How The Pandemic Changed Everything For Entrepreneurs

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Pandemic|How The Pandemic Changed Everything For EntrepreneursThis pandemic has made us realize that we cannot predict the future. Business entities now have faith that their success depends on their ability to adapt to change. The preventive measures taken by governing bodies disturbed the entrepreneurial systems. The social and economic mediums of businesses were adversely affected due to this pandemic. The majority of the businesses got liquefied due to the adversities caused by this pandemic. Small-scale businesses and startups were the most vulnerable to these restrictions.

But entrepreneurs are a peculiar kind of successful people. They have the vision to extract opportunities from disasters. They are the ones for whom challenges are gratifying rather than frightening. Numerous entrepreneurs responded to the change optimistically instead of straying away from it. The change in business models and strategies has resulted in new entrepreneurial norms and a more digital atmosphere. It’s safe to say that the pandemic changed everything for entrepreneurs, and here’s how.

1. Digitalization Becomes Inevitable

Since the coronavirus broke out, we have witnessed an exponential increase in the need for digitalization. Entrepreneurial procedures are being shifted to digital platforms. All the major sectors like agriculture, education, trading, banking, and various business models are now rapidly transforming into digital versions.

As an entrepreneur, you must be acquainted with the digital processes in the business world. Luckily, learning resources for digital domains are increasing with the demand as well. They assist you in aligning with the exclusive integration of digital and business ecosystems. Several courses are now available on physical and virtual platforms to help. You can opt for courses like MBA programs no GMAT to gain access to virtual education to tackle your studies and startup at the same time.

Entrepreneurs who went digital were the only ones who successfully retained their market existence last year. Marketing campaigns are now run via mobile phones, emails, social media platforms, etc., reaching customers digitally rather than going door to door. Several service providers have even evolved their services to be contactless.

2. Shift Towards Remote Working

One of the biggest changes is the shift of workstations from offices to remote locations. Offices have now been shifted to home lounges from high-rise buildings, and “work from home” is the new slogan. If businessmen cannot meet people in person, they have found a way to work remotely. Virtual meeting rooms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet are on the hotline since then.

Remote working has provided multiple benefits to the employees as well, like work-life balance, saving transportation costs, and an open room for time management. But, on the other hand, some entrepreneurs faced deterioration in work effectiveness due to remote working due to the addition of domestic responsibilities. According to a survey done by Kings College London, almost 22.6% of entrepreneurs faced difficulties due to such responsibilities. But, entrepreneurs must adapt to the need of the hour to ensure the success of their business.

3. Worldwide Supply Chain

The commerce and procurement sector is connected worldwide. This community took disastrous effects from restrictions over the international borders. It was a dire issue for supply chain executives when they could not communicate with vendors in the virus-affected zones. Most of these executives had their supply chains linked to the Chinese industry. Unfortunately, it became the center of covid-19 and abruptly disturbed the supply chains of every scale. Shortage of goods and materials caused an immense reduction in the productions of electronic and automobile industries. Production hubs like Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India used to outsource their products from China. As a result, they faced a significant reduction in their entrepreneurial activities. The scarcity of supplies led to numerous challenges for the majority of the industries in meeting their targets. Supply chains have begun to gain momentum recently, but promising forecasts cannot be made yet.

4. Challenges For Small Scale Entrepreneurs

Since the pandemic, it has been a difficult time for small-scale entrepreneurs. Covid-19 has brought agonizing challenges to the newbies, and the majority of them are struggling with their businesses. A study by the Asian Institute of Research declares that 41% of small-scale entrepreneurs fell in the red zone during the pandemic and lost control over their cash flow. It was also seen that 20% of the startup got their commitments declined by investors. In addition to that, 53% faced a slowdown in the process, while only 27% were able to function normally.

In addition to this, almost all of the startups had to reduce their expenses. Some entrepreneurial firms even recorded a reduction of 76% in their operational costs. Almost 70% of the firms had to nullify contacts with their full-time employees, which affected their workmanship.

Closing Remarks

You can observe entrepreneurs enjoying hikes in their revenues during this pandemic. This is because they are the ones who have adapted to change and have stayed resilient. The essential step for staying resilient is to accept that you have certain boundaries, and being rigid won’t help much. This approach will lead you to regain control over the aspects that you can influence rather than dwelling on constraints that you can’t control.

You Can’t Be All Things To Your Business

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Realising that your business needs to you be one step removed from the changing fortunes of its success never happens in the early days. In those frantic days, you live and breathe everything that is connected to your fledgling company. And that’s how it should be: without your energy, the company would be nowhere. However, there comes a point where you can’t be dying a thousand deaths a day just because some small details have not turned out as you had planned. You need to step above the humdrum of the daily concerns and think much bigger about your company and its future. It’s the only way you’ll achieve the levels of success you want to achieve. Here’s how you do it.

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Trusting Others

When you began your company, you were probably in charge of everything that happened. You assumed many roles in an amateur fashion in order to get things done. This was your baby, and it was to be born in your creation. Now the company is off the ground, though, it is no longer your baby. It’s able to walk on its own two feet, and it needs to have the best around it to make sure it stays on course. If you hire people to do a job for you, then actually trust them to do the job for you. It’ll be hard not being in control of absolutely everything, but your company will be better for it in the end.

Switching Off

You can’t be on call 24 hours a day for your business. You’ll burn out far too quickly if you try to do that. Instead, you need to have systems in place that enables you to switch off without worrying what’s happening with your business. If it’s online, then integrating SIEM (security information and event management) will give you the peace of mind that your website is well taken care of, even if you’re not in a position to see it for yourself. Similarly, if you have a whole team who are tasked with making sure that your social media profiles are updated in line with the company philosophy, there’ll be no need to be on your phone every few minutes making sure the right content is being posted. Switch off. It’s the right thing for you.

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Controlling What You Can Control

You control what you can control, and adapt to the other things that happen that you can’t. Realising that there will always be some things that just happen to you is a good lesson to learn as a business leader (also good to learn this as a human being, too!). Instead, you should be pouring your energy into winning what you can win. If you’re fretting over insignificant details that might yield small results, then who’s taking care of the tasks that will yield the big results? If it’s not you, then it’s nobody. Use your skills wisely and you’ll get a much higher return on your efforts. You can’t be all things to your business, so just be things that you can be well!

How To Take The Stress Out Of Running A Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Running a Business|How To Take The Stress Out Of Running A BusinessFrom time to time, the responsibility that comes with running your own company is bound to make even the most competent business person feel overwhelmed or burned out. However, while stress is often unavoidable, you shouldn’t be feeling this way all of the time. After all, prolonged stress can impact your health, while significantly incapacitating your business and ability to succeed.

Therefore, here are some top tips that you can use to take the stress out of running a business.

Work as part of a team. While, as a business owner, you should be prepared to take on a great deal of work, you also shouldn’t try to do everything yourself. After all, it’s unlikely that you’ll be the best candidate for every role in your company, and spreading yourself too thin will result in a lack of productivity and efficiency that will only harm your business. Therefore, one way in which you can reduce your stress levels is by focusing on hiring new employees. This allows you to delegate tasks fairly, in accordance with each employee’s strengths, and means that you can focus on other elements of your business.

Furthemore, you can improve employee productivity (thus reducing your stress) by ensuring that you are a great employer who inspires and excites your employees.

Find a way to automate certain operations. Sometimes, workplace stress derives from the fact that you are feeling overwhelmed, or as though you have too many tasks to complete within a certain timeframe. Therefore, you can easily eliminate this issue by finding a way to automate certain tasks, such as client invoicing and administrative duties.

While this could again include expanding your workforce, you should also look into software that can do these tasks on your behalf, or work with a software development company.

Give yourself a break. As a business owner, it’s important that you hold yourself accountable for your actions and continue to find ways to grow and develop your business. However, it’s also important that you give yourself a break to refresh and decompress. For example, you should ensure that you are not working seven days a week, without any breaks. While this may seem counterproductive (especially when your to-do list is ever-growing), taking a break can help sharpen your mind and ensures that you will work more productively moving forward. Cultivating a work-life balance will also help you bring down your stress levels.

Make the most of your time. Another way in which you can reduce workplace stress is by ensuring that you better manage your time. Thankfully, there are various ways in which you can do this, whether you seek out ways to make meetings more succinct and impactful or put together a daily schedule. Good time management will also encourage you to get work done in a timely manner, as opposed to leaving an important task until the last possible minute. Another way in which you can more effectively manage your time is by starting off your day with the task you are dreading the most, instead of planing to do it later.

How to Drive Success as an Entrepreneur

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Entrepreneur|How to Drive Success as an EntrepreneurHaving a successful business is about a lot more than simply having a sound business idea. The type of entrepreneur you are, and your own efforts to learn more about business management will help your business to prosper. However, how do you strive for business success if you’re new to the entrepreneurial game or only have experience and expertise with your product rather than running a business?

Here is a guide for how you can drive further success as an entrepreneur, whether new to the business world or develop your ongoing skills.

Learn About Your Industry

You may have spent a dedicated amount of time knowing everything there is about your product, but market research and industry insights are key as well. You need to understand best how your product will fare in the market, so always strive to learn as much as possible about the industry you’re in regularly. This means staying up to date with trends, too.

Manage Your Work-Life Balance Effectively

It can be a common misconception for business professionals that business success means working as many hours as possible. While it’s naturally important to put in the time and effort to grow your business, this may undoubtedly mean working longer hours — that doesn’t mean you should sacrifice downtime or relaxation. On the contrary, this is crucial for helping you to remain focused and motivated and avoiding the risk of business burnout.

It can be very difficult to know how to manage your time properly when you’re a business professional trying to launch a new business. That’s why a Business Growth Coach can help; companies like Develop Business Group Ltd can help you to develop appropriate strategies to manage your time and your goals.

Be Tenacious

This doesn’t mean being too stubborn or ignoring when you might have made business mistakes; it’s all a learning process, after all. What it does mean is being resolute in your business goals and your belief in your product. Remain determined so that determination can see you through, keep you reaching for your goals, and helping you to remain interested in the industry you’re in.

Keep Evolving

Learning how to launch your new business and start off on the right foot as an entrepreneur is crucial, but it doesn’t mean the hard work is done once your business is open. Continually learning and evolving is key to ongoing success. This means staying up to date with changes in the industry, what your consumers are looking for, what your competitors are doing, and how demands might change (such as through new technology).

Always be adaptable and flexible as an entrepreneur.

Final Thoughts

Success as an entrepreneur is about finding the ideal balance with your own personality traits and business acumen. Developing yourself as a person is just as important as developing your areas of business, such as organization, confidence, and time-management skills. To drive future success, always continue learning — and that includes learning from other business professionals, too.

5 Myths About Starting a Franchise Business Debunked

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Franchise Business|5 Myths About Starting a Franchise Business DebunkedThere’s no denying that you’ve got several routes into the world of commerce, and one of those is starting a franchised business. Many of today’s top everyday brands that you see on your travels are franchised organizations, so that’s proof alone they are a winning idea.

The thing is, some entrepreneurs feel like starting a local or regional company under the umbrella of a franchised brand is a bad idea. If you’re here today because you’ve had similar thoughts, take a look at these franchise business myths debunked:

Myth #1: Franchises Are Only in a Few Industries

When you start a business, you want to do so because you have brilliant ideas for products and services in a specific niche that you think will be very successful. With that in mind, you might assume that franchises aren’t available in your niche industry.

The truth is, you’ll find franchise opportunities available in virtually all industries and sectors. For example, you could launch a franchised top senior referral business to provide elder care services under an established franchise brand.

Myth #2: Franchises Will Make You Go Bankrupt

Another myth some entrepreneurs have about franchises is they assume you need to pay high upfront fees followed by hefty regular payments. Again, the truth is different from the misconception!

Most franchises offer a low-cost route to starting the business, and the franchisers don’t “tax” franchisees with eye-watering regular licensing fees. There are plenty of franchise opportunities out there, so you’ll find out that offers the best deal for you.

Myth #3: You Have No Freedom

Decent franchise opportunities only lay down the basic framework for the deal. Typically, you’d need to brand your business in the same way as the franchisor and use their corporate colors for all marketing and literature.

Apart from that, franchisees typically have lots of room to add their individual touches and make the brand memorable in the area they wish to cover. Plus, you have complete control over who you hire and fire and the day-to-day managerial decisions you need to make.

Myth #4: You Can’t Set Up a Part-Time Franchise

Why not? Did you know that many people set up businesses that they operate part-time and work in a regular 9-5 job the rest of the time? There’s no reason why you can’t set up a part-time franchise.

When you do more research into franchise opportunities, you’ll notice that the business model gets explicitly designed for people to start it on a part-time basis before committing to a full-time schedule as the brand grows in their areas.

Myth #5: Franchises Restrict Profit Potential

Lastly, it’s worth keeping in mind that franchise opportunities only lay out the ground rules for setting up a business using the franchisor’s branding. There are no restrictions on how much profit you can make in the business.
If you think about it, franchisors want you to make lots of profit because it helps them better promote their franchise ideas to other prospect franchisees like yourself!