Interior design team forced to redesign services

Suhavi Makkar, owner of Studio Sheen in Mississauga

Website: studiosheen.ca

Instagram: @studiosheen

Even in good times, running a business is unpredictable. But in a global pandemic, entrepreneurs have been tested like never before. Suhavi Makkar, co-owner of interior design company Studio Sheen, previously served clients face-to-face. Now with her operations impeded, she’s had to pivot her business as well as how she thinks about her interconnectedness to the world.

“I feel so naïve to have thought the pandemic would never hit Toronto and this is the biggest lesson I am taking away. As a business owner, we need to be in tune with not just our industry trends but also global events. Our businesses are not immune to them and having a proactive plan helps handle these events and how well we come out of them.” – Suhavi Makkar, co-owner of Studio Sheen.

Few Canadians ever imagined a pandemic would affect them, and when it did many were caught off-guard. Owners everywhere scrambled to adapt their businesses to survive. This was the case for Suhavi Makkar, co-owner of Studio Sheen, who wishes she’d been more proactive after first hearing about COVID-19 in January.

Studio Sheen is a home staging and design company based in Toronto. It was founded by Suhavi and her mother Meeta, and is an exemplary story of first-generation immigrants working hard to make it in Canada. It all started when Meeta realized she wanted to turn her lifelong passion for design into a business, and so Suhavi quit her corporate job to help her mother fulfill her dreams. Fast forward five years, and Studio Sheen has been awarded as one of the Top 10 Home Staging companies in Canada for three years in a row.

But after the lockdown, their traditional operations weren’t possible with the current restrictions. So they had to adjust their services; offering video consults and curbside delivery with clear instructions on what goes where. And for empty homes, they’re deploying much smaller teams who are safely protected at all times. “We miss seeing the happiness on our clients’ faces after viewing their transformed homes, but we’re glad that we’ve found a way to continue helping them.”

Two things have gotten Suhavi through these difficult times: the right perspective and working towards future preparedness. She’s been reflecting back on the past few months in order to avoid being caught off guard again. Suhavi says, “Early in the lockdown I came across a post on how the biggest companies today started during the 2009 recession. This gave me hope and helped me work on diversification and future preparedness for Studio Sheen.” Global events like a pandemic can have an impact that lasts years; changing the needs, demands and expectations of consumers. To proactively prepare; learn from the past so you can thrive in the future.

To support Suhavi Makkar, Torontonians can visit the Studio Sheen website and book a consultation.

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