A year on from one of the most stressful periods as a business owner, there are a number of unexpected outcomes that may never have happened, if it weren’t for lockdowns and restrictions.
Call COVID-19 a thunderbolt or bombshell for business, out of pure necessity, shock and/or despair, five eye opening results have materialised including:
- International collaboration and projects that solve joint problems are possible and in demand;
- Increases in bookings and sales by almost 300%;
- Wellbeing and mental health being seen as more important than ever;
- Ecommerce stores and solid online presence ramping up; and
- The importance of celebrating business milestones.
When things are out of your control, entrepreneurs take stock, acting quickly and responding to their customers, plus they go looking for opportunities in other places, as demonstrated by four innovative founders.
Wendy Perry from Workforce BluePrint explains,
“Focusing in on working alongside Australian startups and entrepreneurs in 2020, offering online events and coaching sessions through Switch Start Scale (Entrepreneurship Facilitator Service), saw collaborations with business and entrepreneurial leaders from Bhutan, Canada, the UK, USA, New Zealand and Australia.”
Sandra Senn from Hashtag Instaprints outlines,
“Having 6 months to work on the business (while there were zero events) provided the time to map out a clearer marketing strategy. Because of that effort, bookings have jumped almost 300% and Hashtag Instaprints is just shy of achieving their yearly target in 3 months.”
When asked about the increase, Sandra responded, “I know right!!!! I just got crazy excited when I worked that out!!!!!!! I’m still in shock”
Bel Ryan from Ignite Wellbeing Co, reflected,
“Wellbeing is more important than ever and the impact of COVID has not been fully realised at this point. Mental health is so important and the Ignite Wellbeing Co experience is a unique way to have a hands on reflection, gain clarity, raise awareness and prevent the impact of stress, burnout and overwhelm.”
Desak Yoni from Bali in a Jar, talks about what happened when COVID restrictions hit,
“Bali In A Jar had just had the first Chilli Fest exposure and the business was just launched four months before the first lockdown. Creating an online store, with door to door delivery while keeping safe, increasing posts on Facebook, plus offering Zoom cooking sessions to build an online presence proved to be popular.”
And finally, 2020 taught us the importance of celebrating business milestones, with an event to be hosted at The Kentish Hotel in North Adelaide, where guests are saying, “It's great that you are coming together for this, a real inspiration!”
The Reignite SA - Celebrate Business Birthdays, Launches and Rebranding event is being held on Thursday 29 April 2021 from 6.00 pm - 8.30 pm, with the registration link below:
Please search for #reignitesa on Instagram for pics:
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/reignitesa/https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/reignitesa/
And take a look at photos on the Workforce BluePrint Facebook page in the album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=WorkforcePlanningTools&set=a.4500404703320070