How to Survive a Global Pandemic as a startup.

If the last few weeks have demonstrated anything, it’s that no business - big or small - is immune to changes within society. And what bigger change in society than a pandemic that has rocked the globe, disrupted almost all supply chains and uprooted consumer behaviour as we thought we knew it? 

With The Shirt Society literally weeks away from launch when the UK lockdown began, I wanted to share some insight into what it’s been like navigating the Covid-19 pandemic. Spoiler: it’s not been fun. 

First, some background information about us. From The Shirt Society’s inception in October (when it was just me overstaying my welcome in cafes and writing notes on the back of a napkin), we’ve had a mad few months. By the time February rolled around, we had a team of 4 full time members of staff, plus 3 freelancers working around the clock for us as well. We had a central Manchester office, an astute investor, and an ever-growing database of 5,000 people keenly waiting for our full launch. All was going swimmingly. 

Then it became apparent that coronavirus was about to become a far bigger deal than any of us anticipated, and I was forced to make some tough decisions on behalf of the business. Here’s what happened next. 

Staff first, always 

If I could give one piece of advice to businesses during a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic, it would be to ensure staff wellbeing first. You are nothing without a great team around you, and more so than ever during a time like this. 

The week before the UK lockdown was announced, I decided that the team should stop coming into the office to ensure everyone was kept safe. 

In a start-up business like The Shirt Society, where the team is still small, I felt it was important to maintain transparency with our staff, and make some decisions that we could hang our hats on - especially with everything so uncertain and changeable elsewhere. Because of this, my next step was to send an email to all staff outlining the plan for the coming days and weeks. 

As a digitally-driven business, we were lucky in lots of ways. The fundamental transition to working from home wasn’t too painful, and we were able to carry on most of our work as normal. One of the toughest decisions I had to make initially was to cut all marketing and advertising spend, to minimise the early impact that Covid-19 would have on the business. 

Money, money, money 

Following a BETA testing phase late last year, the team and I had been gearing up to launch The Shirt Society in full in mid-April. Best laid plans, and all that… 

When the pandemic hit, we had two options as a business. We could either risk launching as planned, invest ￡20k into shirts to launch with and a further ￡60k for the 2 months post launch, unknowing of how long lockdown would last or how the pandemic would play out. Or we could play it ‘safe’ - keep as much cash as we could at as little risk to the business as possible, and ensure we could weather the storm. 

The decision was easy. Hunker down, and wait until things were clearer. We had a team call the following day where we let everyone know what was happening. Plus, everybody was being sent home - was there a real need for shirts right now? 

In the first week of lockdown, our financial plan for the next 24 months (which had previously been fairly watertight), was amended more times than I could count. I had to learn quickly to become comfortable with the new financial projections, and set a new course for The Shirt Society to ensure that we would come out of the other side of this intact. 

So many SMEs are seeing their strategies and predictions go by the wayside, and I think we’re all learning that being able to change plans is just as important as making them in the first place. 

A New Opportunity? 

Once the hatches were battened down and we could all pause to gather our thoughts again, attention turned to how we could make the most of the pandemic from a business perspective. 

While previously the plan had been to focus on the product offering, with launch postponed indefinitely we made the call to push some great content instead. That way, we could get to know our potential customers further, learn more about them and record insights into what worked well and what didn’t to inform future marketing strategies. 

As a team, we drummed up some ideas on the type of content we wanted to create and launched our new magazine-style hub: The Fold. Soon it felt like we were going at 100 miles an hour again. 

It’s far from ideal. But I’m so proud of what we have created so far, and how adaptable the team has been. 

Now, we feel closer to our customers than ever. We’ve got a real dialogue going on, and the support we’ve had since we launched our Advance Memberships has been phenomenal. 

So, three key lessons I’ll be taking from this. Support each other. Be flexible, appreciate that things rarely go to plan. And try to see adversity as opportunity. If your business can get through this, it can get through anything, right?