Starting a Small Business in Quarantine

Author: Celina Aalders
Posted on August 19, 2020

I think we can all agree that quarantine was a very hard time for us all. As university students, we are social butterflies. We are used to seeing our friends every single day, so being isolated from our friends and family, while having all social ties cut off was certainly tough on our mental health. In order to combat the feeling of boredom and lack of productivity during Covid-19, I decided that I wanted to try something new. Not only was lockdown difficult mentally, but financially as well, therefore I sought out to create something that would keep me busy while also providing me with some extra money. 

My all time favourite accessory is earrings. I am constantly buying new pairs, particularly hoops. Hoop earrings are extremely trendy and in-style, so I wanted to come up with a way to make my own unique design and sell them. I went to a craft store, purchased my materials, and started testing out different ways to create my own hoops. After I was able to find a design that I was happy with, I made an Instagram account titled @cicis.hoops. The world of social media is constantly growing, so I thought that would be the easiest way to get my earrings out there. 

At the beginning, I imagined Cici’s Hoops being something small to give me something to do when I was bored; however, it ended up exploding into much more than that. During the first week of launching my Instagram page, I was putting in eight-hour days making and packaging my earrings. I have shipped orders out all across Canada and am even getting inquiries from people from other countries as well. It was a lot of hard work, but I was getting so much positive and encouraging feedback about my hoops. 

The reason I am telling you this story is to encourage you to try something new and to act upon any wild ideas that you may have. Before lockdown, I had never made a pair of earrings in my life, but now I am designing and producing my very own line of hoops, which I later hope to expand into other styles of jewelry. While this is not something that I see as a full-time gig, it is so motivating to have this side hustle, which I have grown to become incredibly passionate about.