The COVID-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world since early this year has been devastating to economies across the globe. Businesses in all sectors have been forced to shut down for undetermined amounts of time, causing massive redundancies, with many businesses being forced to close their doors for good.
With businesses closing their doors, and so much uncertainty in the future, it may seem, therefore, like now is a particularly bad time for new and budding entrepreneurs to start their journey out on their own, but according to experts in a variety of business specialities that may not be true.
Some of the greatest and most successful companies in history were founded during a downturn in global economies (HP, Disney, FedEx, WhatsApp) or pushed through rough times in their early days (Apple, Amazon, Microsoft). A recession does not necessarily mean the end of entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship at its core is about innovating. Entrepreneurs, regardless of the field they are in, are looking to go out on their own, launching a new business that offers something they think is missing from the existing marketplace. The road to success has many paths, but the thing they all share in common is the ability to innovate, adapt, and change in response to feedback and market demands.
Jenny Le and Pamela Yip, Chief Bubblers a.k.a co-founders of Bubble Tea Club, had this to say on their success during the pandemic – “The pandemic caused many businesses to suffer, and we found both of us stood down, but every cloud has a silver lining. We created Bubble Tea Club to provide everyone and anyone bubble tea. No matter where they were or what was happening. So we launched our first DIY kit to accommodate everyone’s need to continue drinking their favourite drink. Bubble tea.”
Existing companies are being forced to change and adapt to find new ways of generating income and revenue. People are seeking out new careers and work as their existing jobs vanish—in one case a pilot was looking for work as a delivery driver due to the reduction in air travel. Changing and adapting is an entrepreneurs’ wheelhouse, though. While this is an area many people are being forced to experience in their professional and business career for the first time, entrepreneurs have the upper hand.entrepreneurs’
As the world changes there is clear space and room for new ideas to be launched. The pandemic has changed the way people live their lives, reducing the amount of time they spend away from home in both their personal and work engagements.
Seeking out these new areas for development can make launching a business during the pandemic a lucrative opportunity. One of the largest hurdles in launching a business is getting the product or service known, i.e. marketing and advertising.
Competing against hundreds of well established and big players for a share of advertising views can be a tough challenge. Currently, though, companies in all sectors are reducing their advertising and marketing spend in an effort to lower costs. With less competition, new businesses have a prime opportunity to run marketing and advertising campaigns at lower costs due to reduce demand and with a higher likelihood of views.
There are risks to launching and running any business, but they can be reduced and mitigated by fully considering all the angles and planning accordingly. This can be a struggle for new business owners, who can easily get too focused on the day-to-day running and launching of the business while losing sight of the long-term plan. Launching a business under pandemic conditions, though, forces owners to think in a different way about the business and its future progression and goals, say business analysts.
Launching a business is also much cheaper than just a few months ago, according to Certified Bookkeepers. With so many businesses lowering production or shutting down completely, new business ventures can acquire equipment, hardware, and technology second-hand at much better rates, lowering the cost of entry.
It’s probably not an ideal time to be opening a new brick-and-mortar store, with all the associated costs involved, but in the modern internet age that still leaves a myriad of options available to budding entrepreneurs.