The Covid-19 Crisis- A Time to Lay Low or an Opportunity to Thrive? In contemplating your choice, here are some of the top tips from noted entrepreneurs and business people on how to navigate the current crisis, get your business off of the ground, and come out ahead
By Alex McCurry •
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As chaos ensues and the world remains on hold, two types of personalities become more pronounced. On the one hand, there are those that use the involuntary halt on economic and social activity to lay low, kick back, and wait for a brighter day to emerge. We all have a friend, or several, who are using this opportunity to up wine consumption commensurately with catching up on the lost Netflix of yesteryear.
On the other hand, there are those that are using the restrictions and associated downtime with cultivating good habits, developing core skills, and creating businesses that will provide distinct value and thrive in the coming years. In contemplating your choice, here are some of the top tips from noted entrepreneurs and business people on how to navigate the current crisis, get your business off of the ground, and come out ahead.
Learn how to scale a team without overhead:
Building a team and infrastructure is one of the best investments an entrepreneur can make in order to scale their business. This, however, can often be expensive. Experts advise that a pivotal component of building companies intelligently in 2020 is to always minimize overhead and exposure when starting out. Particularly during times of crisis, it is important to be able to run a very lean operation as to not have as much exposure. Creating cohesive systems and infrastructure and then delegating roles to independent contractors to free up time for more important work is a good way to stay productive and efficient without the overhead and risk associated with onboarding traditional employees.
Raising capital during times of economic uncertainty.
Gaining confidence from investors and raising capital is often essential in getting off the ground. However, it can also be one of the most daunting parts of building a business and a source of hesitation for many young entrepreneurs looking to get a start. For those starting off, experts recommend focusing on the essentials and abandoning ideas of the convention.
If your aim is entry-level entrepreneurship and growth, nobody cares how much money you have in the bank, what building your office is located in, or, frankly, whether you have a physical location at all. What matters to investors, especially in a turbulent time like the present, is the prospect of investing in differentiated, value additive, and long term durable products and services. There are always those with dry powder on the sidelines who are looking for a meaningful opportunity, especially during times of turbulence. By pairing a concise and durable value proposition with clear execution delivered by reliable people, and there will be a much higher probability of there being money for your deal.
Diversifying in order to hedge against the risk
A final and tried and true method for growing during times of uncertainty is by diversifying. Forming strategic partnerships with entities that provide services in a similar industry as you can give you more to offer your clients and consumers, without necessarily increasing your overhead, operating costs, or workload significantly. By white labeling services that are similar to yours, you can add more to the suite of products you provide your clients, thus making you a more diversified and effective unit, but without incurring additional startup or R&D costs.