Entrepreneur and WorldSkills Champion uses Competition experience to stay focused during the pandemic

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The Champions Trust Representative for ASEAN/Oceana has a floristry business on the country’s North Island, but also runs an automotive repair and maintenance venture with her partner

COVID-19 hit both almost overnight but in very different ways. Botanica, her floral design studio, lost almost all its revenue at once, as customers were forced to postpone their celebrations

“I specialize in wedding designs specifically and because there's no events - basically no weddings overnight - that had a big impact on not only the immediate events that were planned, but also the ways that couples were planning for next year’s wedding season, so that was significantly affected.”

For the garage, the situation was more complex, as Amelia, who competed in Floristry at WorldSkills Saō Paulo 2015, explains.

“As a day to day automotive business that helps people get around, and an essential service, we decided to really limit what we did in the circumstances.”

“In New Zealand we locked down fairly quickly, so we decided that if we closed that business for a month, and only did emergency jobs, we would be able to get back to work sooner.”

It was a strategy that worked. New Zealand was relatively lightly hit by coronavirus and the country has now lifted its lockdown measures, although entry is restricted and tightly controlled.

As a result, after about six weeks, the business climate is “somewhat normal” as Amelia puts it.

Speaking at the WorldSkills Conference Talk to celebrate World Youth Skills Day, she also reflected on what the future might bring.