going to be launching a lot of workouts, while also still having to produce our digital program for those who don’t feel safe coming in yet.

I also think people underestimate the long term effect the fear of crowded places will have on people's psyche, especially in an industry like fitness.

‍When we think about what it takes to reopen, a big part of our concern is our costs and how we allocate our efforts. The reality is that it takes a long time to produce high quality products digitally, and balancing that with our in-person classes will be tough. We don't know what our cash flow situation will be and I think a lot of businesses are going to fail on the reopening process because they will fail to account for their expenses going up.

What is your best case scenario for reopening?

I don't know that there is a best case scenario, but I suppose if there was one, it would be one that a vaccine would be available immediately. Everybody is confident and going back out there, nobody's getting sick. There's no second wave. People go back to complete normalcy and our membership is thriving. [Laughs], I think that is a very much wishful thinking.

Honestly it's going to be a grind for a while and we're going to have to run really lean, keep expenses low.

The public will have to be very understanding about all of the businesses that reopen in terms of what they're going to be providing, from an operation standpoint and from a customer service standpoint - everything is going to take a lot longer than usual.

I do think that the introduction of virtual products is a game changer. I went to get coffee this morning, and I ordered it on an app on my phone. And although they already had that feature, I didn't use it before. I just always stood and waited in line. Now it's going to be second nature. I think a lot of our members are going to come in two days a week and do some of our at home workouts on their other days. Or even when it comes to traveling for work, we had a few people who weren't joining our studio because they traveled Monday through Thursday. Now those same people actually want to buy a membership because then they can access online workouts and do those on the road.

I think our model has changed a bit in that sense and ideally, we can grow that digital product offering and become successful there.

What have you learned from this experience?

I've learned that my team and I are capable of adapting in ways I never thought of. I’m lucky to have an amazing team, as well as members and clients who cheer us on because they love what we do and want to see us succeed.

I've got some folks who are staying at home and haven’t stepped foot in the gym, but they're hustling from their living room by helping us run payroll, handling customer service and dealing with all of the other administrative things we need to stay afloat.

I've got some other people who are helping us actually do the workouts coming into the studio, setting up cameras, doing all those little things so we can continue to put out a product for our members.

This process has shown me the importance of what we’ve built, and the impact it’s had in our members’ lives. We're really lucky that Elevate has developed such a strong community, and we're not just a spot that people go to workout - we’re a family.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

People can access our workouts at www.trainatelevate.com. ”Elevate at Home” is our monthly program where you get a new daily workout or two in your inbox and our Elevate Live Zoom workouts - I'd highly recommend people try out a month and see how they like it.

Honestly, it'll change your life, you will feel like you're with other people, you will feel a new sense of motivation, and I think it will give you an opportunity to just get out of your own head because we all need that every day. Working out does so much for your state of mind, everything from your emotional stability to your own personal confidence. Exercise is the foundation for building your sense of normalcy, and we’re here to help.

This interview was conducted with JC Smith, founder of D.C.-based Bailiwick Clothing Company.

JC started the company with his brother when they noticed a tshirt design they simply gave away to another clothing company resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in sales for that brand which begged the question, “Why not recreate this level of success for ourselves?” This was the inspiration for Bailiwick Clothing Company, a D.C.-based apparel brand with a focus on the visual narrative of the District of Columbia and the intrinsic culture of its residents.

The Bailiwick Clothing Company catalogue is nothing short of a stunning, visual smorgasbord of the city’s cultural history that ranges from local slang, allusions to iconic landmarks, and a number of other references only ‘locals’ get. The brand’s loyalty to the District of Columbia is only matched by the city’s residents, with some of the area’s most notable entrepreneurs, athletes, and local leaders sporting Bailiwick shirts.

With that said, JC and his company are not immune to the effects that COVID-19 has had on retail. The precipitous drop in revenue has forced many retail giants to stay solvent any way they can, and for the unfortunate few that can’t - face bankruptcy.

This interview explores how JC is keeping Bailiwick afloat in the turbulence that rocked his industry, as well as the realities they face in keeping the business alive.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

I'm JC Smith, and the name of the business is Bailiwick Clothing Company.

Describe what your business was like before Covid-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

Before COVID-19 things were going really well. Usually this part of the year is a little slower. We're ramping up. Because a lot of our business actually happens at events, we do a lot of pop ups and things like that. Business before would be strategizing, putting things in place for the summertime. We’re normally setting our strategy, getting the spring line out and getting ready for the summer line. Tank tops, crop tops and things like that. We do it all in the DMV. All the sales and designs happen here in D.C. The actual printing and embroidery production mostly happens in Virginia.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened?

Honestly, almost right away. One of our biggest events of the first part of the year is SXSW. We make a lot of the shirts for the #WeDC House and other groups that exhibit there. We had a bunch of really big orders that were earmarked for SXSW. Then the event got canceled. We had already produced those orders and were on the way to deliver them, ship them off to Austin. Cancelling that event felt like a pretty big deal.

Another big part of our business is retail. We sell our shirts at a lot of local retailers in D.C. and at a couple museums as well. We sell our shirts at the National Zoo, the National Portrait Gallery, at both Reagan Airport and Dulles Airport, and then at Shop Made in DC, and a few other small retailers and boutiques around the city. Once COVID happened, you started seeing all these retailers, museums and shops close, and immediately a big chunk of our revenue went away. By not having events and not having retail, you see the impact really quickly.

How has your assessment of the potential impact on your business changed over time as this situation has unfolded?

At first the main thing was just the uncertainty. Everyone's just nervous and wondering how long this will last. We started to pivot. We started ramping up our online business. We've always had online business but that made up about 25% of our total business. Since the retail events have dried up, we put more of our efforts on building up our website, putting more products out there. We started making masks.

So now, I feel that we can make it through this thing, no matter how long it lasts.

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period?

We applied for a bunch of grants and loans. So far, we got a grant from the city. We haven't gotten it yet, but I think we're gonna get it next week. It's not huge, but it's definitely gonna help. We're grateful for that. We are still waiting to hear back from some of the other grants that we applied for.

We’ve had help from a couple organizations, like DSLBD, Department of Small and Local Business Development and WACIF, Washington Area Community Investment Fund. WACIF connected us to potential buyers who were local and in need of masks.

What resources are missing?

Obviously, we’d always love more grant opportunities. My brother and I run the company, but we both have other full time jobs. We both have income coming in, neither of us have been laid off or furloughed. I would love to have all the grants that I applied for come through, and have $50,000 of free money coming in. But since I have other income coming in, I’ll understand if we don't get it. It's better to go to another small business or entrepreneur if this is their full time job, and they need the grant to put food on their table or to keep paying their mortgage. And by all means, we'll figure out how to make it. That's really the approach that we take.

We still do have sales coming in now, just enough to sustain us through this.

How has this experience changed Bailiwick Clothing?

With the production being here, we've had to make some changes. We clean everything a lot more. Everything gets wiped down before we start working, after we do a print job, and we start packing things away. Also maintain social distancing, wearing masks in the warehouse, and all that.

I think it's really teaching us that we have to be more nimble, and we have to be flexible and able to pivot. I mean, just, you know, having that capacity and that flexibility to pivot where you need to get creative.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

The uncertainty, and seeing our biggest revenue streams dry up. This shirt that I'm wearing actually is our Cherry Blossom shirt. We made a huge run of those for the zoo, some of our local retailers and for the airport. The lock downs really started happening during the cherry blossom season.

The Mayor even had to put barricades up so you couldn’t access the Tidal Basin.

It feels like we missed out on the cherry blossom season. We had hundreds of T-shirts that never got sold. That being said, I like to keep a good perspective on it, that we make t-shirts, we don't make bread or milk, it's not a perishable item. We could put them on the shelf and bring them back for next cherry blossom season. But, when you have that huge outlay of funds at first, and you can’t make it back for a year or something, that hurts.

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

We started some campaigns to help raise money for organizations to help them get through the pandemic. These campaigns have really been successful. They've really helped us connect more with the community.

One of the campaigns is a shirt that says “Kindness is Contagious”. That shirt helps raise funds for the restaurant community. To date we've raised about $7,000.

I think we're going to raise even more because we're coming out with masks soon. We're working with RAMW, Restaurant Association of Metro Washington. We're also working with Hook Hall to help raise money for the Coronavirus Workers Relief Fund. And then we also did another campaign that says, “DC Together”. With that campaign, we're raising funds for help frontline workers. We've worked with MedStar Georgetown and Sibley Memorial hospitals. We have a T-shirt and a mask with the campaign on there.

We're not making a ton of money on these campaigns. We’re giving all that money away, but it helps because it brings people to our website. When they buy a “Kindness is Contagious” shirt, they might also buy one of our other shirts or hats. We're getting cross sales, which has helped us get through the last couple months.

Have you been following the reopening process in other states, how does that make you feel?

I see the videos on Twitter. I don't know if you saw the video from Columbus last week, I'm from Ohio. So I always see things going on in Ohio, but in Columbus over the weekend, they reopened and there was a bar by Ohio State, hundreds of people packed, no social distancing, no masks. It was just crazy. Then in Georgia, you see the malls open, everyone's trying to get Jordans, the beaches in Florida, the people that want to get haircuts all over.

It's a little unnerving, knowing that this virus isn't going anywhere and seeing people are still doing what they want to do.

You see it here in D.C. as well. It's to a lesser degree. It is a little unnerving because, my honest opinion is that we're not ready to reopen yet. I think we're getting closer and I appreciate and respect Mayor Bowser for being cautious. I think that's the best way because the worst thing is that we reopen too fast, and have a worse outbreak. Obviously, D.C. is so much different than a lot of other places because of our density.

I live in Navy Yard. There's a lot of people here. We're all stacked on top of each other. I go for a jog and honestly, I hate wearing masks, but I do. I'm trying to be cautious when I know I'm going to be running around a lot of people. I mean it's like any normal day out there. When the weather's nice. You see people hanging out, tanning, drinking, throwing footballs. I’d hate to see this thing come back with a vengeance.

When it comes to reopening, what are you most concerned about?

I understand a lot of businesses that are hurting and want to reopen. I get it, I want places to be open to sell my shirts again. Mom and Pop businesses are hanging on, like Ben's Chili bowl, for instance, still operational but on a takeout basis and at one location. I understand the plight of local companies but, I do think it’s best to err on the side of caution.

What have you learned from this experience?

The willingness to change. At first I didn't want to make masks. Now we're in the mask business. Having the willingness to be flexible in your business and not being afraid to make that pivot, if that's going to be what carries you through. I think that's probably the biggest, biggest thing.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

This has been crazy, right? Everyone is living through it, I think this is gonna be something that we tell our grandchildren about.

I wish that there were more resources for minority businesses and women owned businesses, which there are a ton here in D.C. You hear about the big companies, Ruth Chris's and the Lakers getting PPP loans, and most of them gave those back. But the fact that they got them in the first place leaves something to really be desired when you're thinking about the small guys vs. the big guys. This pandemic has laid bare a lot of inequalities that small business owners and just humans in general are facing.

I look at the “kindness is contagious” design, and it definitely makes me think about trying to be kinder. To value other people every day and the contributions of others every day. I know a few people that have passed away because of COVID. It's just crazy to think that two months ago these people were healthy, and now they're gone.

Value people, value what’s really important in life and try to be better at what we do.

This interview was conducted with Koki Adasi, the head of Team Koki at Compass Real Estate.

Koki and his team are a part of what most consider to be a bullet-proof industry in the Washington region: real estate. Even after the economic crisis in 2008 ravaged real estate markets across the country, Washington escaped the housing crisis relatively unscathed due to the backbone of federal funding that has always supported the local economy. Real estate value in the area has been on an upward trajectory with no signs of stopping, particularly with the announcement of Amazon’s massive expansion into the Northern Virginia corridor.

Koki is a well-known thought leader in his industry, the Immediate Past President of the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtor (GCAAR), providing real estate expertise to media outlets including CNN, NPR, HGTV, Washingtonian and the Washington Post, as well as earning a spot in the prestigious Realtor Magazine ’30 Under 30′. Having joined forces with COMPASS, one of the hottest new tech startups disrupting the world of residential real estate, the future couldn’t have looked brighter for Team Koki and their work in the region.

Unfortunately, nobody could have foreseen the global pandemic on the horizon and the lasting effects it would have on every industry in the world - including real estate. Despite efforts by the Federal Reserve - including one of the lowest interest rates in history - to jumpstart the country’s economy, the massive job loss and reduced spending has dealt a noticeable blow to local real estate activity.

This interview sheds light on Koki’s efforts to lead his team through unprecedented market conditions, as well as his personal insight into what the future holds for real estate in the age of COVID.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

My name is Koki Adasi, and the name of my business is Koki and Associates Incorporated. The name that we use for marketing purposes is Team Koki at Compass Real Estate.

Describe what your business was like before Covid-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

On most days, I would get to the office around 9am. I would spend most mornings generating leads and prospecting, trying to find new opportunities and new people that we can assist with buying, selling and renting real estate. I get a ton of emails, so that morning time is really spent following up with people.

The afternoons and evenings are spent meeting and consulting with clients. Both those who are looking to sell their properties, and buyers who are looking to get into the marketplace, whether it's the first time or they’re selling their property to buy a bigger place. I sit down with them to walk through the entire home buying process and explain to them how our team works and how we can assist them with a pretty big financial decision.

That's an average day before COVID, and of course that has changed dramatically since the shutdown.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened?

We started to feel the impact around late February and early March. Our conversations turned to, “this is really serious. We may need to change how we do business.” But we didn't immediately understand exactly what that would look like. Once D.C, Maryland and Virginia issued the stay at home orders, we knew we needed to figure out a new way to operate.

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period?

Compass has shared tons of information with agents via email. We have also had several Zoom conferences, where we're all checking in and making sure we have the right information to keep ourselves and our clients safe.

The local real estate association, GCAAR, has also been sending out information to make sure we’re all being compliant and following rules to stay safe and keep our clients safe. GCAAR supports about 11,000 Realtors in Montgomery County and Washington D.C. The National Association of Realtors has been a great resource as well.

What resources are missing?

I feel like there's been a lot of information put out there. The places that I'm going to for information have done a great job of condensing it down and making sure that we're getting the right bullet points that we need to properly and safely conduct our business. We've been very fortunate in that sense, and also very fortunate that we are still able to  operate our business at all. A lot of people have lost jobs or been furloughed. When you see the unemployment numbers, it’s concerning, but it also makes you feel grateful to have a job.

How has this experience changed how you do business?

I personally would be shocked if, when this is all done, we go back to how things were before. I almost feel like it's impossible to go back to how things were before.

I think that my business has changed and will be changed forever. For example, right now, I don't see much value in going to an office. We've been very productive from home.

Clients have adjusted well to it. If we need to, we can meet in person, we can do it safely. But we've also realized we can accomplish a lot through virtual conference calls. I see the ways our business will change forever as mostly being for the better. I think this has caused a lot of people to look at how they can work more efficiently. You're saving time, you're also saving money. The client is saving time and money as well.

Typically I would meet a client in the office or at their home for a consultation, which will take about an hour or so, and now we're meeting virtually. They can walk upstairs to their home office or sit down at the dining room table. They don't have to travel back and forth. I think there's been many silver linings in this process. COVID-19, in and of itself is a horrible virus that's impacting the entire world. And at the same time, there have been positive things that have come from this situation.

I think virtual tours and meetings are here to stay.

I do think that open houses will return eventually. However, now we have the option of virtual open houses. I do believe that we're going to see many more of them once we're back to our new normal.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

This industry is essentially sales, and it takes a lot of interpersonal skills, connecting with people, lots of communication and face to face interaction. All of that is really gone because now even if I meet with you in person, I can't completely see your face, I can't shake your hand. Just the little things that really create a connection are gone now. That has been a challenge for me. This past Saturday, I went to a client's house, where I’ll be selling their property in Olney, Maryland, and I walked in for the first time to actually physically meet them. We're not shaking hands, we’re social distancing to make sure that we're following the guidelines and keeping people safe. But it's been challenging for someone like me who likes to make that connection and have those face to face meetings.

In the past, we would host various events with our clients, from happy hours to wine tours to our annual fall festival. Right now our team is brainstorming on ways that we can still deliver something similar while following all the guidelines that are currently out there. It's challenging but I know that we'll be able to still give our clients a great experience during this period.

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

This experience forces people to stay at home, to hunker down. People are spending time outside, going to a park, walking around and exercising. But ultimately, spending more time at home. When you spend more time at home, you're thinking about the things that you want to either add to your home or change about your home. Or you think about things that your home doesn't have, that you wish you had. That creates the thought, “Okay, well, how can I get what I want?” We've seen that in the last two months, home searches for single family houses that have yards has gone up 40%. That means people who are in dense locations, or living in townhomes, condos and apartments, are feeling cramped.

We've seen that in the last two months, home searches for single family houses that have yards has gone up 40%.

I would say the last five or six buyers who reached out looking for a new home have all commented how COVID-19 has helped speed up their process for moving into a new property.

COVID-19 a horrible pandemic, which is creating opportunity that wasn't there before.

I think working more efficiently has been a positive, saving a lot of time and money. The ability to reach out to folks more because I have had so much time at home, and so I can prospect more and stay in touch. Before COVID-19, I was often working really long hours. Being able to be home almost all day with my kids and my wife has been a blessing in disguise. I've been working out more than I ever have. I'm one who likes to focus on the positive, and I think this situation has brought a lot of positives into our lives.

Have you been following the reopening process in other states, how does that make you feel?

I've been following the openings, but I don't feel like I'm missing out. I'm not sure if opening is the right decision, but I'm glad we get to watch businesses in other areas do it first so we can learn from them.. Are they seeing more cases? Are cases actually dropping, even though things are open? For us here in the DMV, it's a benefit to see that from afar, get the intelligence, get the data, and then make a decision based on that. And of course, to see how things are trending in our area as well.

What have you learned from this experience?

I’ve learned that regardless of what's happening in the world, if you have the right mindset you can get through any challenge. You can still thrive and be successful in a very tough situation, and you can still support your community and give back in a major way. Our team goal for the year is to donate $25,000 to local nonprofits. When COVID-19 arrived we decided to help alleviate some of the hardships being felt right now in the DMV because we're all blessed and have means to still work. We need to help folks who are negatively impacted by this situation, and that's been a great thing to be a part of.

This interview is with Nakomis (Koko) Gilbert and Choi Rose, respectively the Founder and Manager of Koiled & Coiffed, a D.C.-based hair salon.

Before the onset of COVID, Koko and Choi were running a busy salon teeming with regulars and loyal clientele. Their salon was busy right up until the Mayor passed the stay at home order, with clientele trying to get as much styling and maintenance in before salon services would be no more. Like many other businesses in D.C., they have been left adrift in a sea of uncertainty.

The economic impact of COVID-19 on industries such as beauty and cosmetic care has been immeasurable, driving both massive retail operators and smaller businesses alike into dire financial straits. Koko and Choi have been forced to put their business on hold as they wait to see what the future holds for them and the beauty industry as a whole.

This interview is a glimpse into Koko and Choi’s life before the pandemic hit, as well as their concerns and hopes for what the future may hold for their salon.

What is your name? What is the name of your business?

My name is Nakomis Gilbert, but everyone calls me Koko, and this is our Salon Manager, Choi Rose. The name of our business is Koiled & Coiffed.

Describe what your business was like before Covid-19 hit. What did an average day look like for your business?

We're a full service hair salon. We specialize in color, natural hair relaxers, and haircuts. We do anything related to hair.

On an average day we like to arrive at the salon early. We get settled, tidy up from the previous day, have some breakfast, and prepare to take on the day. We would stay busy with a steady flow of clients, spacing out bookings depending on the service.

When did you start to feel the impact of COVID-19, what happened?

We were busy up until the Mayor issued the stay at home order. We tried to get as many clients in before the shut down. We tried to prepare clients by giving them low maintenance hairstyles, like braids. Some clients came in to touch up their hair color. We wanted to get everyone in, so their styling needs would be met for the next few weeks. We didn't know the shutdown would last more than two months. People started getting scared and overbooking. They were like, “I gotta get my hair done!”

How has your assessment of the potential impact on your business changed over time as this situation has unfolded?

It's kind of a double whammy for us. This time last year, we were actually out of work for about eight weeks. When this happened again, it was like, “Oh my god, we're about to be out of work again.” At first, it had a big impact on us emotionally, because we were just finally catching up from being out of work for so long the previous year. Dealing with two major shutdowns, two years in a row, has made me want to restructure our entire business to be more resilient. Experiencing Covid-19 has motivated us to dig into what that restructuring could look like.

What resources, if any, helped you through this time period?

Clients have been helpful. They've been sending us money, even though they haven't been getting their hair done. They have been sending us money as if they were getting services done every two weeks. That's really been helpful and heartwarming.

We received a Small Business Recovery Microgrant from D.C. We also received the Economic Impact Payment from the IRS. We're currently in the application process for the PPP.

I think the Mayor and her team are doing the best that they can with the resources that they have.

She's very good about letting us know the resources for small businesses. Now. The websites aren't really helpful when she releases the information, the websites crash, because everyone is trying to get on all at the same time. I think they're doing the best that they can given that this is new for everyone. I try not to get really upset about everything. I remind myself that this is new for everyone, everyone's life changed overnight.

What resources are missing?

It's a long and frustrating process. Everyone's applying and you hear different things from different people. Some people I know have had their PPP applications declined. We haven't gotten anything yet. I think we're going to be fine, they're just requesting more information right now.

We hope we will get the PPP through the second round. We missed out on applying for the first round. I feel like for smaller businesses, they're leaving us in limbo. Compared to the larger businesses that we've seen on the news, Ruth Chris and Shake Shack, these people are getting millions of dollars.

And then here we are, the small businesses trying to keep up, and we have landlords that just don't care.

Our landlord doesn't care at all. When I say at all, I mean at all. He's like, “you guys need to figure. it. out.”

How has this experience changed you as a business?

We've completely stopped services. We haven't been able to see our clients. We've been sending out emails, with YouTube haircare videos, product suggestions and offering to help clients through FaceTime, email or text. But that's the most we can do right now.

We haven't done any house calls or anything like that to comply with social distancing. We have children, so you don't want to go into other places and risk bringing it home to our families. We've tried our best to keep in contact with clients. They’ve been frustrated at home. I continuously go over the Do’s and Don’ts in quarantine. Don’t cut your hair. Don’t color your hair. Don’t burn your hair. (laughs)

You know, just little things that they’ll be comfortable with and make the process easier for them. But a lot of our clients don't do their own hair at all, so it was a total shock for them. We just make a list and check in with clients weekly. Though our clients are eager to get back, they also don’t want to rush us back to work. They recognize the seriousness of Covid-19.

What has been the most difficult thing you have dealt with so far?

Not working, and becoming teachers for our kids. We’re not teachers, we’re hairstylists. I gave up one job for a new job that I’m not trained to do. That’s been the hardest part because we enjoy our jobs. We love getting up in the morning and going to work. So the first couple of weeks, we were in shock wondering, “What am I supposed to do?”

Just not being able to go to work, or go through normal day to day has been really challenging.

Has anything positive happened for you personally or for the business as a result of COVID-19?

I've been able to spend more time with my child, which is great because I was always working before. For business, I think the most positive thing has been how much love and support we’ve received from our clients. It’s also been great to see small businesses really band together and reach out to each other during this process. We keep in touch with a lot of other business owners, especially on the Hill where we work. They send us grant information, keep us updated on applications, and any other news that might be helpful.

It feels like everyone has really been trying to help us stay afloat. That’s one of the best outcomes from this situation. We've seen how much support that we have.

So even in those moments when we're feeling sad, we know that we do have support and it’s going to be okay.

Have you been following the reopening process in other states, how does that make you feel?

I think a lot of the states opened a little too soon. It just makes me anxious. I don't want us to feel rushed because everyone else is opening.

I think when people started seeing the other states open, they started to get a little antsy.

I don’t feel like we're ready, each day feels like there's something new. I just want them to figure it out so we all can be 100% safe, instead of making assumptions of what we can and cannot do. With the other states opening up we'll be able to see what's going to happen from it, but it's really scary because people are literally risking their lives to have a good time or to get a haircut.

What are your plans for your business to reopen and what does that timeline look like?

We actually asked our clients for input, and they emailed us a long list of suggestions. I have been thinking about some of the changes we can make inside of the salon but I’m hesitant to make permanent changes for something temporary. But we're not sure if this is going to be a long term thing because our salon is a smaller space.

To actually keep people six feet apart will almost be impossible.

I thought maybe we can put up drywall and have barriers in between each station. To do something like that would be costly, and then we still wonder if we would need that forever. One of the greatest things about being in a salon is seeing each other, and interacting with each other. To put those barriers up would completely change the experience. We don’t want to do that. If we have to do that, we will, but we really don’t want to change the experience.

We’ve been taking training classes for opening up, as far as extra sanitation. We’ve had a regular cleaning team, but we will have them even more often now. We’ll have gloves and masks available for clients and staff. One client suggested that we don’t allow food, because if someone needs to eat food then they would need to take their mask off. I thought that was a pretty good suggestion that I hadn’t considered.

DC hasn’t sent out their guidelines for salons just yet. They had a few ideas, and they’ve been asking for ideas as well. We’ll just wait and see what is suggested and go from there.

When it comes to reopening, what are you most concerned about?

Health. To make sure that the environment stays clean and healthy for our clients. I'm concerned about opening too soon. I’m worried that we’ll get back in the groove and get comfortable, and then they’ll realize that it was too soon and we’ll have to close back down again. That's my biggest concern. Another thing we implemented for the reopening is that we will not serve new clients for a while. We feel more comfortable servicing clients that we know, and who would not put their health or others at risk.

What should people know about your business before Covid-19 and after Covid-19?

Some things will change, and some things will stay the same. We just don’t know yet. We always put our clients first, and that will stay the same. We're going to put their health first. We like to stay connected. When we’re back up, we will do everything in our power to keep you and your family safe. We don't want anybody to feel uncomfortable in our space.

What have you learned from this experience?

We learned that we are a business that can't operate from home. We need our salon to be open. We need to be with our clients in order for our business to work. It's been a journey.

It taught us to be patient because there’s nothing we can do in the meantime.

No matter what happens if you run your business correctly, file taxes, you can survive. I look back and I’m sure glad that we did things the right way. If we hadn’t filed taxes correctly, I think that our business would be coming to an end. We’re still not getting paid, but we're able to pay our rent, which is great, because when this is over, we'll have somewhere to go.

We know a lot of stylists that were flying by night, and not following rules. Now they're trying to figure out how to make ends meet because they're not able to receive any of the relief benefits.

There’s going to be a few bumps in the road but in the end we'll be just fine. I think society as a whole needed this wake up call. I think everybody's just been coasting through doing things the way they want to do. And we can't do it that way anymore.

This is a wake up call for everyone.