The COVID19 pandemic hit everyone differently. It was a very difficult time to own a business, but the thousands of people who lost their lives or loved ones suffered the greatest tragedy of all. Our hearts are with anyone who lost someone close to them during this pandemic.

While big corporations scored record profits, small local businesses bore the brunt of the pandemic’s financial crisis. When we look back on this time it’s almost impossible to imagine making it through, but somehow we did. Everyday we felt the weight of protecting our own families from this new unknown, as well as every person on our team who were going through the same thing. As a small business we had a small crew which meant we knew nearly everyone as a friend, as well as their partners and children. We knew that the best thing we could do was to give them something to come back to.

When we look back on 2020, the thing that scares us the most is the possibility of something like this happening again. We wanted to share ways that we were able to pivot our business and support our staff to help our business survive- in hopes that it might help another business survive their own future hardships.

Day One

Rumors had been swirling around about COVID19 and the possibility of businesses closing, but the idea of every business in America closing indefinitely? There was no way it would get that bad. But as we all know, it did. We called a meeting with the entire team and let them know that we had to close and we didn’t know what would happen next. We gave everyone a box and emptied our walk-in of all perishable items so that at least we knew they would have food for a while. We teared up delivering the news and broke down by ourselves in the office. That is a day we will never forget and hope to never relive.

Frugal Chicks

Unknowingly, this step was the most important step to surviving the pandemic. Saving has always been a huge priority for us and we’ve never been ones to spend or pocket the profits of our business. In the beginning, it wasn’t easy to put these practices into place, but we are so glad that we did. By having a comfortable savings set aside, we were able to cushion the loss of being closed completely for 3 weeks and reopening slowly at a fraction of our usual sales. Thanks to this frugal business practice we were able to keep our salaried employees paid, slowly bring back our hourly employees, and maintain insurance for our whole team. This process completely drained our savings but this gave us all the more motivation to save again when we were back on our feet. We want to make sure we are as prepared as possible for all the “unprecedented times’ life seems to keep throwing at us.

We know that being in a position to save is a huge privilege and not always possible for businesses starting out, but we highly encourage all small businesses to price your products and services in a way that allows you to save. Even though you may want to serve your customers with the lowest price possible, you will not be able to serve anyone if your business cannot survive inevitable hardships.

Pivot, pivot, pivot.

Like most, the use of humor while actually being terrified is the only way we mentally persevered. This old “Friends” quote was on repeat because every morning it felt like we needed to reinvent our entire business. We didn’t make the first round of PPP, but we had too many people depending on us to sit idly waiting. We will never regret taking every precaution necessary to protect our team and our guests, but it was not easy to navigate as business owners. Here are some things we did to keep our doors open and get our food into guests’ bellies.

Served only togo meals curbside. Seeing our dining room empty was heartbreaking, but knowing we were serving our food and working again soothed our souls!
Made take-home meal kits! We would package everything up with ingredients and instructions on how to make your favorite Two Chicks meal at home. From biscuits and gravy to our sourdough pancake combo- it was a little break for people stuck at home planning and cooking every meal.
Opened our dining room at smaller capacity percentages. This was an especially tough time. Our guests longed for normalcy, and our team longed for work and stability. But neither were completely possible, and tensions were sometimes very high. We refused to let our servers be berated by guests who didn’t agree with our policies and it always felt like we had to be prepared for the worst of humanity to come out. We were called “mask nazis, overly cautious, not cautious enough” and who knows what else and it was exhausting. But by supporting our team first, we made sure we always had staff to serve the kind guests who understood what we were going through.
Offering a grocery menu. Guests could add on a dozen eggs, bread, milk and more to their to go or dine in order. This was especially helpful because services like grocery pick up and delivery were not as widely available as they are now. Our guests especially liked being able to purchase local groceries from a local business instead of supporting big box stores.
Offering cocktail kits. Possibly our favorite thing about this time period was that our city offered special permits that allowed us to still sell cocktails and cocktail kits to guests at home. We purchased extra to go products that would allow us to bottle up our house cocktails, label them accordingly, and send you off to enjoy them in the comfort of your own home!
Holiday gift kits. We were still limited on seating, so we knew guests would opt to stay home where they could all eat together. We created meal and gift kits that included things like: a full Mother’s Day Brunch kit for 6-8 people, specialty mimosas, flowers and face masks from local women owned businesses. Seeing photos of our guests enjoying these kits at home was such a bright light on days when we were used to seeing their smiling faces in person.

Moving Forward

These are, of course, not copy and paste solutions to all restaurant problems. But we hope these examples serve to jog your creativity to all the ways that you can help your business withstand anything. Surviving this pandemic with our business intact is one of our proudest accomplishments as business owners. We hope this blog inspires you to take a proactive approach to running your business and preparing for everything the world throws at you when you can, and pivoting whenever you can’t.

Having survived this difficult period, we felt called to give back to the community that supported us. We created the Champagne Campaign which donates a portion of our sales to nonprofits in our area. Learn more about The Champagne Campaign here!