Viewpoint: Diary of a spectacle designer

Last month I advised you all to go digital first and find new ways to reach your customer online, before someone else did. I said I was going to do the same… and I did. I can hardly dish out advice and then ignore it myself.

I’ve had some mixed results, although in fairness, we are only three weeks into 2021. Nonetheless, I wanted to follow up on this theme as I believe it’s so important for our long-term prosperity.

Facebook is one of my key channels and when a post popped up saying ‘Facebook grants are available for small and medium sized businesses for £1,000 to £250,000,’ I guessed this was their way of giving something back to traditional businesses that had been affected by the pandemic, while Facebook had prospered from it. I am not one to turn down free money, I spent about two days writing proposals, submitting finances, marketing information, brand info, etc. I asked for a grant of £40,000 to hire a filmmaker to make content for my new digital strategy.