Do not shut up because of the novel coronavirus!

Feb 28, 2020 | Get Help, Launch Your Web Store

Do not shut up because of the novel coronavirus, keep talking hair!

Many resellers of hair imported from China are facing difficult times. In this crisis, caused by novel coronavirus there are no borders, we all face similar kind of challenges. A travel ban will not stop the coronavirus, it will only hurt the business more. Also, all hair stores all over the world, sourcing hair from China, face with the problem where to get the hair from? China is the world’s largest exporter of human hair.

The factories collecting the hair and producing human hair products are still not at the full production level. Today a significant part of the factories still deals with workers who stay at home or supplies not delivered. Indian hair suppliers, for example, face difficulties in exporting the hair to China as we know.

The novel coronavirus shows again how much we depend on each other in the current global economy. It will take at least till the end of the year before a vaccine will be at the market. Even if China will be able to master the outbreak and get back to normal production, the demand will lack behind estimations. Overseas buyers are to occupied dealing with the virus and not capable to buy Chinese products. They are or in quarantine or have limited access to the markets.

The expectation is the world, or at least most developing countries, will face economic slowdown. Or even a recession due to the novel coronavirus. Your clients will buy less often new hair. At the same time, they will still feel the need to look and feel good. They might look for cheaper hair, or alternative products. Or wait longer before they buy new weaves.
Does this mean you have to wait until the virus has become a normal sickness? Do you have to close your hair business for the next coming months?

How to beat the novel coronavirus

No, please do not pause your hair business because I want you to stay in business. Let your clients know you are there for them. The time and the money to buy hair will come back. The novel coronavirus will not be there for ever. You want your clients to spend the money in your hair business when the times are better, right.
There are a couple of business strategies to stay in business long enough to be able to pick up the higher demand when this crisis is history. The most important and cheapest one is to increase the interaction with your clients. Even if you cannot sell hair.

Make money with your expertise

Use your knowledge and insight of the hair and beauty market to write the best blog postings ever. If the business is slowing down, use the free time to go out and look for hair and beauty trends. Share your experience in a blogpost or on social media. This is the best time to promote your brand and your expertise.

Writing blog postings and taking pictures will not cost you much money. You can create content that will be attracting leads and clients for a long time into the future. Having a business does not always allow you to divide enough time on your marketing strategy. Use this crisis to boost your marketing effort, and again without hardly spending money.

You can also promote the business of others, and they will be interested to pay you for this. Make sure the products and services you promote do fit with the ideal client needs and preferences. If you can also allow some AdSense advertisements on your website or blog. Not all over the site, but you can add value to the relevant blogs.

Interact with your clients

Social media is a great, but time consuming, tool, now you can interact more with your visitors. If people leave a comment, you can now respond much faster. Big chance they are still online after leaving the comment and when you respond in real time you can keep the conversation going.

See What Others Also Read

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It is all about when the going gets tough, you need to make sure your clients know you are still there. Even if you cannot make a sale, invest in the relationship. The moment they can buy again, or you have enough stock again, your sales will pick up fast enough to make up all the lost sales due to the novel coronavirus.

Let me hear in the comments below how you deal with this.

You can get COVID-19 by touching a surface informs CDC

Feb 26, 2020 | Get Help, Launch Your Web Store, WholeSale Companies

You can get COVID-19 by touching a surface informs CDC

You can get COVID-19 by touching a surface that has the Coronavirus on it and then touching your own mouth, nose, or eyes. However the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not think this is the main way the Coronavirus spreads.

CNN has reported more and more hair re-sellers face a shortage or at least higher prices for the human hair they import from China. Production is still below the regular level and on top of this the uncertainty in the market leads to lower demand.
This is often a combination between lower spending power for the consumers because many countries are at the brick of recession due to the Coronavirus outbreak. And, less demand as clients fear they will get COVID-19 or Coronavirus by touching the packaging or the hair.

Please read the latest information available about the spreading of the Coronavirus and what you can do to protect yourself and your clients. Use this information to take well informed business decisions to protect your business too.

Now (February 25th, 2020) no vaccine is available according to the American Health Organizations, like CDC, thus the best way to protect yourself is to avoid you will get COVID-19.
The outbreak or spreading of respiratory disease caused by a novel (new) coronavirus, or official named COVID-19, is now not active in China but has now been detected in 37 locations internationally, including cases in the United States.

Where does the Coronavirus comes from and how does it spread?

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between people such as with MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and now with this new virus (named SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19).

The COVID-19 virus is a betacoronavirus, like MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV. All three of these viruses have their origins in bats. The sequences from U.S. patients are like the one that China initially posted, suggesting a likely single, recent emergence of this virus from an animal reservoir.

Early on, many of the patients in the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China had some link to a large seafood and live animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread. Later, a growing number of patients reportedly did not have exposure to animal markets, indicating person-to-person spread. Person-to-person spread has been reported outside China, including in the United States and other locations. Chinese officials report that sustained person-to-person spread in the community is occurring in China. In addition, other destinations have apparent community spread, meaning some people have been infected who are not sure how or where they became infected.

Illness Severity, including illness resulting in death

Both MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV have been known to cause severe illness in people. The complete clinical picture regarding COVID-19 is not fully understood. Reported illnesses have ranged from mild to severe, including illness resulting in death. There are ongoing investigations to learn more.

Risk Assessment to avoid you get COVID-19

Outbreaks of novel virus infections among people are always of public health concern. The risk from these outbreaks depends on characteristics of the virus, including how well it spreads between people, the severity of resulting illness, and the medical or other measures available to control the impact of the virus (for example, vaccine or treatment medications). The fact that this disease has caused illness, including illness resulting in death, and sustained person-to-person spread is concerning. These factors meet two of the criteria of a pandemic. As community spread is detected in more and more countries, the world moves closer toward meeting the third criteria, worldwide spread of the new virus.

The potential public health threat posed by COVID-19 is high, both globally and to the United States. But individual risk is dependent on exposure.

It’s important to note that current global circumstances suggest it is likely that this virus will cause a pandemic. In that case, the risk assessment would be different.

What May Happen

More cases are likely to be identified in the days after February 25th, 2020, including more cases in the United States. It’s also likely that person-to-person spread will continue to occur, including in the United States. Widespread transmission of COVID-19 in the United States would translate into large numbers of people needing medical care at the same time. Schools, childcare centers, workplaces, and other places for mass gatherings may experience more absenteeism. Public health and healthcare systems may become overloaded, with elevated rates of hospitalizations and deaths. Other critical infrastructure, such as law enforcement, emergency medical services, and transportation industry may also be affected. Health care providers and hospitals may be overwhelmed.

No vaccine to protect against Coronavirus

At this time, there is no vaccine to protect against COVID-19 and no medications approved to treat it. Nonpharmaceutical interventions would be the most important response strategy.

CDC Recommends

While the immediate risk of this new virus to the American public is believed to be low at this time, everyone can do their part to help us respond to this emerging public health threat:

It’s currently flu and respiratory disease season and CDC recommends getting a flu vaccine, taking everyday preventive actions to help stop the spread of germs, and taking flu antivirals if prescribed.
If you are a healthcare provider, be on the look-out for people who recently traveled from China and have fever and respiratory symptoms.
If you are a healthcare provider caring for a COVID-19 patient or a public health responder, please take care of yourself and follow recommended infection control procedures.
If you have been in China or have been exposed to someone sick with COVID-19 in the last 14 days, you will face some limitations on your movement and activity. Please follow instructions during this time. Your cooperation is integral to the ongoing public health response to try to slow spread of this virus. If you develop COVID-19 symptoms, contact your healthcare provider, and tell them about your symptoms and your travel or exposure to a COVID-19 patient.

For people who are ill with COVID-19, please follow CDC guidance on how to reduce the risk of spreading your illness to others.

How COVID-19 Spreads

Current understanding about how the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads is largely based on what is known about similar coronaviruses.

Person-to-person spread

The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person.

Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet)
Via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.

Spread from contact with infected surfaces or objects

It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

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When does spread happen?

People are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic (the sickest).
Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

How efficiently does the virus spread?

How easily a virus spreads from person-to-person can vary. Some viruses are highly contagious (like measles), while other viruses are less so. Another factor is whether the spread continues over multiple generations of people (if spread is sustained). The virus that causes COVID-19 seems to be spreading easily and sustainably in Hubei province and other parts of China. In the United States, spread from person-to-person has occurred only among a few close contacts and has not spread any further to date.

There is still more to be learned

COVID-19 is an emerging disease and there is more to learn about its transmissibility, severity, and other features

What are you doing to avoid to get COVID-19?

Let me hear in the comments below how you deal with this kind of crisis, or with the Wuhan Coronavirus crisis specifically.

COVID-19 dies within a couple of hours but travels through bathroom pipes!

Feb 12, 2020 | Get Help

Coronavirus or COVID-19 dies within a few hours!

The coronavirus, or COVID-19, on a surface will die within a few hours or more. This is the latest update from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Every day more victims. Today the death toll surpassed the 1,100, and over 45,000 confirmed cases. But also, more information comes available about the spreading of the coronavirus. The coronavirus or COVID-19 as it is called now, so no reference to Wuhan anymore. This COVID-19 is an acronym: CO stands for corona, VI stands for virus, D for disease. The 19 refers to 2019.

“It is still not known how long the COVID-19 virus survives on surfaces, although preliminary information suggests the virus may survive a few hours or more. Simple disinfectants can kill the virus making it no longer possible to infect people.” WHO Q&A

Traveling through bathroom pipes

Still there are many questions about how the coronavirus or COVID-19 is spreading. The virus seems to use bathroom pipes in Hong Kong to spread through a building and to infect the neighbors. This condition is different from spreading through a dry surface, like the packaging of hair. Or the hair itself.

The safe way to open a new order of hair.

Based upon the intelligence of the WHO, it is safe to order hair and to touch the packaging without the risk to get sick. But to play safe one can decide to, cleanse the surface of the packaging with a disinfectant and to wait a day before you open the package. In this time the virus will not be active anymore and you can enjoy your new arrival. Consider the hair has been shipped and thus the virus has been on a dry surface for some time already. An extra day plus the cleansing (of the packaging) should give extra comfort. This information you can pass through to your clients.

How to protect yourself and your clients for COVID-19?

The WHO has made a list of suggestions to protect yourself against the coronavirus.

Wash your hands frequently

Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand rub if your hands are not visibly dirty.

Why? Washing your hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub eliminates the virus if it is on your hands.

Practice respiratory hygiene

When coughing and sneezing, cover mouth and nose with flexed elbow or tissue – discard tissue immediately into a closed bin and clean your hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.

Why? Covering your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing prevent the spread of germs and viruses. If you sneeze or cough into your hands, you may contaminate objects or people that you touch.

Maintain social distancing

Maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) distance between yourself and other people, particularly those who are coughing, sneezing and have a fever.

Why? When someone who is infected with a respiratory disease, like 2019-nCoV, coughs or sneezes they project small droplets containing the virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the virus.

Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth

Why? Hands touch many surfaces which can be contaminated with the virus. If you touch your eyes, nose or mouth with your contaminated hands, you can transfer the virus from the surface to yourself.

If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical care early

Tell your health care provider if you have traveled in an area in China where 2019-nCoV has been reported, or if you have been in close contact with someone with who has traveled from China and has respiratory symptoms.

Why? Whenever you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing it’s important to seek medical attention promptly as this may be due to a respiratory infection or other serious condition. Respiratory symptoms with fever can have a range of causes, and depending on your personal travel history and circumstances, COVID-19 could be one of them.

Practice general hygiene measures

As a general precaution, practice general hygiene measures when visiting live animal markets, wet markets or animal product markets.

Ensure regular hand washing with soap and potable water after touching animals and animal products; avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth with hands; and avoid contact with sick animals or spoiled animal products. Strictly avoid any contact with other animals in the market (e.g., stray cats and dogs, rodents, birds, bats). Avoid contact with potentially contaminated animal waste or fluids on the soil or structures of shops and market facilities.

Avoid consumption of raw or undercooked animal products

Handle raw meat, milk or animal organs with care, to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods, as per good food safety practices.

The availability of the hair is still limited

Factories in China are still slowly returning to their normal levels of production and distribution. Because of supply chains that are mostly designed for just in time delivery, that saves expenses because less resources for warehousing are needed. However, in times like this, the low levels of stock hurt many companies at the same time, or shortly after each other.

Check what you can do to stay in business despite COVID-19

Do not let the Coronavirus eat your profit!

Feb 1, 2020 | Get Help, Launch Your Web Store, WholeSale Companies

Sales will drop due to Coronavirus regardless the origin of your hair!

There is no more doubt, the Coronavirus will eat the profit of most stores all over the world. The measures to protect the outbreak, the uncertainty and uncontrollable spreading all over the world will slow down the economies and with this your sales too.

Despite the advice from the World Health Organisation, the US and Australia said they would deny entry to all foreign visitors who had recently been in China. Earlier, countries including Russia, Japan, Pakistan and Italy announced similar travel restrictions. The advice from the WHO is to limit the negative economical and health impact of the Coronavirus. But a ban also has a discriminatory impact, people start to avoid people who might be a risk to their health. Even if there is no reason whatsoever. I also think we should in times of crisis help and comfort each other. How difficult this might be because of all the uncertainties.

But all this means on top of lower availability of stock, there is less appetite to buy any new product or good. Less demand for hair and wigs will most probably hit your bottom line this quarter. Less sales and perhaps less profit.

Time for some measures to fight the Coronavirus.

Do not sit still and wait until the virus is gone and we have time to worry about other things. Now it is the best time to react and to fight the virus.

Why will people buy less hair extensions or wigs?

To understand why people will buy less, you must realize economy has everything to do about feeling good. If your client know she will get a salary rise, even before she gets the rise she starts thinking in possibilities. “What if I buy more of this, or what if I redecorate my house, or what if I buy a new wig?” This has helped the healthy economic growth for the last several years. But now this is under pressure due to the Coronavirus. The weird thing is, even if you do not sell hair from Chinese suppliers, or if you are in an area far away from Coronavirus victims, people, will still prefer to keep their hands on the pockets.
If you want to see the proof of this, just check the red figures on the stock markets all over the world. Investors like to buy stock in companies they believe will make more sales and profit in the future. If they expect disappointing sales, they sell the stock and the value will go down.

Also, the CEO’s of major firms like Apple, Starbucks and McDonalds foresee lower growth and reduce operations. This will not only impact the operations in China, but all over the world. Chinese people will travel less and consume less. The Government has placed restrictions on family or group gatherings, while people have less to buy. This again will also influence the import of certain goods.
Overall there is less money to spend, and this will impact the economy all over the world. People will prefer to keep the money in their pocket.

What can you do about it?

As mentioned before, it is important to educate your clients about the risk of the Coronavirus. Or better how limited that risk is, especially for the hair you are selling. This is again an opportunity to show how well experienced you are. So, write a blogpost about the Wuhan Coronavirus in relation to the product you offer. For some background information see my previous blogpost. People are searching the internet for news about the virus, so it will help to be specific and to use the keyword Coronavirus with some terms related to the hair you are selling.

Next to this, see if you can offer some discount coupons. People might hesitate to buy goods they do not see as their first priority. We all know you can fight anything from scary spiders to the Wuhan Coronavirus if only your hair looks gorgeous. A discount might do the trick to seduce your client to still buy the hair. Make sure you put a time limit to the offer, otherwise she will still wait to buy the hair until the virus has been long forgotten.

Organize a hair extensions party with China as your special theme. People will be curious to know more about your hair and about china. The unknown has always been attractive. This way people can talk about their fears and share with each other stories. Make sure you have enough knowledge yourself to answer any question about the Coronavirus or ask somebody with a medical background to support you. You will see, once your guests are feeling relaxed, they will be very fast in the buying mode. And what can they buy? Your beautiful hair!

Leave a comment below to tell me how you are fighting the Coronavirus to keep on selling hair!

B.1.1.529 Coronavirus limits hair available outside China

Jan 27, 2020 | Find Hair, WholeSale Companies

Less Hair from China Due to B.1.1.529 Coronavirus

Last update: Feb 9th, 2020

Over 70 percent of the world hair market is exported by China. Since the outbreak the Coronavirus made many people sick and is responsible for the death of many people worldwide. But the coronavirus B.1.1.529 also has a devastating impact on the availability of goods and the trade of products like cars, spare parts and hair extensions and wigs. The economy of China is hit very badly already, and the rest of the world will feel the impact because of this. Selling hair in 2020 will be more difficult.

Clients prefer to keep the money in their pocket because of the uncertainty, some clients fear to touch goods like hair (wrapped or not) from China or Asia and it will be more difficult to get the hair you ordered from your wholesale supplier to your store. Governments of many western countries have limited the traffic with mainland China.

In times of crisis you can show how will you know how to improvise, how well prepared you are and off course that you are the expert your clients should turn to if they have any question related to hair trends, safety and maintenance. With this post I will give you some background information, tips and links to keep on selling hair, despite the B.1.1.529 Coronavirus crisis.

How can the B.1.1.529 Coronavirus limit how much hair is available?

So, how can a simple virus cause so much stress on the global hair market?

Less workers in hair factories available

To contain the Coronavirus the Chinese government had extended the Chinese New Year’s holiday. It is estimated a 3 billion transfers take place during the New Year’s holiday season, making it the largest human migration. A migration with of course an increased risk for the B.1.1.529 virus to spread all over China. The always joyful period of the Chinese New Year Holiday has now turned into a nightmare for many Chinese families. The weekend of February the 9th the last workers will return to their hometown and start to work on Monday.

The processing of hair is a rather labor-intensive activity. Many tasks are handled by humans and can’t be replaced by machines or robots (yet). Manufacturing of the hair has been already low due to the holiday, but one can expect it will take some time before all factories will be producing at the normal level again. How many workers will show up because many might be sick or too occupied with the impact of the virus on their daily live.

Export of hair and other goods suspended due to the Virus

China has the last decade become the main factory of the world. The fact is today so many goods are produced in China, the global economy depends very much on China. Another effort from the Chinese Government to limit the outbreak of the Coronavirus is to suspend freight movements. Less trains, less ships leave Chines logistical hubs and harbors. This is adding to the limited availability of the goods like hair extensions and wigs outside China.

The consequence is once the factories will start to manufacture hair and similar goods again, they will face difficulties in finding enough ways to transport the hair to their clients. Or the marketplaces like Amazon in the United States or elsewhere.

This shows a solution for one part of the crisis, will not solve the limited availability of hair in the short term. Time for some action to keep on selling hair to your clients.

How to avoid you can not sell due to B.1.1.529 Coronavirus?

Your sales should not decline because of the Coronavirus, there are a couple of measures you can execute.

Always go for two hair suppliers

To have a reliable source of hair, a wholesale supplier delivering a consistent level of quality is gold in this business. You know your client will always get the best hair. This will help to turn them into happy and loyal clients. Good for them and good for your business.

In times like today, with a virus or any other crisis that hits the logistics, this strategy, of having only one supplier, might cause your brand some serious damage.

This crisis shows it helps you to have a second supplier at hand. This will reduce the risk you will have orders but no hair to sell because your supplier has delivery issues. A second supplier also avoid you will have no time to check and test the hair thoroughly as you otherwise would do. If you have no second supplier now make sure you plan to have one.

Invest more in stock

The best thing for your cashflow is to keep your inventories low, money invested in stock is not earning you anything. The downside is, if you run out of stock and clients show interest in the hair you offer. There are not many things more painful I can think of. A client who shows you the money to buy your hair, but you have to say no, because the hair is not in stock.

Increase overtime the minimum level of your inventory. This will freeze some of your money in the stock, but as Chinese Hair might become for a period difficult to order, you can increase the price if needed.

Partner up with the competition

The hair industry is famous for the competition, but we also share a lot. Invest in the relation with your supplier and with other resellers. This will increase your chances to have enough access to hair extensions.
With a good relationship with your supplier, they will give you their preference if they are short on hair. In times like this where there is a scarcity of hair and other beauty related goods, thus can help you to get supplied before the competition.

Also, to partner with other resellers or salons will help. What about you are short on a certain type of hair, but a partnering salon or another reseller still has this texture on stock. You could swap the hair you have with the hair you need from them. This is beneficial for both of you, because the specific needs of the clients might deviate and you both have a larger pool to choose from. Make sure to have a good profit-sharing arrangement in place.

Check the stocks of marketplaces

Sellers of hair on AliExpress or Amazon most often keep their stocks abroad if they use the fulfillment services, this allows for swift delivery when you place an order outside the country of origin. Check the available hair on AmazonliExpress if you need hair now and accept a slightly higher price if that will allow you to keep on selling hair.

Avoid the virus will spread via the packaging or the hair.

PLease, stay safe and take care of yourself, your staff and family. Avoid the virus will spread via the packaging or the hair. Ilness in your company will impact your operation and also the sales.

Learn more about this in Can You Get the Coronavirus via the Packaging or the Hair itself?

The Strength of Diversification

It is key to focus on a niche in the market, but no need to limit your product offering to only one kind of product. It is better to add complementary goods. Goods your ideal clients need too. This can be hair care, or beauty products. They already know you and your brand because of the beautiful hair you have sold them before. To sell them additional goods or services will be less difficult. In times when clients are less interested to buy one of the products you are selling, or if you have less in stock, the other goods will keep you in business.

Make sure you keep selling hair despite the virus

The B.1.1.529 Coronavirus will not put you out of business, nor will it impact the Chinese hair suppliers for a long time. But it does show you in the hair business nasty surprises can happen. They will always be different, but with the right measures you can avoid any crisis, small or big, to impact your hair business.

See What Others Also Read

Can You Get the Coronavirus via the Packaging or the Hair itself?

Do not let the novel coronavirus eat your profit!

You Get Virus After Touching Surface

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Let me hear in the comments below how you deal with this kind of crisis, or with the B.1.1.529 Coronavirus crisis specifically.

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