The best opportunity for your startup survival in a recession and pandemic is to avoid making rash decisions. This article provides some tactics and strategies to manage during these difficult times
Minimise
There is every chance that when the pandemic hit your revenues reduced substantially. Which may well have sent you looking for funding sources to help you cover the shortfall.
Before you seek out any more money from VCs or Investors consider all the costs that you can cut, reconsider the minimum viable product you are offering and what your customers really value. Skinny it all down to ride through the tough times with a plan.
Switch
If your business is struggling is there an alternative side of the service coin that you can deliver. An example of this is how Israel were world leaders in building Cyber Weapons but then many of the same workers moved to build Cyber Security, today Israel dominates the Cyber Security industry.
There may also be ways to actually cooperate with your competitors to survive, it has the potential to be good for both of your organisations as you bring both services together and customers together, perhaps an uneasy alliance can turn into a powerful opportunity.
Remember the enemy of my enemy is my friend…
Rebrand
This is a much more radical solution, a total refresh of the company image. With so many organisations needing to transform to fully online. Employees are working fully remote. Restaurants have moved to takeaway only. Bars have become bottleshops.
Your transition may be a temporary one for instance the iconic magazine Time Out has temporarily rebranded as Time In as a representation that life has changed during the pandemic.
Seek Help
It may be worth investigating a business mentor someone who can help you establish a strategy and plan to navigate your startup survival over the next 18-24 months. You can find a lot of expertise business groups, universities (especially in the MBA faculty). Talk to your friends with relevant experience – there is lots of really relevant advice available out there
Build your professional network ask to be introduced to people who might be able to help expand your network and lean in to be a better networker.
There is also a wealth of online courses available for free right now so use the opportunity to re-skill wherever you can.
Take Action
Startup Survival requires you to have a plan, don’t try to ride it without building contingencies if for how you will respond to changes in the market, demand for your products, your finances and your workforce.
Synopsis of an article from Fast Company 5 Less than obvious techniques for startup survival during the pandemic By Nahla Davies Published: 7th October 2020 https://www.fastcompany.com/90561402/4-less-than-obvious-techniques-for-startup-survival-during-the-pandemic