It’s hard to believe we had anything to share at all. Every word written beyond this sentence – we know – could have been written by you, our clients, or any small business. COVID created a new world order.
We couldn't hang out in the park together, or walk down the street and sit in our local coffee shop. That impacted both you and the coffee shop. We watched our companies close and institutions taxed - the impact went both ways. Equally, we experienced overload in our own homes as we were tasked with working, teaching our children, and finding spaces to relax. As COVID develops new strains of the virus, we have had to accept that this pandemic is not going away. Many of the constraints that impact our daily lives still remain.
We continue to be challenged every single day, in so many ways, and one thing we know for sure is challenges make us stronger. We don’t like them, but they do make us stronger.
Like most of you, Visual Thrive originally sent our staff home to work remotely until further notice. But we knew we had to remain engaged as we began to serve our clients in ways we had never served them before. We created a ton of content and wrote communications for them, and supported our new way of operating as a partner, in the best way we knew how.
And we listened. We still are, but now with an acuity that is helping us develop digital marketing plans that have more flexibility for business owners as we continue to navigate in this new, constantly changing way of life. Collectively we need not only determine how best to weather this strange new world, but find our way to renew and succeed.
Being of service to our clients, and other businesses has meant answering some questions. What do our businesses need? What can we do? How can we keep employees engaged (and paid)? How do we reroute our neighbors from Amazon, and let them know what’s available locally?
The result:
RIthrives.com. A searchable community for RI businesses that offered delivery, take-out, curbside pick-up, online ordering, professional services or online classes.
RI Thrives continued its outreach with a FaceBook group where businesses can network, ask questions, and most importantly, share success stories!
Visual Thrive was asked to join Rhode Island Lt. Governor Dan McKee’s team focused on supporting and shepherding businesses with their #GiftItForward program. We were excited to share our knowledge, and partner with other like-minded businesses.
And RI Thrives inspired our newest website, Shop Local RI!
Shop Local RI was designed as a community resource for to support local RI small businesses to thrive within RI as well as in the global marketplace. SLRI provides RI small businesses with an opportunity to gain visibility, access support, and readily conduct business while planning for their long-term future. SLRI provides a digital platform, a web page, where they can communicate directly on a daily basis with their customers. Local businesses also have a number of advertising and sponsorship options that expand their advertising capacity. Sponsorships include a variety of ways to support the site, and because we are a marketing organization, we also offer professional marketing collateral for you, too. Many of our sponsorship options include professional video production, photography, podcast interviews, and more! Visit all the incredible RI businesses and get to know Shop Local RI at https://shoplocalri.com. Look for our brand new site launching September 2022!
Maintaining an “abundance mindset” is a way we can continue to help each other stay the course. Visual Thrive will continue to operate and align with this quintessential value: “There will always be enough.” And we intend to support each other stay in this lane.