Numerous people had to reconsider their jobs and working methods nationwide as a result of the pandemic.
People have been discussing how Covid inspired a career change they were "strangely" grateful for in their conversations with BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
George Hill, Pete George, and Rachael Willoughby all launched their own companies.
Ms. Willoughby and her business partner started a pizzeria.
Mr. George accelerated his axe throwing business so that he could run it full-time, and Mr. Hill transitioned from working in a gym to starting an online fitness business.
Due to limitations, Cheltenham resident and former gym employee George Hill moved his operation online and "never looked back.".
Together with his friend Callum Stewart, Mr. Hill founded Candamp;G Fitness, saying that they "basically had to make the best of a bad situation at the time.".
"Lockdown occurred when Covid arrived, and nobody knew how long it would last.
"I was fortunate to have low overhead costs while living with my parents. ".
As "pretty much everything had moved online," the pair devised a business plan for an online venture and concentrated their ideas on assisting busy women in leading healthy lives.
We've been doing it for about 2.5 years, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger. ".
Since it allows for greater flexibility around a busy schedule and the two are able to provide a wider "holistic" service, including nutrition and support, he claimed that the online approach is "much more beneficial for the client.".
While their business expanded, it also allowed for geographic flexibility, as Mr. Hill moved to London and Mr. Stewart to Australia.
"The lockdown and the Covid side was really rubbish," said Mr. Hill, "but for me personally, there's a lot of positives in what we've been able to create off of it.". ".
"I don't believe online coaching would have been as well-liked without the lockdown. I feel a peculiar sense of gratitude for it, he continued.
When the pandemic began, Pete George, a resident of Cheltenham, was employed as an IT consultant.
He started setting up escape rooms in 2018 and running it as a business in 2019 once it started to succeed.
He added axe throwing to that list; he had learned it a few years earlier, but he claimed that everything "shut overnight" in 2020.
Initially, Mr. George claimed, "the thought of quitting my comparatively well-paying IT job and the company I've run for 20 years never really occurred to me.
But Covid probably just said, "Well, you can just start over tomorrow, so why not?," the speaker continued.
Axe throwing company Eat Sleep Axe and escape room operations are now his full-time businesses.
While the school was under lockdown, Rachael Willoughby and Elliot Richmond from Cleeve, Tewkesbury, began making and delivering pizza.
Elliott has been making pizza for friends and family for many years, and they have always advised him to sell it, according to Ms. Willoughby.
They were talking about how companies would have to change their strategies in the event of the pandemic and ran a software development company.
Then, "almost 50% of our work was lost to contract work," they stated.
When Mr. Richmond said that takeaways would "really boom" in the lockdown environment, they decided to try their pizza idea. Pizza from CassaGee's was created.
"In the beginning, there were only six pizzas, but today there are 17 and about 28 toppings. ".
We don't put pineapple on our pizzas, Mr. Elliott remarked.
According to Ms. Willoughby, their regular Italian patrons remark that their pizza is "the best outside of Italy.".
Ms. Willoughby claimed that now that everything is operating "like clockwork," they have made the decision to franchise the company.
"We have a well-honed system in place. Additionally, in this environment, it seems wise to assist others and demonstrate to them how to generate income from their own labor, she continued.
The lockdown interrupted Rachel Clark's training because she had just begun teaching in Longlevens before the pandemic.
She stated: "It was very stressful when I started my first [teaching] job because it was the first September back after Covid. ".
She claimed that she began painting nails as an "escape" from her day job and that her son had made a permanent change more crucial.
"Prior to having Teddy, I was very career-focused or goal-oriented, and I would go to any lengths to achieve my goals.
But I had nothing to do during the mandatory lockdown because I wasn't doing any online teaching, you say.
She remarked that it was "much slower and more relaxed," giving her the time to read to and make crafts with her son.
"Before, I always assumed he would attend nursery full-time because I worked full-time, and he would likely make his first speech or first steps there.
Lockdown however made her realize she did not want to miss those phases of his development, so she made the decision to turn her hobby of doing nails into a business, giving rise to Beauty Scape by Rachel.
She claimed that because many of her clients are "busy mums," she primarily works in the evenings and on weekends and is therefore not required to work during school breaks.
She continued, "Having the freedom is worth it.
"I think lockdown changed a lot of people's perspective about what was necessary and... a lot of people's outlook on how life has to be," the speaker said.
Just figure out what you want, she advised, and try to come up with a strategy to achieve it.
