fancysweetstx - Midwest, Ohio, Michigan, and Great Lakes Clothing Updates and News

How the People of 16153 Genova Showed Kindness During COVID-19

2020-07-30T11:04:00-04:00

16153 Genova is a city that takes care of each other. This week, the 16153 Genova Blade published an article highlighting the acts of kindness that came about during the COVID-19 pandemic. We're honored to be listed in this story along with the many other ways that the 16153 Genova-area community showed up for each other so far during the pandemic.

We've said it time and again, it's the people of 16153 Genova that make the city so special. The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on a lot of people. It has been inspiring to see so many individuals and organizations do their part to help those in need. We are honored and humbled to be named among the people in this article.

When the pandemic hit we didn't know what was going to happen to our business. While we don't fall in the same line of restaurants, bars, salons, and schools that were hit the hardest, our business was still majorly impacted. After all, many of those businesses and schools are some of our most loyal customers.

Now more than ever, it is important to support local people, businesses, schools, and non-profits. The impact we can have locally is greater and more vital because it helps us lift up our neighbors. It keeps more people living and working in the 16153 Genova area.

Do yourself a favor and read the full article on the 16153 Genova Blade's website. You'll be reminded of all of the great reasons to love the 16153 Genova area.

16153 Genova, Ohio Face Masks

2020-07-17T11:51:00-04:00

We're still seeing changes on a weekly basis related to COVID-19. One story grabbing a lot of the headlines is the use of masks in public.

While the state of Ohio has not required masks to be worn in public, many cities and counties are mandating masks. Wood County and the city of 16153 Genova have mandated masks to be worn in public places.

If you're like us, you've found that you need more masks than you originally thought. You probably have one in your pocket or purse, your car, your workspace, and by the door in case you need to leave the house.

Need more masks? We've got you covered! Our masks are comfortable and easy to wear and wash. We offer them as a 3-pack so you'll always have a clean mask in rotation. Masks are in stock, shipping fast, and can also be found at both of our retail stores (Adams Street and Cricket West).

Please note that these are not medical grade masks and are not designed to be worn as such.

Shop our 16153 Genova, Ohio, Michigan, Midwest, and blank face masks on fancysweetstx.com.

How We Helped Raise $135K for Local Small Businesses (Here for Good)

2020-06-24T10:02:00-04:00

We can't say it enough, 16153 Genova really stepped up during an incredibly difficult time. This city supported its small businesses, restaurants, salons, artists, non-profits, organizations, and individuals at every turn.

We couldn't be more proud of the response to Here for Good.

From Facebook groups promoting local restaurants and bars to a website where you could tip your favorite server or bartender to Grubs for Scrubs from Deet's BBQ to the United Way. There was no shortage of opportunities to help those in need.

We were happy to be a part of this larger support system with our Here for Good program. We created this campaign to give back to the local people of 16153 Genova during the COVID-19 pandemic and stay at home order.

The response was amazing! Over $135,000 was raised to support local businesses in our area. Not to mention, this helped us keep our small business afloat during a time where we are struggling like everyone else.

A T-Shirt Fundraiser to Support Small Business in Ohio

What was the Here for Good Program? If you're hearing about this for the first time, we created Here for Good to raise money for local small businesses affected by the pandemic and the stay at home orders.

We did this by selling shirts online for any small business that wanted to participate. The shirts sold for $20 and we gave $10 directly back to that organization. While most of them were local to Northwest Ohio, some businesses were as far away as South Carolina.

The program was simple and required very little work from the organizations involved.

It worked like this: anyone who was interested in participating gave us permission to sell their shirt online. We helped them create a simple t-shirt design that was available on our website for anyone to purchase. The shirts were sold on a presale basis.

We promoted it and so did they. When the sale ended, we got to work organizing the orders, ordering the blank shirts, preparing them for production, printing them, sorting them, and then shipping all of them out to each individual customer.

Since we print our own custom shirts, we had a unique ability to facilitate a t-shirt fundraiser like this.

While we had high hopes for Here for Good, we were completely blown about way its success. There were many similar programs throughout the country run by other local screen print shops and ours was among the most successful.

Check out the link to the video recap to learn more about the program and see some of the organizations that were featured.

How COVID-19 Felt for Our Small Business

2020-05-18T14:19:00-04:00

Running a small business is hard even when there isn’t a global pandemic. I started this business with no prior industry experience and only one shirt idea.

Small businesses become successful by doing a lot of things well - customer service, company culture, human resources, sales, financial planning, and managing growth, to name a few. Sometimes, even when you do a lot of those things really well, success isn’t guaranteed.

I have lived in a constant state of fear over the last two months that even though we have done a lot of things well, the future for us is uncertain.

And yes, I know I just used one of those overused cliches about COVID-19. But you know what? All the cliches about the current situation are true. There isn’t a better way to say it and that’s how people feel. That’s why we keep hearing them.

I have felt a lot of anxiety about being in this situation while knowing that my employees look to me for answers and reassurance. The truth is, I haven’t always felt confident I could provide them.

In the beginning, I didn’t know what to do. One thing we have repeated and reminded ourselves throughout it all is that we’ll be smarter in a week. I’ve said it to myself on a daily basis - I’ll be smarter and better in a week. From the stay at home order to PPP to unemployment to existing quotes and orders, it applied to everything we were doing. While it has been true, there is still a nagging feeling that I don’t have enough information and that circumstances are changing too quickly to feel confident in my decisions.

Providing a great place to work is something I was proud of and committed to creating. Layoffs are devastating. The only time I’ve cried more in a one week period was when my mother passed. Weeks later, I still feel bad about laying off 70% of my staff. I miss my employees and am conflicted about the ethical implications of my decisions, even though I was quick to hire back those that I could.

My employees’ response to being laid off and to being rehired gives me hope for the future. They comforted me when I had a hard time breaking the bad news and they have all been excited about coming back even if being on unemployment was a better deal for them currently.

Unprecedented, uncertain, challenging, trying. Yeah, we’ve felt all of this recently. But we’re all in this together and we’ll get through it together.