Before, During and After....

I have been busy chatting to so many business people this week about the impact of Covid 19 on their businesses. It’s like the new "How’s business?" standard question that I used to hear during most conversations. The polite answer to that was pretty much always, "Yes great thanks... and you?", regardless of the circumstances in your business.

I’ve been thinking today about what would my advice would be from before, during and after this unprecedented time period for UK business.

Before Covid 19 I would have said these were my top tips in business..

1) Be brave and take risks, even consider launching new products or concepts before you feel ready. If you wait too long for the product or service to feel perfect, someone else will already be doing a better job of helping your customers solve their problems.

2) Show up! I was fearless when I started my business, there was no expectation, no measurement, whatever I achieved each day was a step further than the day before and as long as I was moving forward, I was winning. (Interestingly this has changed now! The benchmark is set and expectations are incredibly high from whatever you achieved the first time around!)

3) Be motivated and ambitious. Self motivation is the ultimate ingredient and go into your business knowing there is no guarantee, I always saw it as it is you setting the bar, not trying to reach it.

My top tips during this Lockdown time period have certainly had to adapt though, and my top tips for now look more like this –

1) Stay visible, waiting this out for many makes sense but don’t do that in the dark. Never stop building meaningful relationships with customers and other people within your industry. Choosing to instead view competitors as potential partners and collaborators, can have a significantly positive impact on your business. Communication is key too, with your team, your suppliers, you customers and your network! They need to hear your leadership, your reassurance and feel your support during these difficult times.

2) Use the time to adapt, regroup and plan to rebuild. I can see things have and will continue to change, don’t ignore that. Don’t just restart where you left of without taking into account the changes in the economy, in peoples mindsets, in the world generally!

3) Use your strengths. Remember YOU didnt change here, who you were as a business before is still what you are now, what you were good at before, you are still good at now, what made you different was you. It is only the circumstances that have changed, you have not.

So, my top tips for after this is over –

1) Be more resilient - you will have experienced something beyond comprehension for our time and for humanity. Apply that learning to your business and use resilience as a tool in your armoury.

2) Be passionate. I think businesses that don’t just survive but thrive following this will be the ones who are driven by leaders, so no half measures. Channel the down time potential energy into passion and head wholeheartedly into a new normal. You're going to devote a lot of time and energy to re starting your business and building it back into a successful enterprise, so it's really important that you truly enjoy what you do.

3) Don’t do it alone. You need a support system around you and a network of contacts and source of advice. A peer board to help you when the future is unclear and be sympathetic to the challenges you will inevitably face.

I for one am excited about what the future looks like and I would love to hear anyone else’s top tips for post Lock Down!