Is Your Small Business Feeling The Effect Of COVID-19?

Small businesses feeling the effect of COVID-19

There’s no doubt that small business owners everywhere are feeling the devastating financial effect of COVID-19.

A recent Facebook survey revealed that 31% of small and medium-sized businesses have shut down in the last 3 months. The situation is particularly bad for small businesses which offer wellness, fitness or other professional services where closure rates are up to 41%.

Plus, when small businesses stay open they face significant challenges including access to financing, new regulations and reduced customers.

That is why it’s now more important than ever to band together and support your local community. After all, supporting local small businesses helps put money back into our local economies and puts food on people’s plates.

Coco Pilates Boutique Reformer Classes

Meet Clarisa Strack van Schyndel from Coco Pilates

O wow, I’ve had to change my approach completely. My studio, Coco Pilates, is a boutique Reformer studio where I teach private and semi private clients. That was until Covid-19… Continue reading…

What are we doing to support small business?

At Bookamat, our mission has always been to help elevate local fitness studios everywhere. This mission has never been more important to us than right now. That is why we are going the extra mile to help our clients adapt during lockdown and beyond.

Here’s what we have done to support small businesses on Bookamat:

  • Introduced online bookings and payments for Zoom, Skype or Google Meet classes.
  • Gave studios control over which class participants (all, paid or none) should receive the streaming link.
  • Added notes for online classes so studios can let participants know what equipment to bring.
  • Added time zone support for clients who join virtual classes from other countries or regions.
  • Gave clients access to their streaming links after the class has ended.
  • Added client profile photos to help studios feel closer to their customers.
  • Made it even easier for studios to set up and manage their accounts with improvements to service manager.
  • Made improvements to the online booking process to make it easier for clients to sign up, book and pay online.
  • Added waiver collections, Paypal, staff logins, created new quick set up guides and begun creating online video tutorials.
  • We are sharing inspiring stories from studio owners who are finding ways to keep classes running despite lockdown. Plus we are sharing information about what to expect when coming out from lockdown.

Despite all this (and more) our subscription pricing is unchanged and designed to save studios money when times are tough. All this is means our clients get incredible value for money and a fighting chance to keep their lights on during these challenging times.

Small businesses are the life blood of our economy. We want all the fitness and wellness business owners out there know that we are committed to finding ways to help them survive and even thrive.

How can you help support small businesses?

Supporting your local small business can be as simple as buying gift cards, shopping online, making a donation or joining a virtual class.

We’re all in this together and every little bit helps.

If you run a small business, see if you can work with other small business in your area to help each other out. Whether it is selling some of their products in your store, or help market them on your platforms. It won’t cost you anything, but could help another small business to keep their doors open for a little while longer.

You can also partner up with other small businesses to run a campaign or give-away to get more people to support both of your businesses. Especially as each businesses usually already has a following base or loyal clientele.

And most importantly, if your business is in any way able, try to support small businesses and charities that are focusing on helping those less fortunate, and also those in the front line.

A little bit goes a long way.


If you would like to help support some of the small businesses on Bookamat, please feel free to join a virtual class on our browse pages. You can also browse our recent blog posts for some inspiring stories from small business owners who are finding ways to keep classes running despite lockdown.

Romi has been writing for Bookamat since 2020. She loves adventuring, practicing yoga and writing about the latest fitness trends.
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