That's amazing, almost like a miracle. You have no idea why it happened? That gives me faith that my wife's work will pick back up again. Prior to this outbreak her performance at work was an all time best and things were going great. Its scary how fast the rug can get ripped out from under you.
I'm thrilled you're doing great again and can support your lived ones without fear.
You know Maldorf I don't believe in that, I don't even believe in luck but something did happen something did change. I was completely convinced I was cursed, someone put some terrible curse on me and there was nothing I could do it was the lowest feeling I've ever felt in my life. Nothing I tried to do worked, I made every change and fixed every problem and possible issue I could and it did nothing. I was just on a slow ride down and there were no brakes....the bottom was staring at me and I was about to crash hard. I always remember the quote when they asked the man how he lost everything "slowly at first and then all at once".....that was going to me very soon.
I do ecommerce, I've got a big warehouse full of merchandise. I have two arms of my business, one is the merchandise and the other is custom photo prints I won't bother you with the details.
The merchandise arm I saw the writing on the wall years ago but there was nothing I could do because it's inventory based, sure the strength and age of my selling platforms had value but not enough for it to be worth selling the business. Seemingly overnight big shops made the switch from caring about their brick and mortar stores to only caring about online, that and there are new small competitors every day but the biggest reason I knew the decline was coming is because there is no closeout market anymore. Why would a manufacturer or even a big retailer ever liquidate inventory anymore? Just sell it online cheap and move it out the door, it's just pallets on a rack it's not taking up store floor space anymore and they're already selling online anyway so it's not more overhead or resources there is no advantage anymore to liquidating. I started this business about 15 years ago and back then guys had gold sitting in their old dusty rat infested warehouses and they didn't know it. I was buying pallets of merchandise, hundreds if not thousands of units, for less than the cost of the wood pallet they were sitting on and the guys selling it to me thought they were taking me for a ride they were happy to just get it out of their warehouse and probably would have given it to me for free as long as I picked it up or paid for the shipping to get it out of there. I sold some of those items for prices that would make your head spin, the stuff was sought after they just didn't know it because the only reach they had was whoever walked into their old crusty warehouse and my reach was worldwide. Well that's all long gone, anyone who can input a UPC number into google can find out exactly what something is worth and just sell it online themselves which they're all doing now anyway.
So the merchandise arm I knew the boom was dead and it was just going to be a barely sustainable business instead of a cash cow, that happened years ago. But the photo arm was booming, absolutely booming and it's a complete and total sweetheart business with no cost of inventory, no overhead and takes very little time to run. I started it because I did see the end coming for merchandise and I obviously knew what I was doing already so it was easy for me to set up, I had the space in my warehouse, the employees with extra time and most importantly the strong reputation with the companies to give me a shot. I was killing it, I couldn't believe how far it had come, how easy it was and it was getting better every month.
Well one day it just stopped, like somebody pressed a switch and I was suddenly doing a quarter of what I was doing before. Even though I had more products for sale then ever so I should be doing better than ever but it just completely stopped, I still have no idea why it still makes no sense. I can give you anecdotal bullshit to try and come up with reasons for it but it cannot account for how bad it got, just didn't make any sense. It wasn't something slow and gradual it just happened suddenly, I can even pin point the month where all of a sudden sales died it's all there in numbers. I usually get slammed for back to school....didn't happen. I usually get slammed for the holidays....didn't happen. I'm usually busier in the winter than I am in the summer.....definitely didn't happen it was actually getting worse month to month. I'm telling you I was cursed, I have absolutely no explanation for it and I don't even believe in that crap!
Well about two weeks into the "pandemic" somebody or something turned the switch back on and the curse ended, it's going stronger than ever and getting better every day. Hell even the merchandise end my numbers over the past few months are triple what I did the year before and I never for a moment thought that would happen. The photo arm I knew would eventually turn around because there was no reason at all for it to be down it was just a matter of if I was going to go broke first and I shit you not I was probably a couple weeks away from defaulting on everything and talking to a bankruptcy lawyer.
I couldn't sleep at night, I couldn't wake up in the morning I was completely dead inside, just a zombie walking around with a fake smile to make sure nobody knew what I was going through hell it's not like anybody could help me anyway. Everything I worked my ass off for, sacrificed my 20's for while all my friends were partying like rock stars all I did was work and it was worthless overnight seemingly. I had no options whatsoever, it was over for me and I was going to let everyone down I felt like a walking pile of worthless garbage every single day. Mind you I have daily operating costs even if we're not talking about the monthly bills, and there were days where I didn't buy a coffee in the morning because i may have needed that extra $2 to ship something out.....I can't even describe how bad it was and thinking of it now feels like a different reality.
Well that's all over now and I've done so well the past few months that even if for some reason it goes back to shit I have plenty of options to pursue instead.
I don't know what your wife does specifically Maldorf but believe you me brother it's not over don't lose hope!