The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our world upside down, with small businesses being hit especially hard. This is a pivotal time for SMBs, and the way they respond to the pressure will determine how their business runs for years to come. Many companies are taking this difficult situation and turning it into an opportunity. In our Positive Pivots series, we're diving deeper into what these innovative businesses have done, and what lies beneath the surface to produce this kind of creativity and resilience.

This week we spoke with Kevin Peterson and Jane Larson, Owners of Castalia at Sfumato, to learn about their company's response to the pandemic and how turning "someday" ideas into "today" ideas are keeping them on top.

What is Castalia at Sfumato?

Sfumato is our all-natural, culinary-inspired fragrance and incense line based in Detroit, Michigan. When we opened our brick and mortar fragrance business, we wanted to offer something unique for our customers to experience, and expanded to include cocktails that pair with our scents. Castalia at Sfumato is the cocktail bar. So, our scent shop transforms every night to host our bar guests and serve each drink with a scent strip intended to enhance the flavor of the cocktail. We had just celebrated our second birthday as a business when we had to answer a new question…what does it mean to be a bar that isn't allowed to have people inside?

How did you respond to changes due to COVID-19?

When the stay-at-home order was issued in Michigan, we opened our book of "someday" ideas. Michigan is not allowing bars to sell cocktails for takeout and delivery so we knew we had to go back to the drawing board.

When we first added drinks to our repertoire, we began thinking about creating frozen drink cubes for the perfect at-home cocktail, but we were preoccupied with filling the bar and serving customers. I [Kevin] went to culinary school and have degrees in physics and engineering, so the science behind cocktails has always been really compelling.

We dusted off this "someday" idea and within a week, developed frozen cocktail cubes containing juices, bitters, tinctures, dilution, etc. that allow our customers to mix a perfect drink. All they have to do is add the spirit and stir or shake until the cube is fully melted. Then they have a perfect cocktail! It's about more than just the ingredients. The drinks made with these cubes have the perfect temperature and dilution.

How did your supply chain pivot during this unusual time?

Launching a new product meant tapping our typical suppliers for different products than usual while managing inventory with them for a future reopening. We don't want to be caught flat footed when we try to reopen in a month or two, but we also want to have the supplies to create our new frozen cubes now — we sell about 750 a week!

How do you think the pivot you made in response to COVID-19 will have a long-term impact on your business?

Bringing our "someday" idea to life has been such a perfect way to find solace in this slow period. We are rolling out another rainy-day idea soon — scented cinema kits. When we originally envisioned this idea, we pictured playing a classic movie in our shop and wafting scents for the viewers for a full sensory experience at just the right times. But with businesses being closed, we are offering this as an in-home kit with numbered sprays and movie time stamps so viewers can create their own sensory experience.

We are still navigating our new normal. We have no idea what is to come but we are keeping some momentum going by trying some new ideas and making our business work even while shut down.

What is your best general advice for other businesses out there during this time?

Our best piece of advice is to use this as an opportunity to try new things. Having something to keep us busy has been essential and the positive response has been overwhelming.

About half of our customers are our regulars looking to get out and support their small business community. We have also found that even people not in our usual network have been willing to try beta versions of new products during the pandemic. We started out selling our cubes in plastic bags before using take home salad dressing cups and have finally found the perfect box to put them in. It has been about doing something, and we're very thankful that our customers are supporting us.