COVID-19 Success Stories: 2 Small Business Owners Paying Good Fortunes Forward
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Like many other small business owners, Andrew Gonzalez and Margo Wolfe had major concerns when everything was ordered to shut down because of the coronavirus crisis.
"We were really worried at first," said Andrew Gonzalez. "A lot of our staff, I mean, they thought they were going to get laid off."
"At first when news broke I thought, I think just how everyone else thought, just go into immediate panic, everyone is gonna lose their jobs, everyone has to shut down," Wolfe said.
However, the opposite happened. Sales of Night Owl Cookies have jumped 20-30% and Doughees soared 50%, immediately.
Wolfe believes her success is mostly because of her direct to consumer format. Sales are so high she isn't able to get shipments of her Doughee boxes out in time because every stop ahead of her the supply chain is affected.
There's so much that goes into Doughee box. From the company that makes the actual brown corrugated shipping box to the person who produces the paper for the shipping label," Wolfe said.
However, her customers are understanding and her employees are grateful to have work.
In fact, their hours have doubled and Wolfe has had to hire more people.
"We usually only work 5 days a week. We are now working 7 days a week," Wolfe said.
Gonzalez, owner of Night Owl Cookies, is also hiring to keep up with increased sales.
"So one of the focuses we are going for is we're trying to find people affected that were recently let go at restaurants or bakeries and find them a home here at Night Owl," he said.
Another positive of business doing well is that he's able to give back to the community. A drop-off at Mount Sinai included a thousand cookies for health care workers.
"The look in their eye, I just, I got a little emotional to be honest with you," he said. "They have long weeks. They have endless amount of hours. It's something so simple as a cookie, but it really does make a difference in your day."
RELATED:
Current Curfews In South Florida
Drive-Through Testing Locations
Track The Spread Of The Coronavirus In Real Time
How To Make Your Own Face Mask
