It's been a year. It's been a year since the last day of school for children in the Windsor Maidenhead borough, all of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, England and the UK. Next week it will be the anniversary of the start of the first UK lockdown brought on from the fight to restrict the spread of COVID-19. What a year! Some businesses have flourished. I know several online based businesses, both product and services, that have done really well. Others locally around Maidenhead, Marlow and area have had a harder time, not allowed to conduct business from their physical premises or meet with clients face to face. And I won't hide that while I was able to pivot my headshot and portrait photography work to doing more product and business branding, it was hard for me too.
With more and more people getting the vaccine against Covid-19 and regulations starting to slowly ease, we are getting back to a new version of normal. I was thinking of all those businesses that are reopening after being closed at least part-time over the past year. And I wanted to help some of them by featuring them in a blog post. So as we countdown to April 12 and the next big jump in easing lockdown restrictons, I will be featuring several small businesses. They are all based around the Maidenhead and Berkshire/Buckinghamshire area. Asking them how the lockdowns affected them, what they did to keep their businesses running and how they will be doing business going forward.
For some, (like me) it's like waking up after a year's hibernation! Okay, not exactly, I have been working, but it's a good example that let's me use this self-portrait I took recently, hahaha! It's a photo of me first thing in the morning, trying to get back into the routine of the kids being up and out of the house well before 8am.
For others, they have been very creative at keeping their businesses running, using a variety of methods to keep it going. I look forward to learning their strategies, both in keeping business going, but also themselves! Along with talking to the businesses, I taking photos with them at their premises, highlighting parts of their business that will add to their story. I look forward to sharing these Maidenhead businesses, their stories and photos with you starting next week!