Whether you were already planning to start a business before the crisis or it’s just a fresh idea, a global pandemic is the least ideal time to launch a business. However, it’s not impossible, even though it will require more targeted planning and strategizing.
The coronavirus pandemic has left the world economy in shambles and struggling to recover since February 2020. The lockdown and spread mitigation protocols negatively affected different economic and governmental sectors, leaving millions of people without jobs and in some places, zero sources of income as not every government offered stimulus checks – meager as they were.
At a normal time, starting a proper business with maximum profit potential is difficult enough. It’s not going to be easier during a pandemic where even existing businesses across various industries are struggling to stay afloat. However, certain types of businesses can actually pick up quickly and thrive during a pandemic – and continue surviving beyond it. If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s time to evolve into a proactive and forward-thinking problem-solver with flexible schedules and malleable services. You’d have to tailor your time and activities to fit in line with the safety protocols and still be satisfactorily available to your customers.
Here are some helpful tips to help you get off the ground and get started on a profitable path:
Define your time frame – how long do you want this business to last?
Entrepreneurship is a flexible concept and there are no laid-down rules for starting and maintaining a business. Short-term businesses are a real thing, and in this situation, during a volatile pandemic that could be gone just as fast as it came, it’s your first responsibility to define how long you want the business to last. Is your trade going to be tailored to working around the provisions of the current crisis or do you want something that will continue thriving afterward?
Be innovative – find an in-demand market and provide a solution
Consumer needs have evolved so dramatically that thousands of existing businesses have been knocked off balance. For instance, as physical restaurants, bars, and clubs are clamoring to survive as people are advised to avoid crowd gatherings, Netflix, Disney+, and delivery services like Amazon are thriving at full force since everyone is now looking for ways to engage themselves at home. You must be proactive and come up with a service or product to satisfy emerging consumer needs.
Identify your target audience
This is one of the commonest mistakes a lot of starting entrepreneurs make – diving in head-first without a direction. Especially now that lots of people are not interested in spending unavailable funds on non-essential purchases, you need to know the right people to market your products or services to, otherwise, you’d end up with great expectations and very little results. Identifying a target audience allows you to optimally spend marketing and advertisement funds for exponential returns.
According to serial entrepreneur, journalist, and software engineer, Michael Peres, optimizing your audience at the start is the key to achieving a high lead conversion percentage.
“It’s not really important if you have a loud microphone, it’s more important how many you can get to listen,” said Peres, the founder of multiple companies, including Hexa Cloud Services, Hexa Tiger, SEO For Public Figures, Hexa PR Wire, and Her Forward. “Like many things, marketing is quality over quantity, and it’s important to remember that people have a limited attention span and we are careful where we allocate those resources. We are not entitled to people’s attention, we have to earn it.”
Leverage on social media and grow a digital presence
As the lockdowns are rolling out again, lots of people are going to either be stuck at home or working fewer hours. Social media becomes a respite for the boredom and a way to burn excess time off their hands. If you’re looking to build a strong customer base, then you must leverage social networks and come up with an effective digital marketing strategy. The best thing about marketing your business in the online space is that there’s always something for every budget.
Mikey Peres said about building a digital presence: “Conventional marketing allowed you to broadcast your message in a linear fashion. However, with the advent of social media, we’re now able to broadcast our message exponentially. Far too often, we see inferior technologies overtake far better ones due to effective marketing. You have veterans with years of experience being outperformed by less experienced entrepreneurs who are born within the age of social media.”
Flexibility is your strongest weapon
You are at an advantage if you walk in with a flexible mindset. Your hours should be adjustable, your services variable, and your methods malleable. You need to be ready to adapt to upcoming situations if you’re going to build and maintain a strong network now and beyond the crisis.
