D.C. businesses that flourished during COVID-19 lockdown
Johnnetta Bolden started her business, Gloh Natural, a D.C.-based skincare brand that features natural and cruelty-free products, on Feb. 7, 2020, exactly one month before the first report of COVID-19 was announced in Washington, D.C.
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Johnnetta Bolden vending at a pop-up shop for Gloh Natural. Photo taken by Le’Cheay Armstrong.
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Bolden didn't know what effect the lockdowns that go into effect shortly after would have on her new company. "I didn't know what to expect with my business. Yeah, some people were working from home, but a lot of people lost their jobs at the time. So I couldn't help but think, dang, maybe I started this [business] at the wrong time."
However, Bolden, who used to work in retail, was surprised to receive continued support. "I was still receiving a lot of orders during the lockdown. I think it was because of a combination of people recommending my business through word of mouth and people just really itching to spend money from being forced to stay home."
It wasn't just product-based companies such as Bolden’s that thrived during the pandemic. Service-based businesses such as public relations firms also benefited during those uncertain times.
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Alee Opuiyo, owner of Dynamic Public Relations. Photo courtesy of Opuiyo.
"March 2020 hit…everything had to be put on hold," says Opuiyo. "I didn't know how I was going to make money. I'm like, I was going to have to deplete my savings to sustain myself during this pandemic thing, like, what is going on? I went into a panic."
However, Opuiyo was able to sustain her business by utilizing government assistance such as the economic injury disaster loan (EIDL), a loan through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA helped small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, and most private nonprofit organizations located in a declared disaster area and have suffered a substantial economic injury. Five months into the pandemic, business started to pick back up.
Opuiyo believes that this was because "People still wanted that visibility. Even though we were at home, they still wanted their platforms to shine so to speak," says Opuiyo. "That's why PR was able to sustain the pandemic, because people still wanted their voices to be heard and their events to be publicized and they still needed crisis communications so publication relations services might've been put on hold but because people still wanted that visibility, it was able to keep the industry afloat."
Both women are grateful that while many businesses shuttered permanently due to the pandemic, they're still going strong over two years later. "It was tough on everybody," says Bolden. "I'm just grateful that Gloh Natural is still here and standing. It just shows that we can withstand anything, even during a global panorama [pandemic]."
For more information about Gloh Natural or Dynamic Public Relations, please visit:
