In time we will all finish that sentence with a different ending, but whilst we have all had our own different battles this year, we will remember that we were all in it together.
Never before have I given thanks to so many people I took for granted and never before have I felt such a connection to our customers who are grateful for our service.
I feel eternally grateful that our business can continue at the moment. In the New Year we embraced 2020 as a year to drive forward: I took on employees, Jason left his career and joined the company, we drew up ambitious expansion plans and we invested in new equipment and stock. It was a risk but one I felt confident in taking - and then Covid struck.
Parties stopped, weddings cancelled and our world was rocked when the orders dried up in March.
Through quick thinking, newly conceived designs and a wonderful postal service we were able to continue and fought hard to keep the business going. We launched 2 new stores www.lovelynicugifts.co.uk and www.lovelymemorialgifts.co.uk, created brand new keepsake products and sought out new ideas to give customers new ways to remember 2020. And our customers responded, supporting our small business, embracing the new keepsakes and giving us hope and optimism that the risks we took early in the year were worth it.
The kids went back to school, we met with friends and the new normal life resumed. We were immensely grateful and proud to have been able to weather the storm and to be honest, come out stronger and healthier as a business for it. It forced us to be innovative and made us truly appreciate those around us that help make our business what it is; our suppliers who helped create new products and get them to us, the postal and courier services who didn’t stop and especially our customers who didn’t desert us.
As we enter Lockdown 2, it feels less of an adventure. I am truly, truly saddened to see many friends with small business premises who have had to close today. Shops, restaurants, sandwich shops, wedding venues, play centres, hairdressers, salons, the list goes on.
All have invested time and energy this year,
all have taken risks,
all have money tied up,
all need and rely on an income,
all have customers they have worked so hard to build trust with,
all had plans, hopes and dreams for this year and beyond.
And today, all are putting on a brave face doing their best for the greater good of us all and the health of this country. I cannot imagine the disappointment, worry and fear each one must feel as they are forced to close today.
There is no better saying for today than ‘We are not all in the same boat but we are all in the same storm.’
We continue here at The Lovely Gift Group to work hard seven days a week to keep our business afloat and deliver special gifts that our customers may need right now. For our customers of The Lovely Keepsake Company, Lovely NICU Gifts or Lovely Memorial Gifts life hasn’t stopped and we thank them all for their continued support of our small business. We are genuinely hugely grateful that we can continue and we remain committed to delivering the high quality products and service our customers have come to expect. We may have a few delays in production or delivery but we will always keep you informed so we don’t let you down.
Thank you for your support. We hope to be able to bring many more gifts to you, especially to remember the best of Lockdown, to deliver thoughtful gifts to those you are apart from and to bring keepsake ideas for Christmas.
We will all remember 2020 for different reasons and we thank you for helping us ensure we can continue to support you all at this time.
Let’s ride this storm together, may your boat stay afloat and reach it’s horizon. See you on the other side.