Why I've Decided To Carry On & Adapt My New Business Plans During The Corona Virus Crisis.

Happy start of the new 2020 tax year UK Freelancers. I’m joking, obviously. Like so many, I was scheduled to launch a new business today, however all the months planning and preparing were written off in an instant when we went into lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Three weeks ago, the start of the lockdown in England, I was far more consumed by the real horror that hundreds of thousands of people were going to die than my own economic future. 

What is going to happen to the thousands of people, mostly single women, without benefits, partners, parents, families, trust funds, inheritances or any other invisible financial support, who scrape a hard-earned survival as agency teaching assistants, language student hosts, cash-in-hand cleaners, bar tenders, waitresses who live off their tips because their pay is so low, market traders, car booters, online sellers, private tutors, and 100s of other gruelling jobs I don’t know about, coz no one cares about, who are not tax dodgers or benefit frauds, but are also not registered on the system?

So many people scrape by in this country by doing ‘this and that’ 12 hours a day, the flea market traders I know are in their 80’s and graft six days a week standing out in the freezing cold for a few quid...which they LIVE ON. They don’t earn enough to pay tax, don’t have a pension, but earn enough to survive week by week, hand to mouth. 

What is going to happen to the undocumented invisible women and children who have been illegally trafficked into the country and enslaved in the sex trade? Where are they? Is anyone taking care of them? 

Then I was faced with the worry I might myself die and what would happen to my baby cat Begonia Coconut.

Self isolation -

Four weeks into my own self-isolation I have panicked, cried, watched too much news, raged at the treatment of front line medical staff, cleaned the kitchen, not slept, slept too much, marvelled at the amount of food I actually have already sitting in the fridge freezer and the carousel cupboard of darkness in the corner, gorged on four packets of paracetamol and inhaled a packet of lemsip I found in a vanity case from 2014, while feeling entirely clueless in how to help NHS & Keyworkers who are unprotected and on their knees.

After I felt healthy and regained some clarity again, I still felt utterly useless. I don’t qualify for any state assistance under the current government financial aid packages, I’m too old to pick cabbages and sleep in a caravan with 9 other cabbage pickers in the ‘Land Army’, I have no medical skills, I can’t save a life, the only contribution I can make is stay indoors, which I have done, fanatically. 

Why I’m carrying on…

I felt my future business plans were entirely irrelevant and trivial. Everything I thought was important - ethical shopping, recycling fashion etc seemed entirely pointless and insignificant. Until I read an article warning that if small businesses and sole traders disappear, it leaves the big bastards to entirely control and profit from absolutely everything. So, a subversive anarchist till I die, I’ve decided to cluelessly carry on, as they say, with frantic hard-learned adjustments as they appear, no doubt. 

Online selling…

One aspect of my new business was reselling antique and vintage fashion and eco home decor, however I was extremely concerned about the welfare of the postal workers, so I shut up shop immediately and completely. I did not want to put Royal Mail staff in jeopardy whilst delivering my parcels, but since then I have followed and researched the Royal Mail’s guidance and they are at the moment encouraging online traders to continue. Until that changes, I’ll open my eBay shop Bamboo Betty with a limited range of small items here - Bamboo Betty Shop

Here are Royal Mail’s current guidelines on receiving parcels to your door and my statement on EBay, (please check the Royal Mail website for updates): 

“IMPORTANT NOTE: I am extremely conscious of the welfare of the postal staff during this crisis and I have followed Royal Mail's guidelines precisely. I ship 'second class signed for' delivery, however your postie will knock on your door, place your parcel on the ground and step back. When you open the door and pick up the parcel they will log it as 'signed for' - YOU WILL NOT BE ASKED TO SIGN THE HANDHELD MACHINE. Due to a reduced workforce, there may also be longer delivery times. Thank you very much for your custom and patience ~ take care, Bamboo Betty.”

ESL Business Copywriting & Education Services -

Alongside my vintage and antique business, I was due to launch ESL English Business, Culture & Creative Writing and Vocal Coaching classes, which were going to be face to face, however now I’ll attempt to convert that to online, combined with my ESL Copywriting services, available from Betty’s English Facebook page HERE

I will make changes and updates as things develop and as I figure it out. 

Please join me, I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing, I’ll try to entertain you, fill a corner of your life with a moment of colour and with a bit of luck sell you something beautiful, make you laugh or write you something helpful. 

I hope you are safe, stay in, I’ll share the secrets of my magic fridge with you soon.

All my love.