The Nail and Champagne Bar Quarantine Chronicles COVID-19

I’m Eliza Sipin, the founder of The Nail and Champagne Bar (TNCB), launched back in May of 2016. A mobile luxury beauty and champagne experience provider with a range of services from one-on-one sessions, to small group parties, and corporate beauty activations. We began this year on an exciting note, with corporate events and bridal bookings (well into the end of fall) and our team growing to accommodate the demand.

Unfortunately, the effects of COVID-19 began impacting us dramatically on the morning of March 12th. 4 of our corporate clients cancelled their events scheduled for the end of March and the beginning of April—all with the same concerns of the virus. I expected this, as some of the events would have over 100 attendees, and to provide our services (hair, nails, makeup, lashes champagne tastings) we are required to be up close with customers.

On March 16th, I temporarily closed the business and cancelled all appointments up to the end of the month. This was a week before the government ordered all non-essential businesses to close. With that, we started offering 15% off all our gift certificates to entice future bookings, and ease our client’s minds that we had all intention of reopening as soon as it was safe to do so. We also offered all events and our one-on-one bookings to rebook to another date without losing their deposit or paying any penalties.

On the week of March 30th [with the provincial government announcing the extension of social distancing requirements likely until the end of June], bookings for the rest of April and most of May were cancelled, though thankfully a couple rebooked to a later date.

The silver lining in all of this…

COVID-19 has certainly kept me on my toes. I have had to think fast in order to keep in touch with our clients, while attracting new ones—even during these uncertain times. We’re constantly communicating through social media. Asking numerous questions, and re-evaluating how we can better our business once we reopen. We even started creating several beauty tutorials—something we never thought we’d make because the average person isn’t qualified to be doing, or removing, their gel polish at home. But, considering the circumstances and because we’re continuously being asked for them by our customers and online community we decided to produce them. Our tutorials have now made it onto a bridal website, covid19brides.com, which is said to have launched to assist couples who have been affected by COVID-19. The tutorials are created by our team members which also helps them earn some money and stay connected with their clients. We are taking this time to showcase how multifaceted The Nail and Champagne Bar is and also launch a series on Instagram stories with a Q&A on all things beauty.

Definitely exceeding my marketing budget for spring/summer, which was previously allocated in January 2020, I am on it day-by-day, adjusting to this new norm as much as I can. So now I focus on saving our existing fall/winter bookings while keeping our team of 17 freelancers involved.

Since we’ve been closed, we’ve received several messages telling us how much people miss and appreciate us, which has truly been motivating. We have always been a company that adapts to change well—which I worked very hard to build. I only hope that at this time, we can adapt to the challenges this virus has brought to keep the business moving forward.