How Coronavirus Is Disrupting the Supply Chain of This Black-Owned Business

Like most good businesses, Loza Tam was created to meet a need. Founder Tomara Watkins started the business, which sells head wraps, turbans, and headbands, back in 2016 to solve her own hair issues.

“I was in a Bikram yoga class, and I have a big kinky curly fro. I had on one of those little headbands that has the little silicone strip in it. And as I was doing a downward dog, my hair was also doing a downward dog,” Watkins says. “It’s like 100 degrees in there; the last thing you want is for your hair to be in your face.”

She searched the aisles of her local stores and tried unsuccessfully to find something on the internet. “I wanted something that was going to hold my hair back, but also not rip it out, and I just didn’t find anything that I trusted to invest my money in or for my hair.”

A couple of months later, Watkins was visiting Ghana when the bright colors at the fabric market sparked an idea. She decided to have a headband made out of African print fabric and get some satin sewn into it to protect her hair, reaching out to her network of friends in Ghana to find local women who could make it for her.

“I got 100 headbands made originally. I was just going to take a couple for myself and then gift them out to friends. But I still had some leftover, and something kept nagging at me to at least put them up online to see if someone else would want them,” she says.

Watkins, who has a background in e-commerce, put them on Etsy and her business was born. She’s been rolling along ever since, but now the company is facing its biggest challenge—from the coronavirus.

“COVID-19 is definitely throwing a huge wrench into the business. Customers aren’t purchasing as much as they normally do; our sales have pretty much dropped 50%,” Watkins admits. “One Saturday we didn’t have a single sale. Needless to say, it scared me.”

But sales aren’t the only thing affected. Loza Tam’s supply chain has taken a huge hit as well. The company uses two different types of textiles, sourced in Ghana and China. Watkins purchases the fabric independently, which is shipped to the group of women in Ghana who do the final construction and assembly. And then the goods are shipped to her here in the U.S.

The Loza Tam factory in Ghana

“I started to see a disruption in my China supply chain back in January. But my suppliers assured me that ‘this corona thing’ will blow over by March,” Watkins says.

“In the midst of me getting ready to travel to Ghana to work on our spring collection in anticipation that our raw materials from China would meet me there, I was told by my Chinese supplier, ‘the markets are completely closed, and they won’t be opening back up until March.'”

Watkins had to pivot, replacing the 50% of fabric that usually comes from China with additional material from Ghana and “way more expensive” fabric from the U.S.

Now, as the pandemic moves across the globe, a different part of her supply chain is being disrupted: getting the finished product from the factory.

“I just had to do an emergency shipment because Ghana is going on lockdown. And I was not able to find a single air cargo carrier that would ship my product over here at the prices that I’m used to, so I had to resort to using DHL, which was five times what I normally pay.”

With expenses up, revenues down, and no idea when her team in Ghana will be able to go back to work, Watkins is doing what she can to boost sales and control costs.

“If the business isn’t generating as much money, then expenses have to be cut. I had someone that was doing the fulfillment process for me; I’ve had to step in and take over that myself,” she says.

In addition, Watkins has cut her marketing budget and will be applying for some of the grants and funding opportunities made available for small businesses as part of the coronavirus relief efforts.

She’s also asking the community for its support.

“I know when these types of things happen, it tends to hit us, black people, the hardest, but it also hits our black-owned businesses the hardest, because we don’t have access to as many funding opportunities as other businesses do,” Watkins says. “So this is the time to really step up and support your small black-owned businesses.”

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The 2020 Census Is Critical For Black People. Here's Why We Need to 'Make Black Count'

April 1 marks Census Day, and the resounding message is clear: Go fill the Census, y’all.

Read more...

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This NYC Spin Studio Switches Gears To Serve The Community Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, otherwise known as the coronavirus, wreaking havoc across the country and causing many to go into isolation under new quarantine rules mandated by the government, the public health crisis has caused many small businesses to go into survival mode, struggling to stay afloat while all non-essential businesses are forced to close. This New York-based spin studio decided to switch things up and serve the community.

In 2016, Hampton University alum Briana Owens, who saw a void in spin studios geared toward black women like herself, opened up her first boutique cycling studio, Spiked Spin, in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, last November and has been welcomed with open arms by the local community.

“I was taking different cycling classes all around New York City and really noticed a lack of diversity in the space,” Owens explained to The Grio. “I started off just kind of getting certified to teach. I was teaching at other studios for a few years and then I decided I wanted to be the one to make that change and I created Spiked Spin”

When the coronavirus pandemic hit New York City, she, like many others, had to think of a quick solution if she expected her business to survive.

“I’m in my house trying to think about things like, ‘what does this mean for the brand,’ and ‘how do we solve it’ while also wanting to be considerate that there’s a whole world, that people who may not be working. For me to come out with another thing to buy just doesn’t feel genuine for me,” Owens says. “The businesswoman in me is trying to understand how to keep the business going as we move through this, but the human in me is like, ‘but somebody needs to feed their child.’

Owens started the Spiked Quarantine Challenge to motivate people to stay healthy and fit while they were on quarantine with a series of free home workouts. “The main goal of the [challenge] is to get yourself moving at least 30 minutes just so that you can stay in a routine, keep your blood flowing,” says Owens, “keep your mind on other things outside of this situation.”

Once the restrictions lift and life begins to go back to normal and Spiked Spin eventually re-opens its doors, customers will be treated to diverse music playlists including reggae, soca, afrobeats, and reggaeton curated by Spiked instructors.

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Crittenton Services is Supporting Underserved Black and Brown Girls and Their Families During the COVID-19 Crisis

America’s education system has been disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis. As a result of the new normal, underserved students and their families are heavily relying on educators, family support specialists, and agencies for educational support and access to basic essentials.

Crittenton Services of Greater Washington is a 132-year-old organization that supports 600 girls in the Washington metropolitan area. The organization’s mission is to empower teens to overcome obstacles, make positive choices, and achieve their goals through strategic programming and resources. The organization houses a team of researchers that focuses on equity for young women of color within the education system. In their latest study, The Declare Equity Report, the organization highlighted the disparities that young women living in vulnerable communities face like safety concerns within the household, and being distracted at school because of the need to assume adult responsibilities, and push out.

Amid the current health crisis, we spoke with Siobhan Davenport, president and executive director of Crittenton Services of Greater Washington, about how she and her team are finding ways to engage program participants, creating digital communities/safe spaces during social distancing, and partnering with parents to help their children continue their education during this time of uncertainty.

Siobhan Davenport, President and Executive Director of Crittenton Services of Greater Washington

Showing up for the community 

How are school closures impacting the young women that Crittenton serves?

During this COVID-19 pandemic shut down, we are specifically concerned about the young ladies that we serve and keeping them engaged in school. March 13th is when our schools were closed suddenly. And one of our funders reached out to us and we had a conversation about what role we can play just besides delivering our programs. We talked about some of the factors that we knew our teen girls face in their family, so they gifted us a $5,000 grant called The Emergency COVID-19 Funds.  And immediately on that Friday, our girls were reaching out to us.

They wanted to ensure that we were still going to have programs because in some cases our program leaders are their trusted adult. They meet with them weekly throughout the entire school year in groups of about 15 to 18 teen girls. So, there’s a lot of trust in built up in those groups. And of course, it’s a safe space for our teen girls.

We immediately said, Yes, we will continue to deliver programs, we’re just going to have to do it a little bit differently and be creative in that way.

The COVID-19 crisis adds another layer of trauma and anxiety for many underserved communities. How is your team responding to the young women and their families who are facing new insecurities because of the school closures?

The girls were reaching out and were concerned about food insecurity. We had three girls who lost their jobs. Restaurants were closed and a lot of our girls work in entry-level jobs. And for our girls, those part-time jobs actually contribute to the well-being of their household. So, this is a major blow to the family.

Parents have reported to us job loss as well and reached out to say, ‘can we get emergency food and essential supplies,’ which we were able to do and thus far we’ve helped 40 families and 181 parents, children, and babies.   

Our young ladies have reported inadequate Wi-Fi access or just simply not having a device computer in the home. Both of our school districts are looking at ways in which to distribute tablets, but we had to kind of fill in the gap and we let one of our families borrow a Chromebook because the dad needed to apply for unemployment benefits and didn’t have access to that.

Creating safe spaces 

Crittenton Services of Greater Washington students (Image: Crittenton Services of Greater Washington)

School is a safe haven for many students and a reliable resource for parents as they work. What are some of the ways that the organization is helping students and their families adapt to being home together?

We have a very structured curriculum, and it just so happened that part of the curriculum currently is on what is a healthy relationship, and that means your family, your friends, and of course significant others. Our program leaders are putting a heavy emphasis on that.

We’re really focusing on healthy relationships and communication. The program is steeped in social-emotional learning core competencies. We talk about identifying emotions. We’re all at high emotion at this point in time. We’re intentionally starting each session with self-awareness check-ins.

Our program leaders are helping our students with self-meditation, deep breathing exercises, and challenging them to continue to practice that throughout the week and then report in through the group chat or when they’re on a Zoom call to talk about how they’re managing their stress in a positive, productive way.

Family support is critical during this time as parents and guardians adjust their lives to become substitute teachers, providers, and everything in between. How can organizations like Crittenton support families during these times?

A big concern for parents is that the school structure is being lost. Parents are depending upon teachers to be the source of help for their children. And now all of a sudden, they’re thrust in that role.

We have parents who have English as a second language. They’ve actually come to our program leaders to have them translate how to access information for their children. There’s a lot of responsibilities that parents are taking on. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to go in learning what the schools are doing, what our school systems are asking for, and be able to help parents and guide them as they try to navigate the website and access the work that their daughters are doing. We’ve been on multiple fronts trying to anticipate and be a source of trusted information. For our families and our teen girls.

Staying connected during isolation

At Crittenton, young women are able to build community. How is the organization maintaining that sense of connectedness during social distancing?

Part of positive youth development principles is letting the youth lead. When we initially started conversations with our girls, we talked to them about how they want groups to meet. We were experiential and just tried different methodologies of reaching the girls.

Some program leaders said, ‘I’m just going to switch my platform to Zoom whereas other program leaders have said, the girls said they don’t want to download anything else taking up more memory on their phone and they’re already on Instagram Live and we’ve had a great response reaching them there.

As it relates to social-emotional learning, how is Crittenton helping the young woman understand this national moment of crisis, with all of the different layers of trauma that are experienced? 

Our program leaders have been having conversations with our girls so that they get a sense that this [the pandemic] is bigger than their community. That part of social awareness of social-emotional learning is key in building empathy.

It is our obligation to follow those social distancing rules. I know it’s inconvenient and it’s not how they want to communicate. They actually want to be in school. They are reporting that they are bored, want structure, and want to be able to see their friends face to face.

We’re trying to help them understand that we are actually doing each other a great service by maintaining the social distance.

If you are interested in learning more about the resources offered by Crittenton Services of Greater Washington, visit its website for free tools and resources.

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Venmo and CashApp Propose Delivering Government Stimulus Payments

With the ability to pay and receive payments from the comforts of your mobile phone, online payment services Venmo and CashApp want to help stimulate the quickness of receiving the stimulus checks the government has just authorized, according to CNN.

The services want to be considered for use in getting the payments to the people just as quick or even quicker than direct deposit. To gain support, they’ve taken their campaign public in trying to convince the U.S. Treasury Department to help deliver the stimulus payments directly to Americans. The $2 trillion stimulus package is designated to assist in alleviating economic hardships that the coronavirus pandemic has placed on millions of U.S. citizens. The plan is to help workers, businesses, and hospitals that have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Jack Dorsey, the founder and CEO of Square, which owns CashApp, tweeted to the general public while appealing to the government last week.

People need help immediately. The technology exists to get money to most people today (even to those without bank accounts). Square and many of our peers can get it done. US government: let us help. https://t.co/mVrpOpbp0b

— jack (@jack) March 26, 2020

The IRS has already stated that there is no sign-up needed to get the stimulus money. They will rely on information from people’s 2019 and 2018 tax returns. They also intend to use the Social Security benefit statements as a backstop and will use whatever bank account or address is in their files.

Private talks with staff from Square and PayPal, which owns Venmo, have taken place with the Treasury Department over the past several weeks, two sources from the electronic payment industry who are familiar with the discussions, told CNN Business.

“They [the US government] know they need to get this money out the door quickly so I think they are open to quicker methods,” one of the sources told CNN Business on Friday. “Last time they were doing this was 2008 and 2009 and the technology didn’t exist as it does today,” they added.

The source said the talks were still at the beginning stages. “We are at the point now of looking into the technical challenges and what data the government could share with a third party. I think Treasury is very open to it,” they added.

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