3 Steps to Kick-starting Your Business After a Global Pandemic. Can you remember back to the Before Times, the excitement that you felt when you first made the decision to start your business? Or maybe that was just too long ago?
If you’re like so many, you may be struggling to find that enthusiasm that inspired you to work day and night to achieve the success you reached before the pandemic. Now, while we are hopefully looking at the downhill slope of the global pandemic, we have to recover from the huge hit of lockdowns, shutdowns, partial re-openings, tightening budgets, etc. No one comes through an event like this without feeling the impact, whether your business accelerated or floated in the doldrums through the twelve-plus months.
Get really clear about what you want now
Now that we are looking at the light at the end of the tunnel of our most recent “Category 5” event, the global pandemic, if you were one of the unlucky ones who took a hit in the last year, this is the time to take stock and strategise a way forward, doing so in a way that comes from clarity of purpose and vison.
Let’s make sure you do it not only in the most productive way for your business, but in a way that reflects the life you really want to create. That is, after all, why we got into business in the first place, and the last year may have revealed to you ways that you want your life to be different, requiring that you make adjustments in your business going forward.
This is the time, while things are just starting to move and before you dive all the way back in, to think through the critical parts and pieces of re-committing to your business. What goals, strategies, systems, plans do you have in place to restart or to take advantage of new opportunities uncovered by the pandemic?
If you are relying on the same goals, and strategies that got you to where you were in early 2020, do they still make sense to you now as you stare at the new world order of 2021 and beyond?
Now is the perfect time and opportunity (unavoidable for some), to take a fresh look, after everything that we have endured, to see what about your business you really want to keep and what needs to be adjusted. What we learned in this Cat 5 event, was that what was once seemingly immutable in our business could become fluid and slip away. If we are willing to get (re)started, we can still find a way forward.
If we’ve learned anything, it’s that we are resilient and we can create a life that has different qualities, deeper purpose and reshape our businesses to reflect that. The downtime, whether you used it as such or not, was/is the perfect time to see what from the past that you want to return to, and what needs to be adjusted.
None of us can go forward as if nothing happened.
Begin by writing down an adjusted/new set of goals based on the permanent changes that will influence your way forward. Assume that your previous goals are up for review, to be re-evaluated, updated, reflective of the current times. Get super-detailed and crystal clear about the life you want to create now – the environment, the people, the tone and textures of your workday. Can your post-pandemic business still deliver that to you? Once you are through the challenges you endured it’s time to envision what the new day looks like that has you most excited. Use this crisis as an opportunity to learn and emerge stronger, better, more fulfilled.
Who’s in your support system as you dive back in?
Like so much else, your support system may have disappeared or changed in the last year. Maybe those you thought you could count on, struggled just as you might have, and are no longer able to support you in this “Brave New World.” Maybe you were a lone ranger in the Before Times, and that was working for you then.
If we take one lesson from this Category 5 event, it’s that it doesn’t make sense to “go it alone” anymore! Surround yourself with a community of similar, success-minded entrepreneurs who have tread the path that you are on, to support you in getting lift off, especially because the task of restarting or reigniting your business can be daunting. If you don’t have a community like this to join, create one and invite other business leaders like yourself to participate with you in a mastermind gathering. We need this now more than ever. There are others out there who long to share their ideas, their struggles, their wins, and to get feedback and input for decisions that you make every day. You are needed. Be of service to others and you will find that the road gets clearer for you, too.
Measure your progress!
There is no better way to know if you are on track than to keep track. You may have given up at some point in the last year to track the bad news. I remember when I hit a point where I could no longer bear to look at the Covid numbers amid the interminable wait for a favorable turn towards normal. Now is the time to start looking at our own numbers and to stitch together the roadmap for the way forward, drawing from past performance and bringing into focus what is working now, what has the potential to work going forward.
Start by looking at your numbers from both the past pre-Covid times to the present, to set new benchmarks that make sense and to give yourself a feeling of achievement.
Create the route that keeps you on your path to the life you want, and go forth!
