You have decided to launch your business in 2020 and unfortunately Covid-19 has just stopped by! Now you are feeling like you are stuck! You are not able to prospect! You are dependent on external factors over which you have no control! Here are my 3 tips to launch your business during this crisis and experience this period with great serenity
Mom, I don’t want to go back to school! I prefer to stay at home and enjoy time with you and dad!
And yes, according to my 4 and 5 years old daughters, lockdown “it’s so cool”. They can enjoy both of their parents 24/7 at home, which never happens. However, they have a hard time understanding that we cannot play 24/7 with them. From time to time we still have to work. But it is not easy for children to get the message.
My advice to comfortably launch your business during the crisis!
Tip #1: reallocate the working time to make sure you can launch your business during the crisis
My first tip to launch your business during this crisis is to have a little conversation. It is sometimes a bit difficult, but it is essential for your project to survive.
For entrepreneurs who are in couple it will be with your partner. Yes, your spouse is the one who has a “normal” job. Yes he / she is feeding your family right now. No, it doesn’t make your creative process less important.
For those who are managing their children alone, it’s a little bit more complicated. Depending on the age of your child (ren), the conversation will have to be adapted. Anyway, the children must understand that your project is important to you. So they need to give you time to make it happen.
Awareness
Personally I took 2 and a half weeks to understand it! At the beginning, I was a little bit “crushed” by the schedule of my spouse. As a team manager he had a lot to do to reorganize the work of his colleagues. Partial unemployment, teleworking, new pace to find and new tools to use…. He had to make sure that his service was not too impacted by this lockdown. But after 2.5 weeks I finally came up to this conclusion:
My activity has completely been turned upside down and I must find a new rhythm to advance my business too !!!
At the end of the conversation we finally found an agreement. On my side, no more full time with the kids during the week. And I stopped managing exclusively the school, the meals and the maintenance of the house while he was working normally. Now we have reallocated the working time and the assignment of housekeeping.
So I work 2 mornings a week and during the all weekend. And the housekeeping activities are distributed more fairly. On his side my partner saves 1.5 hours not commuting each day. So he can take care of a few more things at home. That turns out well. Between the two of us, he is the best cooker by far. So we will all take advantage of his culinary talents more often!
Tip #2: surrounding yourself with the right persons
My second tip to launch your business during the crisis is also common sense.
Now that you have time to take care of your project, what should you do? First, it is essential to start by surrounding yourself with the right persons to maximize your effectiveness. But how to do it concretely?
When I decided to launch madi & co, I met several of my former colleagues or friends. What do they have in common? They started their own company few months or years ago. Almost all of them told me that they used the “Canvas” method to visualize their business model. So I did the exercise too.
One of the “sections” of the model is “key partners”. This is the one I encourage you to work on first. Surrounding yourself with the right people will allow you to save precious time, test ideas or concepts, gather great advice, in short, it’s a huge added value for you!
3 key partners to choose properly
Please note, this is a completely arbitrary list, which matches my situation but which will obviously have to be adapted to each of you:
- My banker. In my case, she presented offers specially adapted to entrepreneurs. Anything that saves you money is worth taking. Especially during lock-down period.
- My accountant. Like my banker, she has extensive experience with small businesses. Therefore she knows how to make herself available for questions, and we have a lot when we start. She also had a “package” for business creators. I consulted several professionals before finding her. She will be a key partner to save time and simplify the administrative part of the company management. Which is not my favorite part I admit!
- My counselor at the chamber of commerce. And yes, it is not because I work in the consulting field myself that I should not take advice from outsiders! I am fortunate enough to benefit from support from the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce thanks to their idea launcher program (https://nyuko.lu/) . In addition to the information on the “administrative” side, my counselor also shares her contacts and tips as soon as I need it and she doesn’t hesitate to challenge me on all the aspects of the company….perspective is also highly valuable.
Tip #3: Take time to do something else
My last tip to launch your business during the crisis is to find balance between all your activities.
The trap when you start your business is to work on the project as soon as you have a moment. And only work when you have a moment! Of course it can work for a while. But after a few weeks you might find yourself in a kind of strange stage. Mixture of frustration because you are not progressing as you want and exhaustion …. hello mental load!
One of my teachers kept harping on us: the key to survive the next two years is RWL!
RWL! What does that mean?
What is RWL? It’s the art of finding the balance between Rest / Work / Leisure
Well, I can only share this advice. I believe that the stress from starting a business is similar to preparing the competition examinations when I was a student. So remember to take care of your sleep and find an activity for you, which energizes you. Sot I sleep at least 8 hours a night.
In addition, I lock myself twice a week in my room to do an online sports class. This has only advantages:
- First of all it resources my body ….. and saves me from thinking about my business creation and the stress that comes with it!
- Then it refreshes my mind …. and helps me think. It’s a bit like falling asleep thinking about a problem and waking up with the solution. Our mind is no longer focused on the problems and ends up finding the solution on its own. I often have lots of ideas during or after sport sessions.
- Finally, it saves me from swelling before my eyes. My partner is now very fond of cooking sessions with children! He bakes cakes at least 3 times a week so I have to keep it up!
To summarize my 3 tips…
You got it now, the secret of a good business start-up during the crisis lies in one word: balance.
At different levels, this is essential for the success of your project. Finding the balance between the time you spend on our business and the time you spend with your family. The balance between this project that you are starting for your professional career and the other activities that resource you and make you feel good. And finally, the balance between focusing on its activity and opening its business toward the outside and its external partners.
For my part I try to participate regularly in skype, zoom and other online meetins to exchange on this subject and many others with new entrepreneurs like me.
And if you want to discuss your issues, your strategy or your projects and challenge it, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Good luck to all of you and I wish you plenty of success to launch your business during this crisis.