Enterprising Minds Capitalise On Coronavirus Panic

By Syakir Roslan  •  13 Mar 2020 in News

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At this point of time, it’s pretty evident that Coronavirus has become a global pandemic as announced by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Amidst the panic surrounding COVID-19’s outbreak, many entrepreneurial-spirited folk of all ages and walks of life have taken the opportunity to capitalise on prevention methods by procuring products such as face masks.

On that same note, sales for hand sanitisers have also sky-rocketed which brings us to one particular story involving a young student from the UK who sold ‘squirts’ of hand sanitiser to his classmates for 50 pence (RM2.75) a squirt. He managed to rack up a fairly decent profit of £9 (RM48.38) all for 18 squirts of hand sanitiser, if you do the math.

Unfortunately, the young entrepreneur was suspended for what seemed like a pretty commendable hustle IMO. For one, the teenager was pushing a fairly useful product (even if the price to amount ratio seems absurd) and secondly, he did help his fellow schoolmates stay a tad bit safer in the midst of this pandemic. Unsurprisingly, his mother was outraged and shared her son’s incident onto Facebook:

If you’re too lazy to read the rest of the Facebook post above, his mother also explained what he did with the profits he earned: “He bought a multipack of Doritos and saving the rest to buy a kebab later”. Probably not the best of ways to invest that £9 but he’s a kid, go figure. For all you young, budding entrepreneurs, take notes.

Moving on, certain celebrities have also seen a huge boost in profits by capitalising on the fear surrounding the Coronavirus outbreak. Unbeknownst to this celebrity, he made the right move to purchase a soap company at exactly the right time. That particular celebrity is none other than infamous rap sensation Big Draco a.k.a. Soulja Boy.

After very recently investing in a company called The Soap Shop, which as the company’s name suggests sells soap-based products from scented laundry detergents to dish washing liquids and body wash. The Soap Shop saw a massive growth in sales right after the rapper/entrepreneur put his chips onto the company’s metaphorical poker table.

While he might not have intended to capitalise on Covid-19 specifically, Big Draco’s gamble to venture into the soap business definitely paid off in a major way. Infamous online tabloid TMZ were among, if not the first to report that:

“TSS as a corporation has gone from selling 100 bottles of cleaning products per month to well over 3,000-plus cleaning products in the last 2 months. That’s about a 3,000 percent increase, and we’re told it’s record-setting production.”

While some would assume that Soulja Boy’s motive for doing this is solely profit-based, the same article also explained that his new soap venture is tied with a youth-based charity called ‘Bubbles for Cash’.

Essentially, the programme provides an opportunity for kids by helping to sell these soap products through fundraising, whereby the profits earned would then be used to fund community programmes and services for those same kids.

Respect should be given where respect is due as the old saying goes. Both Soulja Boy and The Soap Shop deserve a nod for their noble efforts.