5 Reasons People Worry About Launching Business post COVID-19
We’ve all been part of the colossal trauma of the COVID-19 widespread pandemic and definitely, we’ve been involved in the global responsibility response to urgently contain the virus. The measures thought of, taken, or enforced by governmental entities worldwide have plummeted the Global Economy into the worst stagnation and decline since the end of World War II. That in its turn, has been proven since June 2020 by the World Bank predictions that – “The global economy will shrink by 5.2% this year”. This estimate has been calculated using the market exchange rate weightings.
Closure of businesses to aid inhibit the virus spread, has been the trend and has led to financial concerns and employees’ layoffs among communities despite the many selfless responses in the face of COVID-19 from most businesses. This is the primary human impact towards the virus which affected people’s mental, physical, and financial well-being.
No enough words in the world can describe how life has changed in the recent months, we have witnessed a remarkable economic ramification on financial markets and the already naïve, at all-time risk, businesses – specifically “Hospitality” that accounts for almost 10% of the global GDP. With a simple thought about it, you can imagine the loss of businesses in figures and the number of jobs at risk!!!
Now that a slight window of relief is sighted – with the positive updates in regards to the vaccine, the world is however still hesitant about life post-COVID and how businesses will function. For that, in this article – the thoughts are embodied to advance 5 enormous reasons people worry to initiate a business post COVID-19:
5 Reasons To Think About Before starting a business post covid-19
1.Access to finance
Entrepreneurs can’t just pour from an empty cup. This has been already a challenge for many entrepreneurs before the crisis – and now it tripled. The attack has now been on the real economy and entrepreneurs’ chances here are very few.
They are already facing the quotidian tension of living through the pandemic and struggling financially. They won’t be able to battle more with the ever-changing health and safety standards, managing potential customers, and spending money to structure their physical stores to be COVID-compliant. They are not ready enough to protect their own people from another worldwide pandemic!!! Especially that governmental entities in most countries, didn’t succeed to put guidance in place on how to survive and keep small businesses running.
2. The vulnerability of the WORLD
We used to worry about millions of things in our day-to-day life, but indeed, to some people and especially youth – their health wasn’t a concern due to their strong build-up and immunity. All of a sudden, we and the world we live in, turned out to be way more vulnerable than we thought.
Until the present moment – one can’t simply browse the web, turn on the TV, or open a magazine without petrifying over their government economic reports or companies’ news that are collapsing or about to.
Contrary to all the negativity, one can’t but salute the nations for their solidity response against the virus and to their unity and universal solidarity. However, the world after COVID crisis is not the same – we will not continue where we left off before the pandemic. The world is considerably changing and so does the people. The emotional loss of losing a business or a job should not be underestimated anymore.
3. The human consequences and the responsibility load
Certain governments have implemented some economic measures in place to guarantee jobs and wages. Yet, there has been a huge lack of clarity with many other governments about how people will manage loss of income and how businesses should respond to that and manage their own negative revenues.
Employees’ everywhere, business owners everywhere: generally, humans – fear of the unknown. The panic won’t just vanish post-COVID – on the contrary, it will increase among people as they all feel the need for security and safety.
Questions thought of and until now, no-one can relevantly answer them especially that the panic won’t just go post-COVID, such as:
- Will a startup company, be able to hold additional cost of psychological relief for employees’ in order to maintain their mental well- being, as that will affect the workflow neatness?
- How will a startup company, deal with employees panicking over money shortage by the time, a startup and can barely pay wages and overhead costs?
- How can a startup company, force control in the face of the human consequences? What kind of responsibility will the startup have towards it? Will the startup be able to invest in talent development?
- Is a startup company ready, post-COVID, to negotiate with clients that their losses due to the pandemic shouldn’t put it as a startup or a company in general, in a struggling position because they ask for reductions in rates?
4. The uncertain future
The extent of this crisis is really unprecedented and businesses won’t be back as usual. A crisis like COVID-19 demands quick thinking in the face of the future uncertainty. For businesses who didn’t shut down, they will definitely change how they will operate, they need change. Business lines will shift to a whole new level of technology that was not planned for 2020 but probably for 2030!
However, with so much on the table of entrepreneurs, they find themselves dealing with a dull analysis. They are just unable to make a decision due to the overthinking dose. They can’t focus their control and decision, especially that the business environment is changing at an unusually rapid pace, and governments introduce new regulations that impact business owners almost every single day!
5. The markets and the strong companies’ thriving comeback
How many businesses have been thriving breathe? Have been preparing for a comeback? Have been planning a continuity and have all the inside frustration and willing to convert it to non-stop productivity? Have been saving the productivity and greatness for when markets are back in operation? Are ready to build up cash reserves and reduce debts? Are willing to innovate and re-build what COVID has crashed?
Lots! Countless! Inestimable!
How can and how many entrepreneurs, with all the current circumstances, have the motivation to start up – this is in case they have all the resources and feasibility to?
Very grueling and very few will resist!
The COVID-19 pandemic has been another indicator of a world “so” in need of peace and trust. Entrepreneurs and normal people won’t, just that easily reform their thoughts and perception of the world the way it was pre-COVID. Right now, the entire world has one united goal, to reach the ZERO cases phase and maintain a peaceful state for a year or two in order to trust the world of investments again! The healing and rehabilitation post-COVID, is a long way as the experience wasn’t that welcomed and it damaged the world on so many levels.
The course of the virus is literally playing the biggest role in the current-medium and even long term. One thing is definite, despite if the virus will remain on our laps for long or not, events such as COVID-19 held and will keep holding the world’s direct and indirect attention for years in advance and will leave a legacy like no other.
Why? Because it simply changed our daily routines, our habits, our business lines and lives!
The question in our heads, is the change for the better or the worse? Well, that’s a mindset, but I can discretely explain it as “to the future” – it just made us skip years towards the future. As examples, remote learning has hit high scores – this will for sure keep a non-removable footprint in the history of education. Virtual meetings and video-conferencing have somehow eased the lives of most employees and aided in their time management pre-COVID agony. On the business’ levels, it has stimulated them to encourage remote working even post-COVID and that certainly will decrease their overhead costs.
It’s true that COVID-19 has changed our approach to mobility and virtuality. Everything tangible became intangible but with almost same effect – what if that was just a sneak-peak or a fast-paced movie into the future of technology of all industries?
Despite all the negativity, drawbacks, and risks, my word to entrepreneurs is – do not give it up now, if you don’t take the risk to start up, someone else will. Find and concentrate your peace of mind and accordingly you will find potential customers’ peace of mind – find the added peace of mind value you can provide with your planned services or goods.
Invest your energy, your thoughts and your time, to all the possible ideas to find your spot. Learn how to be agile to respond to the challenges you face while you start up. Believe you will succeed and you shall.
– Eliane Abou Serhal
