She already was an expert in training women
in negotiating, a skill necessary for career
success. Valentine had researched the
subject in business school, so she founded
Worthmore Negotiations and began lining up
corporate clients.
“About once a week I’ll have a commitment
during the day, but otherwise all my work gets
done after 7 p.m.,” she says. But Valentine hopes
to revive her consulting business once the
pandemic is over and she has child-care again.
Her hope is to keep both businesses.
A series of lockdowns in Britain forced Steve
West to close his acupuncture practice. With
no money coming in, he returned to digital
marketing, work that helped him get through
a slowdown in his practice during the Great
Recession. He’s not sure when, or if, he’ll return
to acupuncture, given people’s uncertainty
about close contact.
He’s also concerned that when life returns to
normal, some clients will decide they’ve done
just fine without acupuncture. Meanwhile,
companies are in continual need of digital
marketing, which helps them get more visibility
in internet searches.
“This is the time to focus on this (digital
marketing), and maybe come back to
acupuncture in the future,” says West,
who lives in Haywards Heath, in the south
of Britain.
Kriti Sachdeva has a new job, with an agency
that does e-commerce consulting. She had
to shut her business that organized fairs and
markets in Britain and other European countries;
she had just five days’ notice that she had to