It’s almost become a cliché topic to talk about. Every day you will hear about the coronavirus. Whether that be in the local supermarket, your mother telling you how much this virus has made her miss you, or your partner telling you how much this virus has made them hate you. Growing a business amid all this chaos would be a fear for many. Not wanting to see their endless hard work, efforts, and hundreds of hours spent creating something out of nothing go to thin air. 

Unfortunately, this has been a reality for a large percentage of people around the globe, it can be disheartening, to say the least. Although I was a victim of this myself, I still managed to maintain optimism. My journey into beginning my own company had begun before COVID-19. I was working for a recruitment company, and at the same time working for my own company. The optimism simply stemmed from being able to spend more time now working and growing my own business.

Despite the gloom and doom that Covid-19 has presented us, many businesses have managed to stay afloat and even excel during this economic recession. 

I found that the time I had now to work on growing my company and networking with other industry leaders has really been a blessing. It’s given us a more human approach to doing business. Being able to relate with the struggles of others and working together not only to create bigger opportunities for ourselves but to share ideas that could benefit our industry for the better during these times of uncertainty. 

There are some ideas I put into action that helped me grow my business in different aspects, and I want to share them with you in hopes I can help you too:

Build a broader network

What I realised was that other business leaders from all over the world were going through the same decline in thought as me, and were looking for new ideas to implement into their strategies with marketing, managing loss of business, and winning new business.

It was a perfect time to use LinkedIn’s full potential and reach out to people in similar positions as myself. I didn’t reach out to only those obvious and existing clients, but to other people of interest that I could build a relationship with and share some profitable value. You never know what the future brings you. Think about your business and put all your efforts into maintaining what you created. But also think about building relationships with other industry leaders, they may teach you something about their world that you could implement into yours, believe me, diversity in ideas and creativity is crucial in these times.

Host virtual events

If you host virtual events related to your sector and industry as a whole, you are not only sharing value from a business perspective, but from your personal experiences too. This is putting “thought leadership” into practice.

It’s a double-edged sword. Unfortunately, we can’t network in face-to-face conversations, but fortunately we have brilliant technologies enabling us to network and build relationships from the comfort of our homes. 

Keeping in touch

As most of us are, our clients are probably feeling scared about the effects this pandemic has presented, but they will not forget the companies that stayed in contact with them, whether that be providing updates, negotiating new deals, and not just an “I hope you’re doing well in these uncertain times”. 

Relationships in business shouldn’t be solely based around the financial value both can gain, there has to be a level of care and trust implemented in order to maintain the strength of the relationship, which in return will give positive effects to all your future encounters.

Don’t forget your team also, they are the foundation to your success and their concerns should be just as important as your clients’ concerns. Make sure you are doing enough to provide them with a sense of leadership and commitment to their growth within and outside of the company.

Strategizing marketing efforts

The strategies in place for your marketing have to take a stricter approach. Now is not the time for trial and error. Although you have to be careful and consider your budget as you likely can not afford to lose money. You have to think about how you will execute every time. It sounds stressful, but it increases productivity and opens ideas to new ways of marketing. These novel ways of working can benefit you for the long-run. Be that to save money, time, or simply reaching a wider audience.

Study and watch how others are executing their marketing strategies, check the data consistently and go with what the data are showing you. 

Become a student again

As I mentioned above, study and watch. Every day I schedule myself an hour or two, to study my industry, to study my clients, to study leadership, and to open my mind to fresh ways of thinking. Whereas before I was just going off the experience I had accumulated over my years in recruitment. Now I have disciplined myself to get back to the basics, to learn from other people who are on the same journey as me, and to study where experts in my industry believe the future will be. This has given me the opportunity to think 10 steps ahead after this pandemic has washed away.

Last thought: Remain optimistic and expect the unexpected

One thing you can guarantee this pandemic has taught me is that there is absolutely no security in whatever we do. Everything can change within the hour, and your life can turn upside down.

On the flip side, this pandemic has taught me optimism. It hurt me initially to see how the world was rapidly declining, but I was very proud of how we as humans can adapt to changes swiftly and rise up after tragedies occur. We see this time and time again.

We saw how the pandemic devastated the hospitality industry, yet they were consistently coming up with alternative ways to fit the government’s guidelines. All while increasing creativity levels and maintaining their reputations within the industry and keeping their loyal customers’ support. Although many in the hospitality have lost many opportunities, I am sure their hard work proves their own resilience and I hope they can see this within them.

There is hope for our future for sure, and although that may seem distorted now: remember that history repeats itself, and through every history repeating itself, we humans have continued moving forward with life, taking setbacks as lessons, and using tragedies for growth and resilience.