A lot of businesses are now trying to figure out how they're going to survive these times but savvy Kiwi entrepreneurs are quickly thinking up ways to adapt and thrive.
Until recently Bay of Plenty entrepreneur Nick Bartlett made his money from selling travel pillows.
Seeing the writing on the wall, he changed his whole business in just 48 hours to producing hair clippers.
In the pre-Covid-19 days Mr Bartlett’s business was going well but it all started going south for the Bartletts when Covid-19 was just faintly in the background.
Mr Bartlett and his wife Tamara were living in Slovenia where she was born, but one day builders building their new house suddenly walked off the job because the company was bankrupt.
They found all of this out out while visiting family in New Zealand and with nowhere to go back to so they had to stay in the country.
The couple hoped at least their online travel pillow business would keep them afloat but Kiwis certainly didn’t need travel pillows anymore, but they sure needed a haircut.
In a sleepless 48 hour period, driven on by pure desperation, Mr Bartlett switched the family business from travel pillows to hair clippers.
After a nervous first few days, it paid off - by the end of the week, they had up to 200 orders a day.
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