Lockdown businesses thriving five years after Covid

Five years ago, the Covid-19 lockdown was still in force, with wide-ranging impacts that are still being felt today.

For some, though, it was a chance to try something different and launch a business.

How have they fared and was the gamble worth it?

This weekend Leah Sigsworth will open a pop-up shop in London's Fitzrovia to mark five years since the birth of Ethereal Jewellery.

Leah, 23, from Northamptonshire, started the company in her parents' back garden during lockdown.

"When I started, it was really something to keep me busy. It was for my own mental health; it was something to do during the loneliness of the Covid lockdown," she says.

By September 2020, she had begun a creative writing degree at the University of Lincoln, and carried on with the business, working with her boyfriend, Hugh Walker, also now 23.

"Then, when I graduated, I sat down with Hugh, and my parents and said, 'Can we do this full-time?' and we did."

Leah, who was state educated at Sharnbrook Academy, Bedfordshire, says: "I fell in love with being a business owner. I liked the freedom. It's given us so much; it's actually insane thinking about it."

"We only launched on Tiktok Shop in November last year, which went crazy, I now have about 227,000 followers.

"We've been to TikTok headquarters a couple of times since. It's probably about 70% of our business, with the rest through website sales and Instagram, where I have 27,000 followers."

The business now employs four people, including her mother Cara Sigsworth and occasionally her father Richard and sister Sophie, 20.

"We're also looking at some new external hires as well," says Leah.

Last year she decided to travel the world with Hugh while working remotely.

"We were also saving for our own home. We found a cottage for sale when we came back from travelling, put an offer in, it was accepted and five months later, in December, we moved in."

As the online face of the brand, she frequently appears in social media posts but prides herself on always being herself.

"I don't always have a full face of makeup, and my hair sometimes looks absolutely hideous, and I'll make videos in my pyjamas," she says.

"I think sharing every day on social media is sometimes tough because you are sharing when all the bad things happen, so I've tried to be really open and honest.

"I'll say 'Look guys, I'm really struggling with anxiety this week', or if we've had a really rubbish week because of an email a customer has sent me."

Mostly, though, life is good.

"I've started a brand, it's given me a lot of hope and it all happened by accident," she says.

Oksana Koryak, a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, says the Covid pandemic created "a window of time for people to actually concentrate, and create the mindspace to think about something that might be a viable business idea".

She says: "It was a catalyst for some entrepreneurial soul-searching.

"I think we all have it within us. It's not something that you're born with, it's a combination of the environment that you've been exposed to and opportunities that come your way."

One thing for would-be entrepreneurs to remember, she says, is that younger people are very "TikTok-driven".

She says: "It's creating a product that people might like and communicating what it is in the way that is relatable to that particular demographic; that is really important.

"I generally believe that entrepreneurship could be a very rewarding career path for many people.

"Even if we are in full employment, I think it's still important to be entrepreneurial, and to look out for opportunities on behalf of our employers, or even just as a side hustle."

"It's been crazy," is how Aaron Shade, 34, from Bedford, describes the past five years.

He and his fiancée Sarah Ball had successful careers in sales and marketing.

Wanting to spend more time with their family, they started their own business within the travel industry.

When Covid took hold, it was "wiped out", so they looked for a new challenge and started SAY Doughnuts in April 2020, from their home.

It now employs 18 people and has two shops, in Bedford and Hitchin, Hertfordshire

"We started with just the two of us, selling to friends and family, and then it spread really quickly and organically, and we also sold wholesale goods to cafes and delis in surrounding towns like, Ampthill, Maulden, Woburn Sands, Newport Pagnell, Stony Stratford, Olney and Hitchin," says Aaron.

When they outgrew the family kitchen in March 2021, they got the keys to a retail unit that they converted into a bakery.

For a year they also had a shop in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, but it closed in late 2024.

"We will expand again, but we have to be cautious. I would like to be in Cambridge," he says.

"I'm still normal, I still live in my same house but we've sold over £1m worth of coffee and doughnuts."

"It sounds like we should be flying, but that's not how business works.

"We've lost a lot in Berkhamsted and still have to live off this business with no salaries coming in from anywhere else."

The business is "looking at the future", he says.

"We're a household name in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, with 16,600 followers on Instagram.

"It's insane. Not many businesses get this far. We've lent on friends and family to get us here.

"It's been a bit of a rollercoaster. "

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