One in an occasional series of features on Charlotte area businesses, nonprofits, and events, and how they are adapting to the “new normal.”
Our Subject: BC Creative helps small businesses and entrepreneurs get organized so they can focus on the products and services they provide for customers. With her background in sports and event management and front-of-house organization, owner Brie Chrisman is in the detail business so that business owners can pursue their passion while someone else dots the I’s and crosses the T’s.
What’s been impacted: Brie was laid off from her job as a marketing director in March, just two months after returning to work from maternity leave. With so many uncertainties surrounding the transmission of COVID-19, she was reluctant to find another full-time job if it required leaving her infant son in daycare. She needed to find a way to work from home and keep a flexible schedule, while using her organizational talents to support her young family.
Innovative pivot: Sitting down and figuring out her strengths gave Chrisman the idea for her own business, BC Creative. She literally created a business, with its own flexible schedule, that would accomplish the details that bedevil other small businesses.
“It boiled down to the ‘grunt work,’ believe it or not — the tasks that bury most people in the weeds, the ones that people hate doing or don’t have time to do but still need to get done to have a successful business,” says Chrisman. “I knew that I could put my finely-tuned skills to good use helping other businesses.”
Reactions: Even after only a few months, Chrisman knows she’s on the right track, and that there are a lot of businesses out there that need her skills. Feedback from clients has been 100% positive.
“There’s such a great need for this type of work, especially in these times where people have so much more on their plates, especially parents,” says Chrisman. “Like any startup, it’s going to take some time to explode — but I think the explosion-factor is definitely there and I’m excited to see where it goes!”
Forecast for the future: If necessity is the mother of invention, BC Creative has been the mother’s helper Chrisman needed at just the right time. Since her business is virtual at its inception, it can continue to grow as the economy gets rolling and more small businesses get back to work.
“I think once society as a whole gets back out there, businesses will start booming again, business owners will loosen their belts a little and be so swamped that they’re going to need all the help they can get,” Chrisman says. “I’m hoping it’ll just keep growing and growing!”
Need someone to take care of organizing your business’s details? Reach BC Creative on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bccreativeSC/