If you are like me, you are sitting around, home alone for weeks on end, wondering what in the hell happened to 2020? I had such high hopes for a great 2020. Then March came and it all came to a screeching halt! Well not all, but the plans I had did.
Please don’t get me wrong. I am not complaining. I am healthy. My parents are in another state but they are also healthy. My current clients have been affected but they know the importance and value of staying in contact with their own customers and clients. There are people and businesses in far worse shape than me. This is not a pity party.
Pivot
Nevertheless, we have all found out very quickly that we needed to pivot and fast if we are to survive. And so we did. People who worked in offices now had to learn to work from home. In-person meetings now became online meetings via Zoom or Google Meet. Some had to balance working at home with home-schooling their children. Even newscasters were (and some still are) working from their homes.
Some businesses moved up the adoption of online tools for their business. Now out of necessity rather than just a cool new idea. Companies that had adopted the use of cloud computing already, had a leg up on those who were strictly using software based on their own computers.
What is normal, really?
Whether your business is an office, a restaurant, a salon, a store, a hotel, or a non-profit, every aspect of how you do business has changed and will likely continue to change for the foreseeable future due to this pandemic. And not everything will go back to “normal” or the way it was. No, many of the new ways we have adopted will stay in place, maybe even after the pandemic passes. We will have become accustomed to doing things a certain way and will have decided in some cases that the new way is actually better!
Pivot or perish, it’s your choice
In the meantime, we will all adapt to this new way of life out of necessity – as our means of survival. And the hard truth is that some of our business friends won’t survive. It is a sad, difficult pill to swallow considering that this is of no fault of theirs.
If you have not started your pivot, your adoption of new technology, skills, and this weird new way of life, I fear you might fall into that category. I encourage you to follow our blog, sign up for our emails, and reach out to us and others for help. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic lasted almost 2 years with waves happening throughout that time. With a vaccine 12-18 months away, some forms of what we are experiencing now will likely continue through 2021. Prepare, pivot, and survive, or perish at your own peril.