Three years ago today the world stood still.

Everyone except key workers were told to "Stay at home" and many were furloughed from their jobs, unsure when or if they would return.

Some were able to create a make-shift office on the dining table or in a spare room and carry on working from home, whilst others battled home-schooling children. Many did both.

While some went for their daily one-hour walk, spent time with their families and watched Boris Johnson's address the nation, willing the time to be over, others took the opportunity to make life-changing choices, including setting themselves up in business or changing their job altogether.

And many of those businesses are still going strong three years later.

KentOnline spoke to several small businesses on the third anniversary of the first lockdown to see whether their gamble is still paying off.

Alex Whitmore, of Joyden's Wood, near Dartford, was furloughed like many others working in the hospitality industry when the pandemic hit.

But the mum-of-two didn't let it stop her as she thought of a way to bring her love of hospitality into lockdown.

To keep herself busy she started delivering scones to neighbours and isolating friends and family to keep herself busy.

The word got out and before long she was making up large batches, catering for around 250 plain scones on VE day Bank Holiday in May.

Three years on and Alex's business has been going so well she has branched out into the cake business.

Deciding scones were quite seasonable, and she needed to be even more busy, she offered her services as a cake baker and decorator and has already made dozens of children's birthday cakes - and even a few wedding cakes.

"I wanted to have something that was sustainable for the whole year," she said. "It keeps me busy. I made five birthday cakes last weekend."

"I'm going to have to do a limited offer for the Coronation as I think I'll be really busy."

Over the last three years Alex, 37, has catered for large corporate bookings for the jubilee and landed some big jobs catering for Channel 4 TV production crews on the set of hit shows such as Celebs Go Dating and Married at First Sight.

Her biggest client so far has been the Archbishop of Canterbury, Reverend Justin Welby.

"The Archbishop was doing a zoom call to talk about his plans for the year," she said. "This year they were not able to do it as an event and I produced the graze boxes and one was delivered to him in person."

Alex, who has just received her five-star hygiene rating, is gearing up for a busy season soon as the King's Coronation approaches.

"I'm going to have to do a limited offer for the Coronation as I think I'll be really busy."

However, while lockdown meant she could focus wholeheartedly on her new venture, Alex now has a full-time job which means she has to juggle a lot and she sometimes has to turn down work.

Not that that means she is going to be employing any staff to help her out.

"I'm too much of a control freak," she said. "I like to think that I can do everything."

Although, she is considering letting her husband help out, as he has just landed a job as a black cab driver.

"He can help me do my deliveries," she joked.

Alex, originally from Liverpool, puts the key to her success down to her relentless work ethic.

She said: "I'm baking until 11pm at night and I'm up and going again at 6am in the morning." To find out more about "House of Scones" visit their Instagram page here.

And she's not the only one still reaping the rewards of taking the plunge into a new venture during lockdown.

A product design and marketing business set up just before the first national lockdown is also about to celebrate its third year in business.

Husband and wife team Simon and Lucy Cornelius, from New Ash Green, set up the company, Cornelius Creative Ltd, in March 2020 to address their work, life balance after the birth of their son.

After a rocky start during the Covid-19 lockdowns, the company won a Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday award in February 2021, just after moving into their first office in Fawkham.

Today, it is going from strength to strength, expanding to a team of five, and working with over 50 different clients on 130 projects and launching 30 new products into the market.

The idea for the business first came about after Simon and wife Lucy, 38, welcomed their first child, son Leo in October 2019 and Simon felt compelled to spend more time with his young family

Simon, originally from Gravesend, said: "I was travelling up to Manchester on a weekly basis having to stay in a hotel.

“It was fine when it was just me and my wife but when she fell pregnant it became a bit of a burden for us.”

Shortly after, the couple had their “eureka moment" and decided to combine Simon's design and marketing skills with Lucy's PR background and set up their own venture.

Simon, 41, said: “We had gone into 2020 with massive ambitions and plans to launch our own business. 2020 was supposed to be ‘our year’, but no one had any idea what was about to hit us.

But the venture was not without its challenges and Simon confessed at times to finding it hard going it alone, particularly during lockdown.

If he can offer any advice to new start-ups it is to get a plan in place and "don't give up".

Now, three years later, the business has navigated through the biggest global event of our generation, and has not only survived, but is thriving.

The company has recently moved into an 800 square foot office, which they are currently renovating. Once it is complete they are planning to ramp up the prototyping side of the business, with a dedicated workshop for 3D printing, as well as continuing to expand the team.

A father and son who created an inflatable pub during lockdown have seen their business expand to include an air cinema, a black cab pub, a horse-box serving pancakes and even an inflatable nightclub, as well as securing a franchise in Dubai.

The cleverly titled Air of the Dog business was first started by Richard Martin, from Gravesend, and his dad Frank after they got a bit thirsty during the pandemic.

After enjoying a party for two in their inflatable garden pub, once restrictions were lifted Richard decided more people needed to benefit from the blow-up brewery.

He set about promoting his garden pub and hiring it out.

Since then business has well and truly blown up.

The company has expanded and is now Richard's full time job.

As well as expanding to include a blow-up nightclub and unique hospitality portals such as a converted black cab and a pancake-selling horse box he has also just completed a Diageo mixologist course, so his inflatable venues can now specialise in aromatic cocktails.

This has led to the creation of "Cocktail and Chill" bottomless brunches hosted at independent venues.

By the end of the year Rich, who counts stars from The Only Way is Essex, and ex- Love Island star Dani Dyer as clients, also hopes to have his own beer brewed.

Rich, 35, said: "We’ve travelled the whole of the UK in the past year, from locations in Kent and Essex, to Southampton and all the way up in Scotland.

"It feels amazing to have gone through all this with my business – from starting during a pandemic to now see how much we’ve grown during this time.

"All our hard work we put into this, but I couldn’t have done it without my family – my mum and dad - and my partner, Lauren, have helped out with pretty much everything. My dad is 63 now and he still wants to help out every week."

The business has even been ranked among the top 10 funniest small business names in Britain by business website Simply Business.

Despite not being crowned the winner, the 35-year-old and his family were thrilled with the national recognition.

Offering advice to other budding entrepreneurs, Rich said: "So as long as you've got the knowledge and the support around you then go for it because it's one of the best decisions that I've made."