Nicklaus: With SLU program's help, big-event business finds a way to survive the pandemic
eanetta Hawkins’ business has always revolved around the sort of big things that aren’t happening right now.
She has designed events ranging from high school proms to giant trade shows for 33 years, supplying everything from flowers to carpet to table linens. Last March, as she returned from a special-events industry convention, COVID-19 brought it all to an abrupt halt.
“I got to Lambert and my phone started dinging,” Hawkins recalled. “Clients were canceling. It kept going all week and my heart just ached. To lose all your income in a split second, it was very difficult and scary.”
Hawkins had to furlough her five employees, who include three of her children. A 10,000-square-foot warehouse on Cass Avenue, full of decorative items and furniture, went from being a valuable asset to looking like an unsustainable cost.
Personal Touches by Jeanetta was in limbo for three months. Then clients started calling, wanting props to use in professional-looking Zoom backgrounds, or tables, chairs and balloons for a charitable food giveaway.
A federal Paycheck Protection Program loan allowed Hawkins to recall her workers, and she began to see the warehouse inventory as survival life raft. She could pivot from a design business to a rental business, letting customers pick and choose from her extensive collection.
That change, however, required keeping better track of everything in the warehouse. A grant from St. Louis University’s Habitat for Neighborhood Business program enabled Hawkins to buy inventory-control software, and two SLU student interns are helping her staff label and catalog every item.
The Habitat program, which supports inner-city businesses, was a lifeline when the pandemic hit. “The first thing they did was host a Zoom meeting to make sure all their businesses were OK, and we weren’t,” Hawkins said. “They became cheerleaders and resources to help us stay afloat and encourage us to struggle through it.”
Habitat works with about 40 businesses in St. Louis, and none have closed during the pandemic. “I’m not saying they’re thriving or this is easy, but they are still going,” Executive Director Linda Jones said.
Many business owners, Jones said, don’t know how to navigate the web of federal, state, local and nonprofit resources available to them. And crises tend to hit hardest in inner-city neighborhoods, whether measured by deaths from COVID-19 or foreclosures after the housing bubble.
“Many people in our community have not recuperated from the real estate crisis, and here comes another economic wave,” Jones said. “Our message is that we care about what’s going on with you and with your families, but please do not give up.”
Retired businessman Ray Barrett, a volunteer mentor for Habitat, advised Hawkins to stay visible during the crisis. “Make phone calls and let clients know you are still here,” he told her. “Don’t get under a shell. And look for other opportunities that are in your field but maybe are something you weren’t pursuing before.”
Hawkins did that, and she hopes the rental business will expand her market both during and after the pandemic. Someone organizing, say, a family birthday party probably wouldn’t hire an event designer, but might rent decorations to make the room look special.
She also hopes renting her inventory might help younger event designers, without the resources to accumulate their own stock of light fixtures and flower vases, get started in the business. “The endgame for us is to make sure we have sustainability … but also to give back,” Hawkins said. “I have had an amazing ride.”
