Many small businesses are reeling from the economic effects of the pandemic. The impact can be especially hard for new ventures.
Anna Robinson, creates digital work with her husband.
“Primarily filmmaker, songwriter slash composer. But I also do graphic design and meet other media work to bring in income, you know.”
They started their home-business Open Space Creative last October to offer services to clients in the area.
“We do a lot of different things. We’re basically artists and we like to create things and this is our way of getting those creations out to people. It comes down to we make things and we help others make things.”
Robinson says they’ve already had paid project cancelations because of social distancing practices. And that’s tough because Open Space is still new in the eyes of the community.
“Nobody really knows that we exist. I don’t want our main focus right now to be ‘oh everyone needs to remember us when everyone goes back to normal’. I really do believe that we just need to help where we can and the arts is what I know and the arts is what I want to help in.”
Robinson says for now, they’re switching priorities to focus on community engagement on social media, like giveaways, games and free content. She says it’s difficult to find new clients when everyone's business is struggling.
“I’m nervous about my business and the income that we may not be able to generate and we need. We also just moved to a new house and so I’m worried about making our new mortgage payments as are a lot of people in our community.”
Anna Robinson says at the same time she worries about the financial consequences of the pandemic, she recognizes it’s important to make sure the community stays healthy right now.