How Businesses Have Survived Over The Pandemic

Benedetta Bruzziches gives her take on how to build a dynamic business.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges for a lot of small business owners with usual processes being disrupted or halted entirely. And while it hasn’t been easy, a lot of businesses have taken it in their stride and used it as an opportunity to start doing things in new and innovative ways.

Benedetta Bruzziches, Italian luxury handbag designer, is someone who has always been driven to do things differently. Her namesake label is all about looking to the past to find new ways of doing things in the future. And when the pandemic struck, she didn’t let that stop her.

“The crisis, it must be said, for us has never been a novelty. Indeed, it was perhaps the stimulus that allowed us, that led us, forced us… to go and look what was there. So, our mantra has always been: we do what we can with what we have.”

Fashion is a fast-paced industry with new trends constantly emerging. Only the most innovative and forward-thinking designers stand the test of time as their brands must remain resilient to survive.

With many being pushed to be inventive out of necessity, Benedetta took all the resources at her disposal and transformed her business for the better.

Supporting the community

The pandemic has highlighted that sometimes working with what you have is already is all you need. From shopping locally to volunteering, communities became more united and worked together in the face of difficult times, proving that having the support of those around you can go a long way.

Coming from a small village called Caprarola in Italy, Benedetta has always had strong family roots and a deep connection with her community. When she began to design and sell her bags, she looked to them to help bring her vision to life.

In business, creating new ways of doing things really sets a company apart from the rest. But, sometimes the best ideas come from what is already there, and this is exactly what Benedetta did.

“This possibility of networking has emerged from the resources that, somehow, were around us, they were not tangible and they were not the classical and canonical ones, those that you usually think when you start a company.”

Pioneering a new tradition

Staying ahead of the competition in business will always require inventing thinking, never settling for the same recipe as before. Particularly in the current climate, having that inventive capacity has been a benefit to many businesses.

For Benedetta, recent innovation has been rooted in the past. Influenced by the history of her village, she saw an opportunity to bring back to life what had once been a thriving centre where the community had worked together to produce handmade goods.

“We understood that, although there was no tradition of the manufacture of bags, surely you could invent and find solutions to bring back the work within the historical centres.”

Bringing tradition into the fabric of her business, Benedetta set out to create a new history for her village that had the community at the heart of it.

Recognising what’s important

The past year-and-a-half has provided time for everyone, not just business leaders, to reflect on what is core to their everyday lives.

For Benedetta, this was the history and tradition at the heart of her business.

Realising this, she has been able to shape the direction of her brand and build it into something she truly believes in.

“I think this pandemic has brought us back to consider…. what matters, reorientating ourselves towards… quality… but also how things are thought and done.”

Keeping in mind what is important for a business can help to guide its development and shape it into something that has a positive impact not only for the owners and employees, but also the community it exists within.

Benedetta’s story shows that sometimes all you need to run a successful business is an exciting idea, values to drive it forward, and the support of the people around you.