Small Businesses in a COVID-19 World

As we all move cautiously into a new world in which we all have to remain aware of COVID-19 and the measures we need to take to keep ourselves and our customers safe businesses large and small need to recognise people's concerns and react accordingly. Online shopping, already growing rapidly, became much more important during lockdown and is likely to remain so even when people are allowed to physically visit shops. With or without restrictions on the numbers of people allowed inside a shop at the same time a proportion of your customers are likely to be wary of spending too long in indoor spaces for some time to come. While lockdown has probably encouraged everyone to shop more efficiently for their weekly groceries - ticking off a pre-written list - it doesn't work so well for non-essential shopping when many of us aren't quite sure what we will buy until we see it.
All of this makes your website more important than ever, even if you have a physical presence on the high street, and a good website needs good pictures. As does the rest of your online presence as you look to attract attention and drive traffic to your website. So what sort of pictures do I need?

• A good portrait - people like to see who they are dealing with so this is essential.
• Setting the scene - if you have a shop, what does it look like? Can you give people a sense of the precautions you are taking to keep them as safe as possible?
• Tell your story - if you work from home or a studio you want to give your online customers a sense of how you create the products you have for sale. While you can set up product shots yourself it is more difficult taking selfies when you are actually working. For that you need someone else in the room with you - suitably distanced of course!

Here are a set of images I took a while ago for a jeweller - Jen Cunningham. Jen has subsequently moved to Glasgow but these shots of her at work were taken while she lived and worked in Edinburgh and give an idea of the sort of story-telling shots it is possible to take. These were taken long before COVID-19 had even been heard of but with sensible precautions it will be possible to take a similar set under current restrictions.  Please get in touch to discuss ideas.