The COVID 19 global pandemic is now roughly about 5 months old. I remember when we got the order to shut down our operations. It was Friday the 13th (pun intended), and we thought this was going to be a minor speed bump on our path toward a great year. The Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center was gearing up for a very busy month. We were completely booked for the summer and the fall was beginning to fill up. We were convinced that we were going to be shut down for 2 weeks, 4 weeks tops! Boy, were we ever wrong!
Flash forward to 5 months, 13 days, 3 hours, 57 minutes and 32 seconds and we've been working very hard trying to make the most out of a tough situation. Everywhere you look there are businesses struggling to stay afloat. Some businesses were having a tough time pre-COVID and the challenges of running a business with only a percentage of your normal resources available made survival a longshot for many small business owners. Unfortunately, some business owners have not been able to survive the effects of this pandemic and when all is said and done, many more will also succumb to the problems faced during the crisis.
This week I want to share the concept of recognizing the opportunities that may be hidden within the challenges that you are currently facing. One of the hallmarks of the entrepreneurial mindset is the ability to see opportunity where most people only see despair or difficulty. The business owners who are going to continue to thrive after this global crisis is over are those who are using this as an opportunity to pivot and take their business into a direction that they never thought they'd go. They are finding new ways to solve problems and are reinventing themselves and their businesses and, therefor finding new ways to be successful.
Case in point: Teresa Dahl-Bredine is one of the owners and founders of the Little Toad Creek Brewery and Distillery (The Toad) in Silver City and Las Cruces. When the pandemic hit and most businesses were forced to close. Teresa and her team began thinking about ways to keep the business afloat and to keep the employees on the payroll. You might recall that there was a run on the grocery stores and people began to buy up everything that they thought they were going to need and then some. There was an active virus floating around and most stores were out of disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer. The Toad began manufacturing hand sanitizer out of the spirits available to them at the store. Before they knew it, hand sanitizer was a big part of their business. Teresa and Dave probably never thought they would be in the hand sanitizer business way back in 2012 when they started The Toad but they sure knew how to pivot when it was necessary. During the COVID 19 crisis they also began canning their brews and have added a whole new offering to their business.
Pivoting, or learning how to thrive, during a crisis is a concerted effort. It means doing the things that you may think are difficult today rather than putting them off until tomorrow. Knowing when to pivot is also a challenge and most of the time it involves a leap of faith. In order to pivot you must be confident in yourself and your operation in a way that helps you understand that you have the ability to overcome the unknown. This type of confidence comes from a history of doing the right things at the right times and having the courage to know you made the right decision.
Remember that there were a great number of millionaires created during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Those millionaires were created because they solved problems or developed companies that were beneficial to their customers. This global health crisis is no different. You will always make money if you are able to solve peoples' problems. Think about the problems that you can help solve and work on doing just that. Rethink your business if you have to and start to plan your pivot. Get ready to thrive!