Jennifer Termine-Toth has run Andii Mihay Events for over five years but nothing in that time could have prepared her for the effect of the pandemic when everything started to shut down in late March.
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Andii Mihay Events is predominantly a styling and design business for Mount Isa events like weddings, special occasions and corporate events and suddenly these started drying up as the lockdown took hold.
"For the first couple of days when the news broke, I was in shock and withdrew from the public," Jen said.
"As a first time business person I wasn't sure how to deal with it."
Jen said it was her optimistic outlook that got her through the crisis of those early days.
"I had to pull myself up and go, alright, how are we going to work with this, and continue to provide some sort of service?" she said.
"If we can just remain active, current and continue to be in forefront of the public, then as soon as we come out of this, we'll be the first business they'll remember."
It was just as well she remained upbeat - between 95 and 100 percent of her business was cancelled in those first few weeks.
"This was the most emotionally draining part, I had brides on the phone that were devastated and in tears," she said.
"Those first two weeks were calling all of my clients and all had cancelled or postponed for the entire year."
Jen began by offering floral arrangements as a new service and she said she has worked hard to keep her two casual employees engaged, through creative projects and professional development courses.
"We couldn't do the weddings to the scale we were doing but we could offer all the florals like bouquets and things like that," she said.
"Initially there was five people at weddings, then there was 10 and now there's 20, so the scale's not there but maybe our level of service and quality can be heightened."
Jen said they also used the downtime to reorganise and restock their inventory.
"I have four sheds, before they were very messy, now they are very clean!" she said.
"This is a great time for all business to stop and prepare because we are going to be very busy when we open up."
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She said she was also creating professional development opportunities to style a table or setting with her workers and then get a professional photographer to get beautiful new images to use in social media.
"I'm taking a risk to invest back in the business, if I invest now ,it will double when we are fully able to offer our services again," she said.
"I was talking to another older business owner who said he had seen worse things happen in his 60 years and this was an opportunity to show your leadership skills and evolve and be innovative."
As for what changes might be permanent post COVID, Jen nominated a more intimate, back-to-basics approach would be popular at weddings.
"We've had the reduction of the frills and whistles and scaling back. People are quite liking that, it's just them and a few guests instead of 100 people," she said.
"It's probably not so good for me in terms of money but perhaps we can fit a few more in on one day, there's always ways to get through it."
And pandemic or not, weddings aren't going to disappear anytime soon.
"Next year our dates are filling very fast, I think this time of isolation is going to make people want to connect and celebrate more," Jen said.
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