The COVID-19 crisis has turned our world upside-down in historical ways, bringing a storm of adversity to small businesses in Calgary. Many of these businesses are now in a critical fight for survival and the future is uncertain. Although tentative “re-entry” measures have been announced by the Alberta government, Family Fun Calgary would like to take the opportunity to introduce and interview some of the local businesses in our city. Let’s get to know each other! You never know what YYC Small Business Profile might become your new favourite.
Today we’re talking to Chen Liu, the co-founder of LAMOSE. LAMOSE creates personalized stainless steel drinkware, so you can enjoy your favourite hot or cold beverages in style, all while keeping single-use plastics out of the landfill.
Tell us a bit about your business.
We are LAMOSE and we create high-quality stainless steel bottles, mugs, and tumblers that are fully customizable and help reduce the prevalence of single-use plastics. By using the latest in laser engraving technology, LAMOSE offers you the ability to customize your drinkware with names, logos, graphics, and photos. I am the co-founder of LAMOSE [with Leo Ying] and we have been in business for 3 years, as of March 2020. We’re located in the Southcentre Mall and we have 6 employees.
What was the inspiration for starting this venture? Where did you get your first idea?
We started LAMOSE with one simple mindset: focus on happiness. We were frustrated with plastic bottles, so we made a 100% stainless steel bottle. It drives us nuts when our coffee gets cold in 5 mins, so we also made insulated mugs and tumblers! Then, the real fun begins when we can work on designs and fire up our laser machine to make every product different! By the time we present our creation to our customers, we experience the same excitement and joy again. We feel that we are giving our product a new meaning and a new life.
And this is our happiness!
What has been your biggest regret? Your greatest pride or success?
After realizing how much happiness we brought to the community, I wish I started this adventure earlier. We are really proud that we were able to create new jobs for local post-secondary graduates who have a background in graphic design or business.
During COVID-19, we have been able to keep all of our employees while dedicating 100% of our net profits to donating masks for people in need.
What would a typical day look like for you normally? What about now, during COVID?
Typically we work together in the same office, but now everyone is working from home.
We normally spend our days working on graphic design, engraving, marketing, and completing other tasks in the office. It’s a very standard 8 am – 5 pm type of work schedule. With COVID, we are still working from 8 am – 5 pm, with daily meetings and updates. We use Slack/Teamviewer/Google Drive to share our resources when we work remotely. We also have rotational staff working in our warehouse to work on engraving while other team members work from home on design.
How have you adapted to the COVID-19 crisis and how can the community support you at this time?
We always try to look at the bright side of things and I think COVID actually gave us some different opportunities. I and another employee are both new parents, so we were able to save some time on our daily commute and spend more time with our new babies.
We believe we should always help our local community and have sought out ways to do this during COVID. We were able to donate a number of medical masks to the Mackenzie Long Term Care facility, which then inspired us to donate 100% of our net profits during these difficult times so we can purchase more masks to donate to people in need.
We believe we are all in this together, whether it’s COVID-19 or a sustainable future. We’ve started a campaign to share our customers’ stories and through this, we hope we can empower and inspire each other. At the end of the day, however, we are still passionate about creating happiness with our design skills. If you are looking for a personalized and practical gift, come see us 🙂
Thanks for telling us a little bit more about your business and we wish you the best of luck in the future. Find LAMOSE HERE.
Introducing YYC Small Business Profiles is a Family Fun Calgary series that will contain a random selection of businesses chosen at the discretion of the editor for interest and curiosity.
Looking for more tips on how to keep your kids occupied during the COVID-19 crisis? Find our best ideas, activities and inspiration here!
