Coronavirus: The women who started businesses in lockdown
The coronavirus pandemic has hit businesses hard, leading to sweeping numbers of redundancies and millions of workers being furloughed.
___1___ the downturn, some people have decided to take the brave step of starting a business.
We spoke to four women about why they did it and how their ideas are progressing.
'I started it on a whim but it's become like my child'
Natalie James, 30, from Wanstead in East London works in fashion PR. Although she continued working through lockdown from home, she didn't like the fact that she wasn't able to ___2___ herself with her favourite beauty products as all the shops were shut.
Realising "___3___ other people felt the same", she decided to start a £10-a-month subscription box service called Tingle, which offers a curated selection of beauty, makeup and skincare products sent to your door.
"I started to get cabin fever and hated that the only place I could go to was the supermarket," Natalie adds about her decision to open a business.
She invested £300 in building her own website on Wix and designing the packaging for the box. She also approached beauty brands and managed to get most products gifted, while others were bought at cost price.
The companies that partner with Tingle get to include information about their brand in each box, along with discount coupons for further purchases.
Natalie says she has had 400 orders to date and made £5,000 in sales, but it has been hard work.
"I do literally everything -I'm staying up until 3am on some nights, but it's worth it.
"'I needed something to keep me going through lockdown'
Student Mya Leonie Wander, 20, had always fancied starting her own business and is a "big foodie".
So in June she decided to start MJ Eats, a part-time Caribbean "soul food" takeaway service, cooking from home two or three days a week.
Mya, who advertises on Instagram, has so far had around 20 orders a week and made £500 in sales. She also says she broke even ___4___ just two months.
"I started my business because I needed something to keep me going through lockdown," she tells the BBC
She had been a competitive athlete most of her life, but not being able to do sport or find work "took its toll".
Mya plans to continue running her business part-time and studying for her degree when the new academic year starts in October.
'It started as a necessity and then I decided it was brilliant'
Charlie Pears-Wallace, 34, from Newcastle had come from a sales and marketing background and quit her job just before the coronavirus crisis.
She had hoped to change careers and get a new job that allowed her to use her French, but the pandemic made this very difficult.
But during lockdown she began helping small businesses with their social media strategies and marketing, thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations.
She now works as a marketing and PR consultant under the brand Charliecomms, and says she has brought in enough revenue to break even, pay her bills and put some money aside.
"I guess it started as a necessity and then I decided it was actually brilliant," she says.
"I think if this year has taught me anything, it's that you never know what ___5___. But I like to think that I've safeguarded myself in a way, as I'm not a full-time wage to anyone."
(Adapted from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54062717)
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