Couple finds new success after COVID-19 shuts down their tailgating event business
DALLAS - A North Texas couple that lost all of their income from their tailgating event business as soon as the pandemic began. But they bounced back selling free-standing hand sanitizer stations with even more success than they had before.
Kelsey and Alex Carroll said the number of coronavirus cases started growing, it felt like almost immediately sports were cut.
“It was very dramatic. We had 13 people all over the country at different events so at Madison Square Garden all the way down to Houston at the rodeo. And once the NBA canceled their season, all of our events got canceled on the same day around the same time,” Alex said.
The couple was forced to furlough all 13 of their employees but then totally transformed their business model. They began offering services with free-standing hand sanitizer stations.
“When all this happened we had two choices: either sit and wait around for sports to come back and nobody knew when that was going to happen or pivot and try to use our people and resources to fill a need. And we knew PPE, hand sanitizer and hand sanitizing stations would be a huge need,” Kelsey said.
The Carrolls were able to work with their manufacturers to buy hand sanitizer in bulk at a time when it wasn’t available in any stores.
“We came up with a station that we were confident in. We did it quickly and it was just a lot of phone calls to a sanitizer person constantly. We probably called every 20 minutes to get the sanitizer,” Alex said.
They’re now getting orders from businesses around the country from salons and restaurants to school districts that are getting ready for the year. They’ve been able to hire back their original 13 employees and even a few more.
“We’re really excited to just help businesses prepare to reopen because they’re going to need to in order to survive,” Kelsey said.
“I think the biggest thing for me is don’t wait. If you have an idea and you wanna do something, get up off the couch and make it happen. I think for us it’s hard every day. There’s always something new. There’s new challenges. But we’re out there and we’re trying stuff and we’re okay if we fail. And I think that’s where a lot of people get caught up. So I would encourage people to just get out there and do something,” Alex added.
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