3 Business Lessons From A Covid-19 Success Story

Do you want to grow your business to the next level?

Do you wear all the hats in your business but want to focus on what's most important?

Do you have a long to-do list and feel overwhelmed?

Do you work hard everyday but feel like you're spinning your wheels?

If you're nodding your head "Yes", then you're like many entrepreneurs.

The key is to take focused, consistent and decisive action to get the results you want in your business.

As reported at Inc.com, a small, isolated manufacturer used a solid strategy and planning process to grow 30 times bigger and become the most important company in the fight against Covid-19.

There are so many lessons learned in this story. I pulled out key points from this article that any entrepreneur could use to build their business and achieve their potential. Let's get started.

Prepare for your big break: "The alarm sounded twice on Saturday, March 14. First came a mid-morning phone call to Timothy Templet, co-owner of Maine's Puritan Medical Products, from Brett Giroir, the U.S. assistant secretary for health, who wanted to know how fast Puritan could ramp up production of its nasal swabs. "

The co-owners of Puritan Medical Products learned that their small business produced a swab that was essential to test for the Covid-19 virus.

It is one of only two companies in the world that makes "nasopharyngeal swabs required for Covid testing", and it only produced two million units per month of what would ultimately need to be 150 million units per month.

As the article notes, "in this most shocking year well into the 21st century, the most highly sought-after piece of tech on earth was a plastic stick with a tuft of polyester on one end".

It's safe to assume that Puritan would have never anticipated a somber yet unprecedented chance like this one for their products. Located in a remote spot in Maine in a small town, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for which Puritan stepped up to the plate and knocked the ball out of the park.

As an entrepreneur, it's not to say that you need to scale your business and scramble to meet a 30-fold increase in sales, but it does speak to how quickly things can change in the market.

As shown in this story, Puritan had the framework in place to meet the challenge. The same can apply to your business. It's critical that you have a solid foundation and strategy to anticipate client needs, adjust quickly and provide excellent customer service so that you can grow to the level you want.

Size is irrelevant: Puritan is a small family-owned company in a town with a population of 743. It was difficult to recruit and maintain new talent to meet the huge demand.

Management had to open a new plant to increase its manufacturing capacity. Normally this would take 18 to 20 months, but they had a total of 8 weeks to get the site up and running.

They questioned whether they could do it. As the article states, "Every time you look at your phone, you're getting a call from a government agency".

Puritan had to rely on its' expertise, knowledge and sheer hard work to pull it off. Ultimately, they resorted to daily planning to get real progress on building their new production facility.

"With teams working in two shifts totaling 19 hours a day, McKenney's schedule started with a project management call at 3 a.m., seven days a week".

This shows how proper planning sets a business up for success and to get quicker results. If they didn't have an effective plan in place, they would have wasted valuable time, energy and resources and wouldn't have been able to deliver consistently.

The same goes for the entrepreneur or small business owner who only has so much capacity to build their business everyday. It's important to develop a simple, step-by-step plan to know where and when to focus your efforts to get the biggest bang for your buck and get faster results.

Simple can be powerful: From the outside, Puritan seemed to produce a very basic, everyday product - a medical swab. Yet they invested and created a specific technology for these swabs that no one else makes.

The article states, "Though at first glance they might resemble Q-tips, these swabs are highly specialized examples of elite materials engineering".

Companies often have teams of employees who try to understand and reverse engineer competitors' products. That's why Puritan is so secretive about its proprietary processes to help ensure that no one can duplicate its technology.

As a service based entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to develop your own unique system for your clients that helps them achieve what they want in life.

It doesn't have to be complicated or complex, but it should address a specific challenge that your clients need help solving. The key is to understand what others are doing in the market, show how you bring something special to the table and differentiate yourself.

Conclusion: A solid strategy and simple, step-by-step plan can create the framework to understand and develop solutions that customers want and willing to invest in over and over again. This allows entrepreneurs - no matter where they are in their business - to build a strong foundation, stay flexible to respond to changes in the client base and show their unique ability helps clients get results.

***If you're ready to grow your business, you don't have to be a tiny business in the middle of Maine that makes swabs! Let's connect to get specific tips to grow your business today. Click here to schedule your call: Link