50 Businesses, 50 Solutions — Granite State News Collaborative

Enrollment Rises 14% At Newport Montessori School

Enrollment Rises 14% At Newport Montessori School

When Governor Sununu ordered schools to switch to remote learning on March 13, 2020, Whipple’s first priority was ensuring that the school’s roughly 80 students in preschool through 8th grade could continue learning. She distributed assignments and got teachers up and running with Zoom instruction.

The school operates two preschool classrooms, which could have stayed open as daycare, but when the school polled families, very few were interested in having the youngsters in the building. Since remote learning wasn’t a fit for the preschoolers, Whipple waived tuition for students in those two classrooms, taking a significant hit on revenue.

She knew that for the school to survive, she would need to be able to offer in-person learning in the 2020-2021 school year.

Hanover Bookstore and Bar Relies On Book Sales to Get Through

Hanover Bookstore and Bar Relies On Book Sales to Get Through

With so many facets to the business, Still North wasn’t fully opened and operational until February. For a month, business was going great. Levy had hoped that eventually books and other merchandise would make up half of revenue, with food and beverage making up the other half. She thought that food and beverage sales would be stronger to start, but was pleasantly surprised to be just about 50/50 during that first month.

“Book sales have always been stronger than I envisioned,” she said. “I underestimated how much people want to make sure that there’s an independent bookstore in Hanover.”

That would become essential when the pandemic shut down Still North in March. Levy hadn’t planned to focus on a website until the second year of the business, but she quickly created one to fulfill and ship orders. With time, Still North reopened for browsing by appointment, and later for drop-in browsing.

Alton Shop Pivots From Vintage Sales, Focusing On Handmade Goods

Alton Shop Pivots From Vintage Sales, Focusing On Handmade Goods

At first, Catchpenny had a warm welcome from locals and tourists alike. But as soon as reports of the coronavirus began circulating — even before the state shut down — Terravechia noticed that people were less willing to buy vintage or used goods.

“People were getting nervous,” she said. “There’s only so much you can know about an item, and the virus was so new.”

Before that, vintage items made up about half of sales at Catchpenny. Suddenly, that revenue stream all but disappeared. The whole environment at the store, which invited customers to have a hands-on shopping experience, seemed at odds with the pandemic.