Yahoo Finance ‘Never say never’: 5 key lessons learnt from lockdown
Sydney emerged from its 107-day lockdown on the 11th of October, but for many local businesses, future success hinges on lessons learnt in lockdown.
When Sydney entered lockdown on Saturday 26 June, owner of restaurant and catering business Charlie & Franks Francesca Bartone-Prodromou knew what she needed to do.
“We were in a better position to understand what we were in for compared to the first lockdown, so we thought, ‘Right, let’s pull out all of the guns,’” she said.
They went into full lockdown mode, switching instantly to takeaway while trying to find new ways to keep staff on board, even with reduced hours.
Additionally, they began heavily promoting their work-from-home corporate grazing boxes and switched to making and delivering their own cocktails.
Even so, the business saw a 70 per cent downturn. For Bartone-Prodromou, it meant that in addition to pivoting to new services, the business also needed to radically reassess its philosophies.
Lesson number 1: Never say never
The most major change was choosing to use food delivery apps, Bartone-Prodromou said.
“Things that we said we’d never do, we’ve done. We said we’d never use Uber Eats because we said it was taking away from our service, and now we’re using it, and they’ve helped us a lot,” Bartone-Prodromou said.
“Never say never. You’ve always got to be open to new ideas and to pivoting through things like this. None of us have ever gone through a pandemic and it’s really opened our eyes… to what was needed to survive.”
Lesson number 2: Take the wins where you can
Lockdown saw Charlie & Franks pivot to delivering cocktails, grazing platters and using former wait and kitchen staff as drivers to make the deliveries.
Bartone-Prodromou doubts the popularity of the home-delivery cocktails will disappear.
“We started those cocktails [in the 2020 lockdown] and they were just so successful that we’re just going to keep running them,” she said.
The company now offers them in its adult gift and graze boxes, as well as with themed promotions.
“Between Halloween, Melbourne Cup and Christmas, we’re hoping that those days will help us get through, but definitely we’ll keep [the cocktails] for the new year.”
Lesson number 3: Find ways to manage your cashflow
The Sydney lockdown is estimated to have cost as much as $16 billion in economic losses. The winter lockdown was also the state’s first lockdown without the Federal JobKeeper payments, which meant the NSW government introduced its JobSaver payments.
This scheme delivered weekly payments of up to $100,000 to businesses, provided they maintained current staffing levels.
And while the state government has approved around 98 per cent - or $5.89 billion worth of JobSaver applications - Bartone-Prodromou is still waiting to receive the last portion of her business’ JobSaver payments.
“There were issues with the application and then there were delays with Service NSW... That’s just the way the cookie crumbles, there’s nothing we can do as it’s all outside of our control,” Bartone-Prodromou said.
Of the approved applications, all bar $600,000 has been paid out, a Service NSW spokesperson told Yahoo Finance. The remaining payments are due to be paid this week.
Nevertheless, Bartone-Prodromou estimates she had to dip into at least $50,000 of her own personal savings to keep Charlie & Franks over lockdown.
And it meant that she needed to be even smarter with her cashflow management.
She relies heavily on Sydney wholesale food and beverage platform FoodByUs, which offers extended trading terms and payments through credit cards.
It connects Bartone-Prodromou with local suppliers and allows her, and her staff, to build the week’s menus without needing to liaise with dozens of suppliers and pay just as many bills.
“Extended trading terms helped our cashflow a lot and that really has helped us over the last two years, and just the fact that the payments are automated as well - that takes a lot of pressure off us,” she said.
“Every bill just gets paid on the due date automatically by credit card, so that takes a lot of the stress away on the admin side. And really, any [stress] that was reduced, either financially or on our workload, was well-accepted.”
Lesson number 4: People are everything
For Bartone-Prodromou, being able to worry less about cashflow meant she could spend more time looking after her team.
“[Lockdown is] difficult for everyone - not just the single mum at home, not just the single individual that doesn’t have a partner, not the family home-schooling five kids. Everyone has their challenges, and it’s difficult for everyone,” she said.
“We had to fight together, and we had to keep drilling that into our team week after week, that we were all in it together.”
Maintaining staff morale was critical, especially as many faced reduced hours and changes in their tasks, which could in turn trigger frustration.
More broadly, Australians were more likely to need support in lockdown, with Lifeline recording record call volumes.
The number of young workers recording high levels of mental distress also doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report from the Black Dog Institute revealed.
This was something Bartone-Prodromou noticed. As the weeks of lockdown turned into months, it became clear that her staff needed her to be more than just an employer.
“Between my husband and I, we were having chats with our team daily, whether they were small chats or big chats… but someone needed a shoulder to cry on at some point, nearly every day. There was always someone.”
Lesson number 5: Don’t get carried away
Looking to the future, Bartone-Prodromou is confident but cautious.
While the NSW and Federal Governments are committed to not reinstating large lockdowns,
“We are very aware that anything is possible… what’s to say that there isn’t another lockdown? What’s to say that numbers won’t go so crazy that they do have to instate another lockdown?
“At this point, our target is to maintain our [work] style. COVID is still here - it hasn’t gone. We’re out, but it hasn’t gone. We still think there’s another year of ups and downs.”
For now though, it’s full steam ahead.
“Bring on summer. Let’s go. Get the champagne out, let’s celebrate.”
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