Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Sam Fennick.

Five years ago, the world was struck by the COVID pandemic, a crisis that claimed millions of lives and reshaped billions more.

Today we travel to the USA, to Tanzania and to the United Kingdom to meet three individuals who were running businesses when the pandemic hit.

We'll hear about the shock of lockdowns and the personal grief when COVID death statistics hit close to home.

I lost my manager. It was a horrific experience.

And how even after five years, the economic scars are still raw.

All in all, it costs us about a half a million dollars.

So it has definitely changed the trajectory of my life.

Some governments stepped in with financial aid.

Others offered nothing.

But how did surviving the pandemic reshape the entrepreneurs who endured it?

We will make decisions going to, we have to do this because it's life and death for the business.

COVID, five years on, all coming up on today's business daily.

Joining me today are two business owners and one former business owner.

Martin Greenhow runs the mojo chain of bars in the north of England.

Sam Dia owns the Tanzania travel and safari company in

Arusha. The lockdowns imposed worldwide forced hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs to shut their doors

for good. And one of those was Kelly Rickabus, who was a franchisee of any time fitness in Michigan

until she made the tough decision to close her gym in 2022.

Today we'll hear from all three about the toll the pandemic took and how it's reshaped their approach to life and business.

But first, let's go back to those early days five years ago when it became clear that economies were shutting down and running a business would

never be the same again. It was like a joke every morning you arrive in the office,

...