Four Lessons from the Businesses that Survived the Lockdown

Have you wondered how other businesses are doing right now? How are their owners dealing with the challenges of lockdown, quarantine, social distancing? As an entrepreneurial community, we made it a norm to only share success stories on social media. Nobody wants to come out and openly admit that the business is suffering, the sales are low and the uncertainty of the future is daunting.

Despite the pandemic, during the last few months, we could see that many entrepreneurs have been striving, or so it seemed when they published an announcement of a new webinar, training, class, summit, etc. and their smiling face next to it. But we still didn’t know what was really happening behind the scenes.

Now, when the world is going through such a foundation-shaking change, it is more important than ever that we can tell the story of what is really happening to the business, share our experiences with each other and help one another rebuild our own ventures and the world “one entrepreneur at a time”.

With that in mind, together with the experts of the Think Tank AlterContacts, we have launched a new social initiative Lockdown Economy. It is a series of interviews where entrepreneurs and small business owners from around the world share openly how the lockdown has affected them, their companies, their markets and their future.

These are the stories of real people who live among us, who chose to be their own boss and were faced with something that the world has never seen before. I’m honoured that I had a chance to hear it first-hand, and now I want to share with you the inspiring and inventive lessons of how these businesses managed to survive the lockdown.

Lesson 1: Cherish your clients

One thing that most entrepreneurs have experienced is a lack of interest from their clients. The latter had new priorities, less time and considerably more pressure. Hence, in-person activities were cancelled or postponed indefinitely. The nice-to-have services, that lie anywhere above the second level of the famous Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, became unimportant. It was not the right time to sell, but according to the businesses that weathered the lockdown, it was the right time to show that you care, to call your clients and just ask how they were doing.

In her interview, Poom Narudee Kristhanin, the CEO and Founder of Eureka Global, a transformation consultancy in Thailand, shares that after speaking with a number of clients, she saw that they were all working on COVID-relief programs, but on their own and unaware of each other. Poom and her team of facilitators brought all of their clients together virtually to work on a joint program that would be more impactful. That allowed Poom to keep connected and useful to her clients.

Lesson 2: Collaborate

Due to the lockdown and slowdown of business, many entrepreneurs of similar industries or lines of work realized that they were all in the same boat. They started teaming up with each other. Rishi Kapal, the Managing Partner of Global Scaleup (India), uses the term “cOOpetition” in his interview. It refers to the collaboration with their competition — exchanging contacts and connections, sharing information, doing joint projects — for the greater good of humanity.

Another good example of collaboration comes from the story of Jane Bertch, the Founder of the cooking school La Cuisine Paris. Her business is on the intersection of three highly affected industries: restaurant, events and tourism. Despite the fact that her clients could no longer travel, Jane and her team continued bringing French experience to them. Through a partnership with complementary businesses and delivery services, they created two new offers: bespoke baking kits and sets of French wine that would be sent directly to the homes of the clients.

Lesson 3: Adapt fast

Across all the interviews on the series Lockdown Economy, that was, perhaps, the most common theme. Even though, for each business it was unique.

Claudia Deken, the owner of Plant Based Sushi, the first vegan sushi restaurant in the Netherlands, had a very confronting experience of having to close it down half an hour before the opening with everything ready and a full team on the shift. Due to the nature of the restaurant business, she didn’t have any time to stop. Claudia had to make fast decisions to keep her company afloat. So overnight she made the vegan sushi available through online delivery and that has saved her business.

In the story by Dave van der Aar, the owner and head barista of a mobile espresso catering business in the Netherlands, Coffee on Wheels, we learn about the advantages of having small operations. Unlike his competitors with hired staff, Dave and his business partner prefer to do everything themselves. He refers to it as ‘minimalistic entrepreneurship’. When the lockdown happened and his clients cancelled their bookings, the flexible structure of the business allowed him in a moment’s notice to adapt the course. Dave was able to quickly cut costs and reallocate the time to other activities until the lockdown would be lifted. For instance, connect with his customers or learn how to advance the online image of his company.

Lesson 4: Keep active

There is a well-known quote by Mark Twain “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” That is to say, when we do what we love, it doesn’t feel as hard and tedious as we are used to thinking about “work”. The lockdown temporarily took away the source of income from many entrepreneurs. At the same time, the majority of the interview guests mention that the only way to get out of that deep and low point was to continue doing something. It had to be something they enjoyed doing and useful for others.

Shayonti Chatterji, the founder of Urban Medley, a sustainable fashion brand that opened in January 2020, mentions that instead of stopping the activities, the lockdown was an opportunity “to show your business ethics, social responsibility and prove yourself to be of relevance.”

Dannie-Lu Carr, UK-based creativity and leadership coach and founder of Creative Wavelengths, designed several online programs, as an addition to her in-person services. One of the programs was meant to help people get through the lockdown, face their fear and come out on the other side in a positive state of mind.

Monique Y. Wells, the co-owner of Entrée to Black Paris, a travel business that provides services tailored for the African-American market — whose clients could no longer travel to France because of the closed borders — used the time to write relevant and interesting articles for them and design future tours. She also recorded an online tour of Paris.

Victor Camara, a business consultant who helped to launch over 70 new companies in Mexico in the last ten years, saw that now more than ever people need help in starting their business because many of them were laid off and forced to create their own jobs. So he started producing a series of training for beginning entrepreneurs in Spanish.

To sum up.

Admittedly most of these admirable and useful activities were done pro-bono. But as Bisila Bokoko, CEO of BBES International, a New York-based business development agency, rightly noticed in her interview “Being an entrepreneur is an act of service. We are always going to be facing new uncertainties but the drive to create is within you.”

As much as I want to share many more lessons that we can take out from the twenty-nine interviews recorded, in this article I decided to focus on the key four. There is so much more to learn from these video-stories. I invite you to discover that for yourself, support this social initiative and watch the interviews on LockdownEconomy.org.