2B ❚ FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2020 ❚ USA TODAY MONEY
tices and reduce contact with our em-
ployees and the public,” he said.
The book store closed Monday,
March 16, but they began taking ap-
pointments for groups of customers of
four or less. “When they come to the
store, they knock on the door. We un-
lock it and we immediately have hand
sanitizer and gloves for them to put on,”
Burk said. “Once they have sanitized
and put on the gloves, we ask just that
they keep 6 feet apart. They have the
store to themselves for an hour, and af-
ter the hour we charge them for what-
ever books they buy.”
The book store, which is just about
six blocks east of the U.S. Capitol, also
began another service for customers:
custom book selections.
Book lovers can call or email them a
book genre, topic or author they are in-
terested in, how much they would like to
spend and the store’s employees will se-
lect a collection of books for them. Capi-
tol Hill Books will ship or, if the custom-
er is local, curbside pickup can be ar-
ranged.
So far, the store hasn’t had to lay off
any of its five employees, Burk says.
While these new strategies do not re-
place the traditional walk-in customers,
they may “allow us to remain viable as a
business,” he said. “That is our main
goal right now.”
Curling up with a good book can be a
way to cope. “It sounds like it is going to
be a long hard slog to get through this
and people are going to need books to
get through it,” Burk said.
- Snider
Social media brings the money
He has done hair for Ashley Graham,
Hailey Bieber and Chrissy Teigen. But
with no events to attend, his celebrity
clientele has no need for his at-home
services right now.
David Lopez is a hair and makeup
professional whose main
source of income is in an
industry that requires
physical proximity to his
clients. During the coro-
navirus pandemic and
directives from the gov-
ernment to close all non-
essential businesses, the
beauty industry finds itself in a predica-
ment.
Lopez, 35, is also an Instagram
influencer with more than 48,000 fol-
lowers. That has been his saving grace.
“I have had more requests for spon-
sored content (product reviews or fea-
tures on Instagram) in the last two
weeks than I’ve ever gotten,” said Lopez,
who focuses on self-care advice that
works for all genders. He says he took “a
week of planning to be sensitive to the
times (and figure out) content that
makes you feel good.” But he added that
in order to do those things, he really had
to “hone in on what my message is on
social media.”
From his residence in Brooklyn, New
York, Lopez can shoot his own videos
and photos, thanks to an in-home stu-
dio he built. Whether he’s doing a video
shoot or an Instagram takeover, in
which brands give him control of their
social media accounts, “from home, I
can just put on a wig and do a tutorial on
hair care.”
As an ambassador, or sponsor, for
such brands as Ulta Beauty, Kenra Pro-
fessional, Byrdie Beauty and IGK Hair,
Lopez is able to maintain a steady
stream of income through those con-
tracts. But Lopez has also experienced a
change in commitments from some cli-
ents such as home-shopping network
QVC.
“I host classes and present at hair
shows, which have been canceled. I
(also) do work for QVC and had to dial-in
for my last airing,” said Lopez. “The rate
was different because I wasn’t there, but
it was great that they were able to ac-
commodate.”
- Rivera
At School of Rock,
the show goes on
School of Rock, a multilocation music
school, has inspired would-be young
rock stars with its “performance-based”
music education program. The closure
of its schools because of the coronavirus
pandemic forced a school focused on
group-based learning to rethink its ap-
proach.
“Like most people, we had a seizure
of terror,” said School of Rock CEO Rob
Price on closing its schools.
Instead of fully shutting down,
School of Rock launched a virtual, one-
on-one remote program, where stu-
dents use video conferencing tools to
continue music lessons with teachers.
The school teaches more than 40,
students around the world.
School of Rock will accept new stu-
dents during this time, offering singing
lessons and instruction on instruments
including guitar, bass, drums or key-
board.
“You have tens of millions of people
dislocated, with time on their hands
feeling anxiety, grief, fear and disloca-
tion,” said Price. “We know from 21 years
of experience that music is one of the
best natural antidotes to those condi-
tions.”- Molina
Facebook Live party sustains DJWhat started out as an act to distract
Puerto Ricans stuck in their homes
quickly became disc jockey Yamil Tor-
res’ new business model.
A curfew issued on March 15 urged
millions in Puerto Rico to stay at home
to help curb the spread of the coronavi-
rus. Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez
imposed a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew that
will run through March 30, fining viola-
tors up to $5,000.
With the island under lockdown, Tor-
res, known as “DJ Yamil,” thought a
Facebook Live party would lift the is-
land’s morale after a day of working or
studying from home. From his home in
Aguadilla, located in western Puerto Ri-
co, the 32-year-old recreated a busy
club environment.
The first of several virtual parties, on
March 19, garnered over 21 million views
and hundreds of thousands of com-
ments, with some of them asking how
they could contribute monetarily.
“Many people were thanking me for
helping them alleviate stress from their
lives,” Torres told USA TODAY.
Torres attached his phone number in
the description of his second Facebook
live so his audience could make dona-
tions through the money transferring
app ATH Móvil, as well as PayPal.
The governor even congratulated
Torres via social media.
“What an excellent initiative by DJ
Yamil for everyone’s entertainment!,”
read Vázquez’s temporary Instagram
post in Spanish. “During these times of
social distancing, social media can turn
into an extraordinary alternative for ev-
eryone’s virtual enjoyment.”
Torres said he hopes to continue his
parties on a weekly basis.- Murphy-Marcos
Social clubhouse goes digitalSocial clubs and coworking spaces
have long been a place where entrepre-
neurs, freelancers and gig-economy
workers can connect with like-minded
people. However, that has abruptly
changed as many of these gathering
places have been forced to shut their
doors amid the worsening coronavirus
pandemic.
Ethel’s Club, a social and wellness
clubhouse located in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn is no different. But creativity
in a time of crisis has allowed it to thrive
in a different form.
The coworking space – which pro-
vides members development program-
ming and a space to network for a
monthly fee – opened in November and
shut its doors on March 13.
“When the coronavirus started to hit
its peak, we felt that it was best for our
community to shut doors. It was impor-tant to think about our members first,”
said Naj Austin, founder of Ethel’s Club.
In a week’s time, Austin and her team
had fully conceptualized a way to con-
vert their brick-and-mortar space into a
virtual model. “We always wanted to in-
clude digital memberships. We replicat-
ed everything that we do here and put it
online,” she said.
On March 20, Ethel’s Club launched
its digital-only membership, which in-
cludes daily streamed content through
Zoom and Vimeo three times a day.
The programming, which mirrors
that of the physical location, spans from
meditation and breathwork sessions for
members to cope with anxiety and
stress, to other interactive offerings,
such as live DJ sets and skill-building
workshops around photography and
content creation. Other membership
perks include exclusive discounts and a
remote job list.
“It has always been about giving ac-
cess and people of color the ability to
feel uplifted, empowered and support-
ed,” Austin said.
While the physical space is home to
more than 200 members and includes a
waiting list for others to join, Ethel’s
Club’s digital community has unlocked
access for an unlimited number of virtu-
al members to join nationwide.
“The pivot to virtual has allowed ev-
eryone to be a part of what we’ve been
doing here,” Austin said. “We can’t pre-
dict the future, but we want people to
know we’re building a place that people
can depend on.”
— GoodwinBookstore moves club to ZoomWhen local officials mandated that
all nonessential businesses were to be
closed, Linda McLoughlin Figel and her
partner Patty Gibson went into action,
sending out an email newsletter to cus-
tomers of their Los Angeles area bookstore.
They let them know that books, puz-
zles and gift cards could still be ordered
from the {pages: a bookstore} website,
that they would be offering curbside
pickups for books every day from 10
a.m. to 2 p.m., and that the popular book
clubs would still be meeting – except
that they would be online.
With the “tech assist” of her 28-year-
old daughter Sarah, Figel put the “Coffee
Time” book club on the Zoom video con-
ference service, where it plans to remain
for as long as the store has to be phys-
ically closed.
“It’s a great way to connect,” she says.
“People are isolated.”
The group usually has 20 people who
meet weekly at the store, which is in the
Manhattan Beach suburb of Los Ange-
les. For the Zoom conference, she had 12
people join in to discuss “Drive Your
Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” by Ol-
ga Tokarczuk, which she considered a
major success.
Zoom is free, but only for video calls
up to 40 minutes. So Figel paid the
$14.99 fee for longer calls, and the club
met for an hour, as they usually do at the
store.
The benefit of video conferencing?
“We were a little more efficient. There
were fewer sidebars.”
The downside? Some people choose
not to have their face on the screen.,
“There’s something you gain when you
can see everyone’s facial reactions,” Fi-
gel says.
The traditional in-store book club
meetings usually end with participants
going to the cash register to buy the next
book. That happened for the virtual
book club, as well – except they bought
it online.
The {pages} website has experienced
a dramatic increase since the COVID-
crisis, with customers buying more
books and puzzles, mostly for pickup,
“which is great,” Figel added.- Graham
Cafe chai at your doorstepAfter businesses in New York were
forced to move to takeout and delivery
amid the coronavirus pandemic, the
highs of opening a new food and bever-
age spot quickly dwindled for brothers,
Ani and Ayal Sanyan.
“Life as we know it had been com-
pletely turned upside down; we knew
our lives would be changed forever,”
said Ani Sanyal.
Just six months before, the two were
celebrating the opening of their masala
chai cafe, Kolkata Chai, with a line
wrapped around the building. The shop,
located in the heart of the city’s East Vil-
lage neighborhood, is the brothers’ nod
to the South Asian drink they enjoyed
during summers spent in Kolkata.
In a pinch, they were forced to figure
out how to survive without a shop as an
option. They found delivery services
like UberEats, GrubHub and Seamless
were no longer accepting new vendors.
“When you’re forced into improbable
situations, it forces you to innovate,
whether you have that in mind or are a
little bit behind,” said Ani. “These set of
circumstances forced us to innovate on
the food and beverage side at a level that
I don’t think we knew we had the capa-
bilities to do.”
Within 48 hours, the two had created
their own delivery infrastructure and
converted their entire business model to
stay afloat. By using Squarespace to in-
tegrate their payment system and bring-
ing on full-time help to coordinate deliv-
eries and a real-time map for orders,
Kolkata now makes deliveries of chai
and other store delicacies, samosas and
Indian biscuits Parle-G’s right to cus-
tomers’ doorsteps.
Weekly revenue rose due to online
orders, gift card purchases and gener-
ous tipping, according to Ani.
In the coming weeks, Ani and Ayal
plan to offer a DIY chai kit to give cus-
tomers the opportunity to make their
authentic chai from home.
“Amidst all the chaos, we have built
two new verticals of our business, e-
commerce and delivery. We rapidly piv-
oted to make sure that the legacy of this
business and what it means for our fam-
ily as first-gen immigrants don’t die,”
Ani added.- Goodwin
Entrepreneurs
Continued from Page 1B
Lopez
A student can still rock out with a remote lesson through School of Rock.
SCHOOL OF ROCKEthel’s Club is a social clubhouse in
Brooklyn, NY. FRANK FRANCES STUDIOWith Puerto Rico shut down, DJ Yamil took to Facebook Live. YAMIL TORRES{pages a bookstore} in Manhattan
Beach, Calif., has moved its weekly
bookclub to Zoom to keep in contact
with customers during the COVID-
crisis. JEFFERSON GRAHAMKolkata Chai Co. is NYC’s first
South-Asian owned chai cafe.
@KOLKATACHAICO/TAHMID CHOWDHURY