Based in Seattle, Gifts by Design is essentially at “ground zero” for the coronavirus in the U.S. Company President Jamie Stone explains how she and her team have been coping with working from home for the last three weeks and the economic impact the pandemic has had on her business.

Podcast Chapters
0:58 How Gifts By Design is handling the coronavirus
5:21 The hardest adjustment about working remotely
9:22 Economic impact of the pandemic
11:51 How the $2 trillion stimulus package could help the industry
14:49 Helpful strategies for dealing with this situation
17:26 The first thing Jamie plans to do when this is over

Jamie Stone, president of Gifts By Design, has been working remotely –as has the rest of her team – for the last three weeks. As she notes, working remotely is great, when it’s a choice and not something borne of necessity. Still, her team has kept morale up with frequent video check-ins and a standing Thursday afternoon BYOB virtual happy hour.

The pandemic has put a major dent in Gift By Design’s business, however, particularly because so many of its sales were tied to meetings, events, product launches, award ceremonies and corporate incentive trips – all of which have either been canceled or postponed. “We do a ton of merchandise for those types of events, and all of that is in limbo,” Stone says. “We’ve lost a lot of business right now that we’re hoping will come back in the next quarter, but it’s just a big question mark.”

Gifts By Design has been refocusing its efforts on non-event related items, but Stone says she also is trying to remain sensitive and respectful of the severity of the pandemic. “After the rush of hand sanitizer, we don’t want to look like we’re capitalizing on a bad situation,” she adds.

Theresa Hegel, executive editor of digital content at ASI, spoke with Jamie Stone about the devastating impact of the coronavirus on her business and the promotional products industry as a whole in the latest episode of Promo Insiders.

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