Thinking of starting up your own business? The reality is that the world as we know it has changed and no one really knows what the future will bring. Due to this many businesses and salaried people are suffering from a financial crisis. The biggest challenge people are facing, apart from not contracting the virus, is how to generate enough money to meet your monthly budget during these tough times.
Albert Einstein has stated, “in the middle of every crisis, lies an opportunity”, which can be very much true considering the Coronavirus crisis and the change it will bring, therefore it is a wise decision to look forward to finding the opportunity in the crisis.
Crisis versus opportunity: Setting the Scene
The first cases of Coronavirus were seen in Wuhan, China, during the last days of 2019. Four months later, since the first cases observed as a consequence of human-to-human transmission, the virus has swept across the globe causing untold health and economic damage in its wake. Unfortunately, these numbers seem to be increasing rapidly without an end in sight.
Current worldwide statistics as of 23 August 2020, (from www.ncov2019.live) show that there are over 23,410,206 infected with this virus and just over 809,098 deaths.
One of the many challenges the world’s governments are facing is the fact that no one really knows how this virus behaves. Thus, the world’s scientists, medical experts, and governments are in new territory, determining what works and what doesn’t work as each country moves to eliminate the virus.
There are, however, a few behaviors that the world’s scientists and medical experts have observed. The most important being that because this virus is spread via droplet infection from person to person, the best way of controlling and eradicating it is through social distancing or social isolation. Therefore, the world’s governments have issued varying degrees of a lockdown or stay-at-home orders. Due to this measure, the global economy has been paused while we wait for the virus to burn itself out. This virus is highly contagious and causes a respiratory illness similar to pneumonia, resulting in the death of people who fall in the high-risk category.
Thirdly, people can be asymptomatic carriers. In other words, they are infected with the virus but have no symptoms, so they spread the virus to other people without knowing they are infected. Consequently, this pandemic has had and continues to have a negative impact on a macro-economic and microeconomic level.
Finding the opportunity amidst the crisis
To find an opportunity, the question you must ask is what is the new normal and how can you utilize this time to earn an income. Most of the focus till this point has been about the crisis caused by the global pandemic. And, while the socioeconomic devastation must not be underestimated, we should divert a little bit of our focus on how to find the opportunity within the crisis.
The first step in finding the opportunity within the crisis is to put measures into place to survive the crisis. The next step is to get economic sustainability.
After the governments stay-at-home orders
The government’s guidelines are the way to survive this bizarre crisis. When you have to venture out to the shops, seek medical care, or exercise follow the guidelines. And while following these measures, you can apply for any unemployment benefits that the government is offering.
Once you have implemented these measures, the next step is to start looking for economic sustainability. As the future of the global business world is online, you must start bootstrapping an online startup.
The businesses that have the greatest chance of surviving the global economic shutdown are the ones that have switched their business processes from a physical shop to an online model. This switch is ideal for almost all of the other business organizations.
What is a startup?
A startup company is usually a newly founded entrepreneurial venture that aims to meet a marketplace need by developing a viable business model.
In short, a startup is usually a company designed to effectively develop and validate a viable business model.
Ways to bootstrap a startup
Bootstrapping a startup means to operate and expand your business with no venture capital or outside investment. It means using your own savings and revenue to grow.
While this may be challenging, it can also be incredibly rewarding. It is also important to realize that many startups become operational without any venture capital or external funding sources.
1. Be a part-time social media expert.
Utilize your passion for social media and expertise to make your presence on some of the popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Structure your information based on your industry like engineering and construction, finance, technology, and business. At this step, the main goal of your startup is to track consumer behavior based on their digital footprint, including likes and shares.
2. Partner with a professional business services company
A solopreneur is essentially an entrepreneur who does not hire any staff. All essential business services that are not part of the startup’s core function are usually set aside. Thus, the first step is to consult with a professional business services organization that specializes in company formation.
3. Seek advice from a mentor
Many experts in this field have developed tried and trusted methods and mechanisms to succeed at an entrepreneurial venture. And, they are often very willing to mentor or advise new entrepreneurs to ensure that they do not make the same mistakes and to ensure that their ventures are successful the first time around.
4. Plan a budget
The financial side of bootstrapping a business can be challenging, therefore, you must manage your available finances wisely. And, drawing up a budget that contains all of your fixed expenses, will help you keep a handle on your finances and removing out any non-essential costs.
5. Implement the “lean startup” philosophy
The lean startup provides a technological approach to creating and managing startups and get the desired products to the customers.
It is an agile principle, with an iterative method that gets a product or service to market without spending months or years in product development without consumer approval or disapproval. Product development also occurs in small iterations or changes. It starts with a base model and then evolves into the final edition or one that gains traction amongst its target audience. It is vital to be aware of the fact that agile iterations are not random and haphazard. They are based on a combination of customer feedback and the startup’s core mission and aim.
6. Invest in your brand
Brand development is one of the most significant aspects of running a successful business. Your brand is what attracts your target audience and helps convert them into returning customers. One of the most challenging things for any company, irrespective of whether it is an established business or a startup, is to convert consumers into loyal, returning customers. Thus, it is essential not to skimp on brand development, for your brand is your voice.
On the good side, in the digital world, brand development does not cost a lot of money. The essential starting point is a good website that is usable and user-friendly, for this is where visitors to your site will answer the site’s Call-To-Action and convert.
7. Attract customers through content marketing
Content Marketing is a marketing approach focused on creating and distributing, relevant, valuable, and consistent content to attract and retain an audience to drive profit from it.
The following statistics show the value that brand marketers place on content marketing:
- 42% of marketers report that their content marketing efforts are successful.
- 60% of all marketers contact a content writer to create at least one article per day.
- Unique site traffic is 7.8 times higher for content market leaders than it is for followers. Therefore, it is vital to becoming a content marketing leader and not a follower.
Your new increase in authority is one of the most highly rated signals that Google uses when ranking and indexing websites on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Therefore, when a consumer searches for the products and services that you offer, Google will return your brand’s website in the top three to five results on the SERP.
Final thoughts
One of the most challenging aspects of the post-COVID-19 world is that no one really knows what it will look like. There are several possibilities regarding the economic situation after the pandemic. The world has never been in this situation, so no one knows how easily the global economy will reboot. We will just have to wait and see what happens and hope for the best.
