The current coronavirus pandemic is the worst medical and economic disaster in our lifetime. The current pandemic dwarves other past financial crises like the Great Depression and the last financial crisis. Millions of people have been laid-off and many companies have closed. Some industries like restaurants and hotels have been decimated. Yet, this is the best time to start a business according to many experts. In this article, we will explain how you can start a thriving company during the coronavirus lockdown.
Why It’s the Best Time to Start a Company
The current coronavirus pandemic has caused havoc around the world. Still, this is the best time for you to start a business for several reasons. Some of these are:
- Too much time. Time is one reason why most of us have never started a business. These days, we have too much free time to create a business plan, create websites, and create marketing plans.
- Affordable rent. As mentioned above, most companies will not survive the pandemic. As a result, if you plan to start a store or an office, you can easily find one where rents are affordable.
- Economy will pick-up. We believe that the economy will recover eventually. Starting a business at a time when the economy is recovering allows you to grow with it.
- Affordable workforce. With so many people out of work, it is easy for you to find quality employees at affordable price.
- Government incentives. Governments in many countries such as the US have set aside trillions of dollars to support businesses. You can access these funds and use them to run your business.
How to Start a Business During the Coronavirus Lockdown
There are several steps you need to follow to start a thriving business during the coronavirus lockdown. Let us now explore these steps.
Business Idea
If you are like most people, you have likely thought about starting a business for a while. You have likely had many business ideas but never implemented one. During the lockdown, we recommend that you take time to research about your ideas and see whether they efficient. For example, you may have thought about starting an e-commerce store to sell hunting gear. Research and see whether it can work.
Ideally, you should start a business that solves a problem to your target market. As such, you should look at the companies that are in the industry, identify the gaps, and work hard to fill them. We recommend that you take time and talk to someone about it. This could be a friend or family member. The benefit of talking to these people is that they will help you identify the strength and weaknesses of your idea. For example, if you have watched Shark Tank, you have likely seen many people pitch ideas that have no chance of surviving.
Register the Business and Build a Website
After doing a lot of research on your business idea, we recommend that you register the company and build a website. Many people are tempted to build companies that they have not registered yet. We believe this is wrong for several reasons. For example, you can build an unregistered company called evoke. However, as you try to register it in future, you find that the company’s name belongs to another person. In this, there are several things that you need to do:
- Catchy name. Ensure that the name of your business is short and catchy. For example, a company name like “evoke” is better than “chesapeake94.”
- Build a good website. You can build a good website using free platforms like WordPress. You can also hire a contractor in Upwork to help build the website for you.
- Intellectual property. Ensure that you have quality intellectual property like patents and copyrights ready if your business idea or product need such protection.
- Build and test product. Use your free time to build and test your product. For example, if you are launching a pizza company, ensure that you have a good product that you have perfected.
- Raise funds. We know that these are tough times. Still, we believe that it is possible to access capital from the likes of family members and friends.
- Social media. A website is not enough. You should register your company in social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
There are some tools we believe will be valuable for your start-up. These are: Hootsuite for social media, Zendesk for communicating with customers, Google G-suite for file storage and communication, Shopify for e-commerce website creation, Cash App for payment processing, MailChimp for email communication, and Wix for website creation.
After creating the product and having your website ready, we recommend that you do a soft launch for your product. A soft launch is a process where you launch your product to a limited number of people to see how they react. You will also see their reaction about pricing.
After getting their feedback, you can now do a full launch of the product. This means allocating more money in marketing, talking to media professionals, and talking to local distributors. If you are selling a physical product, many retailers will be happy to sell it for you. In addition, you can also attempt to create a viral video to propel your product and share it with social media influencers.
A good example of this is how Dollar Shave Club was started. The company’s CEO uploaded the video shown below, which helped propel it to a billion-dollar brand.
How to Save Costs When Launching Your Company
Since the economy is tough, we recommend that you do several things to save money when launching your company. Some of these are:
- Use family members. You can use your family members instead of hiring full-time employees.
- Use freelancers. You can use platforms like Upwork and Fiverr to find quality workforce.
- Use WordPress. You may be tempted to use premium services like Shopify and Wix. While they are good, they are a bit expensive. So, just use WordPress, which is free.
- Leverage social media. As mentioned above, you can leverage the power of social media to market your company.
- Leverage established brands. If you are selling a product, we recommend that you leverage the power of established brands like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba to sell your product.
Final Thoughts
Starting a business during the lockdown is not a simple thing because of how movement is restricted. Finances are tight also. Still, this is an ideal period for you to fulfil your lifetime goal and you can do it using the tips mentioned above.
