Bonnie Arnold is president and the only employee of Bonnie’s Floral Designs Inc. She says that to weather the COVID-19 shutdown, small business owners must have a positive attitude and find new ways to sustain operations. Bonnie Arnold of Bonnie’s Floral Designs says attitude and technology are the keys to persevering through personal and business challenges. Since March 13, city event venues, stores, restaurants, malls, entertainment centers, churches and businesses shut down and laid off workers or sent them home to telecommute to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Daily Record will report how local small business owners are dealing with the imposed social isolation. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, business still is blooming for Bonnie Arnold. She opened Bonnie’s Floral Designs Inc. in 2004 in a storefront with the slogan, “where business is blooming.” Arnold created and delivered arrangements for occasions like anniversaries, weddings and funerals and sold flowers to people who came to the store. After a few years, the shop succumbed to the cash flow vs. expenses challenge that comes with supporting the monthly lease for a brick-and-mortar operation. Arnold reinvented the business, moving it into a small building behind her home where she could store the perishable inventory in a refrigerator and where she could design floral arrangements. That made it a little easier to weather the recession that began in 2008, she said. Then Arnold’s home and her business were flooded in 2017 by Hurricane Irma. Overnight, she had to find somewhere to live and a way to stay in business. “This is not my first go-round with a major calamity,” Arnold said March 25. She said there are two keys to persevering through personal and business challenges: attitude and technology. “I tend to look at my cup as half full. I take on […]