2020 was all gloom; 2021 is all growth

We all do it – first of January rolls around and we make our personal and professional resolutions – 2020 was going to be my year. 

We had a good start to 2020, that was until we started hearing about the virus. Early on, I remember that no one really took it seriously. Even when March hit, rumour had it that there would just be a few weeks of disruption tops. 

I remember, as if it was yesterday, being at an airport that was almost empty. Can you even imagine that? That’s when I knew, this was going to hit us hard. I was fortunate enough to see the US through the world’s eyes before many others realized the impact of this thing. 

It was at this moment that I started grieving my business – because I knew that everything was about to change.

"The mark of a great CEO is the ability to move to a better idea quickly"

James Currier

• The goals I had were abandoned
• I was stressed, my family was stressed, my teams were stressed
• All of a sudden, my kids were at home all of the time
• The office was abandoned and I was back to working out of my garage
• I had to learn to manage a remote crew

 You could say that 2020 quickly put life in perspective.

Back to the drawing board

What saved me was that I was able to grieve hard and grieve quickly. Everything that we had worked for until that point changed, literally, overnight. Once I made that switch, there was work to be done. Hard decisions had to be made. Relationships would be tested.

 Yes – it was all doom and gloom, and we had to deal with it early – to avoid getting sucked in by the negatives – and to realize that now it was about survival.

 How am I going to maintain motivation? How am I going to make it through these gauntlets?

 Reinvent, pivot, cut the fat …

 Whatever you want to call it. Truth was, we made a lot of changes. Restructuring is one word, but we went and relooked at the entire business model.

 I had to reinvent myself. I had to reinvent the business. I had to reinvent the culture at Shyft.

Product/market fit between Seed and Series A, pre-Covid and post-Covid. My head was spinning, but I had people relying on me, families relying on me. I had a choice to make – either to be the armchair quarterback, dealing with regret (that wasn't going to help anyone) or to take action and make it work.

Agility was key. We had to cut the fat, follow the money and capitalize on that.

 We’re still surviving. And we’re thriving.

 The long road ahead

It wasn’t just about the business, about the Shyfters. We still have a long road ahead. We had to convince the stakeholders, and get the trust back.

 Now, as we wrap up Series A-1 of funding, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  

It is in times of crisis that we truly see innovation flourish. We’ve seen it with the business – when lockdowns happened, and people didn’t want strangers in their homes, our SaaS model was fully functional and we were on hand to service the moving industry – from LMEs, moving companies to individuals.

When you’re required to pivot – agility is key, and many aging businesses do not have what it takes to be as dexterous as a startup. We are so proud to have already launched ShyftX – our brand that is geared towards automating the moving business to create seamless integration between our moving partners and thousands of qualified leads.

We’re already transforming the way the world moves.

Key takeaways

 I’m not going to mince words here. Being an entrepreneur is one of the most difficult life choices one can make. It is stressful, tough and incredibly lonely at times, but the rewards are greater than any other gig on the planet.

 As I continue to reflect on 2020, here are my takeaways for the future entrepreneurs of tomorrow:

•  If, after all that life has thrown at you, you still have energy – you will survive and thrive.
• In times of crisis, the only choice is innovation. Demands for new products emerge quickly, and your only chance for survival is to spring into action and deliver first to market.
• Remember that cash is king, so reevaluate your financial models to ensure they can stand the strain.
• Don’t write 2020 off, this year really happened, learn from it, grow from it.