By Cheryl Jahn

Some see pandemic as an opportunity

Jan 29, 2021 | 3:32 PM

FRASER LAKE – This shop in Fraser Lake was the culmination of a long journey. Kim Watt-Senner’s bouquet business was very small.

“We had a small boutique that was out on our farm and people would come out. But I was only open once a week. So it was just one of those novelty things. People would pop out, come to the farm. We live by the lake. It was cute and the boutique was cute too.”

And that’s where it would have stayed, had it not ben a for something called COVID.

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“She came to us and said, ‘Hey, you know, I can’t really sell in my boutique on my property anymore, all the craft fairs are shut down this year. What am I going to do? I have a website, but it’s not making many sales.’,” explains Chris King, the Project Manager for Hub Space.

Kim Watt-Senner is the first to admit, technology is not high on her skill set.

“I could do the odd Facebook post or whatever. Seriously, my knowledge was at a five, ten per cent level. But when you’re doing it as a business, it’s completely a different engine.”

She has since opened a store operation in Fraser Lake with a cafe, a retail shop and, in the near future, she will be selling her wares in 118 grocery store across the country.

“From that success, she was talking about getting her products into some more businesses and we helped her put together a pitch deck that she successfully pitched to Federated Coop and she’s now bringing some of her lines into their hundred stores across Western Canada,” says King.

She is also the first to admit none of this would likely have happened had it not been for the pandemic, viewing it as an opportunity rather than a burden.