If world gives you lemons, make LEMONADE - old proverbial saying
With more than 115 countries having had at least 100,000 cases of COVID, this is a major pandemic that has affected most of the world so far.
As we are all aware, apart from the deaths, major issue has been of disruption of normal life as we know it. Quarantines and lockdowns have affected many people's earning capabilities.
Businesses and individuals have been equally affected by the inability to engage in business, lack of customer footfall, lack of sales due to lowered purchase power of population in general.
A severe setback of course. However, observing the wildlife around me, I have always thought that setbacks can be turned into opportunities if we adapt by changing our stance and outlook!
For example, When a sunbird approaches, spiders always hide under leaves, in shadows, away from the sun. This makes it difficult to find them easily. The sunbird simply adapts it's posture, goes UPSIDE/DOWN and easily finds the spiders.
SO, I started thinking on what could be OPPORTUNITIES for individuals and Small businesses in a world economically devastated by COVID. A world that not only has economic changes but has changes in human outlook on many routine things and also on NEEDS as perceived by many.
For example, Formal clothing has seen a definite downturn in sales because work from home is becoming the new norm of life for many companies!
I can work in my PAJAMAS!
Commute has gone down and so have the car sales in many countries!
On this scenario, here are some thoughts on what we could do. These are by no means exhaustive or complete. I intend to only point out a few ways to explain the outlook and concept.
How to adapt to post COVID world
To my mind, 3 aspects will prominently decide how the opportunities come up in post COVID days...
- Corporate Resilience
- Social attitude
- Technology and data
Let us think of one example each for each area where there could be an opportunity for an individual or business....
**Corporate resilience related opportunities: ** If your business is still standing, having somehow endured COVID and lockdown downsides, then it is actually easier for you to try and grow business. Most of your smaller competition which was eating your lunch due to their smaller overhead costs would have folded so you have access to their customers now.
What about the bigger wolves though - the ones that are larger than you and are waiting to gobble you up? Well, they will be looking at doing the exact same thing that you are thinking - grow market size access because overall purchasing power has gone down in general. So - they may be open to buying smaller businesses with a good customer base. So - work on showing off your assets (your customer base, goodwill and growth potential). Sprucing up websites, presentations and going to networking seminars is now more important than ever. Most of this you can do FREE and from home since everything is online anyway. Once you have done this, you may get funding infusion from angel investors OR get good offers for buyout. New doors will open in either case!
Social attitude opportunities: Larger working from home by major corporates and even mid-sized businesses will have large pool of employees who will want to work from home. Their officials work environment related things like need for internet connections, need for office furniture and need for local level tech support is going through the roof. You can cash in on opportunities for that. As an example, one of my friends who is in a Tier 2 city, has landed a large contract to support the IT needs for 2-3 big companies who have employees working from home in that city at various locations.
Technology and data related opportunities: There is a major emphasis in making 'future proof and pandemic proof' operational setups now in businesses. Most of the businesses who can, are trying to automate processes so that human intervention is minimum. This generates not only opportunities for people who are into automation business but for some other niche areas. For example, Counselling needs for people affected by automation are going up. Services who have been affected by automation and resultant reduction in workforce (for example companies operating staff bus services) are trying to get technology like electric kit retrofits to reduce their operating cost. This is creating opportunities for the Electric kit related businesses/ individuals...
Like I said - these are just a few examples to show how we need to adapt our MIND and our STANCE to be succesful in post COVID world.
Finally, as always, here is the beautiful sunbird photo I took that started this train of thoughts...
Do feel free to comment and share your thoughts on the subject. I have an open mind and ready to learn...
Note: All images (or collages) in this post are based on photos clicked by me and/or images from free image source Pixabay.
