#LockdownLessons: be.first helps uplift local businesses

Dishi Smit and Keri Stewart are two moms who created be.first, a mobile app that allows you to find and share product recommendations in a single place. It's a completely free app that's built around a community of sharers and discoverers.

With a little more time on our hands as a result of the nationwide lockdown, consumers are now exploring the various options of online shopping. For the co-founders of be.first, like many small business owners, the pandemic has turned businesses upside down.

Dishi Smit and Keri Stewart, co-founders of be.first

How has Covid-19 impacted your business?

be.first is a big supporter of small local businesses and the core of our offering is providing a platform for people to share products and services they've used and loved. With the non-essential industries shut down we've had a decline in the recommendations people share.

We were in the process of collaborating with SMME's to provide deals unique to our community, we have had to slow down these co-labs. We're losing time but are in a fortunate position being such a young business to not have any major financial losses.

How did you prepare for the lockdown?

We have reprioritised our business strategy to focus on the parts of the business that will ensure we still have a business in the recovery period of Covid-19.

Dishi Smit, co-founder of be.first, continues to work from home

What's the biggest challenge you are facing during this pandemic?

This was our peak period for seeking investment as the complete and new version of the be.first offering has been scoped - we are finding ways to present this to interested parties digitally.

Being productive is really difficult at this time, as with most of the world juggling kids, home and work is not easy!

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What sort of assistance will you need going forward?

Again, we are fortunate to be such a young business so all the support we need going forward existed before Covid-19. This includes funding and brand collaborations.

If you are able to operate, What steps are you taking to continue operating?

We're making sure that we remain relevant and we're hyper-focused on adding value. Part of our new version of the app will allow our customer to do the same.

Keri Stewart, co-founder of be.first, continues to juggle a family, home and work.

How are you offering assistance to your customers who rely on your services?

We're sending messages of support and information of the impact to SMME's. We have also offered all our advertising assets for free during this time.

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Never underestimate your worth in this world!⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ You are awesome, yes YOU⁠! ⠀ ����

A post shared by be.first community app (@be.firstsa) on Apr 19, 2020 at 5:09am PDT

There are a few positives coming out of all of this for be.first. The uptake in online shopping and the increased use of digital platforms will increase the size of our opportunity as well as speed up adoption and engagement of our platform, especially the new version of it.

With the newfound patriotism, supporting local will be highlighted, we're hoping to solve easy access to this sector.

Now is the time to innovate and experiment. What is be.first doing?