SINGAPORE: It’s only 4am in Kembangan but Ms Liyana Stuart is already up. She is on one of her early-morning walks, a ritual she has observed daily since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Fortunately for the duo, they had already begun working on a “hybrid solution” that combined in-person training workshops in Singapore with online webinars for participants in other parts of Asia.Anagram had introduced it as a “more cost-effective mode of training” that brought regional teams together while saving on travel, accommodation and printing costs.
“Over the past month we’ve experienced a larger increase in enquiries as clients get more comfortable with online options and accept that this might be the status quo until 2021,” said Mr Stuart.For Anagram, survival meant making changes to its business model, but for another husband-and-wife team, the very nature of their business had been ripped apart and as the pandemic wore on, their optimism began to wear off.
“From having our schedules filled, with days starting in the morning and ending past midnight, we were suddenly sitting on the floor of our home with no real plan for the future,” said Ms Nadzirah. “We offered refunds and the option to turn their booking into credit for use in the future. Most opted for the refunds and we ended up back to square one,” said Ms Nadzirah.
“I thought of what I enjoyed having that would also be visually appealing for social media,” she said. Before the outbreak, “there was constant and steady cash flow”, Mr Ho told CNA. “We would book seven to 10 magic shows a week.” “After the first few shows, we received a lot of feedback, with parents and children telling us that they really liked what we were doing and wanted to see more of Mr Egg,” he added.