AMID all the economic difficulties, as well as the growing anxieties brought about by the effects of the pandemic, there could be a spark of hope, a silver lining ahead of us.
Looking back in history, Geoffrey James recalls in an Inc.com article “5 Reasons Now Is the Best Time to Start Your Own Business” that Fortune 500 companies like GE, General Motors, IBM, Disney, HP, Hyatt, Trader Joe’s, FedEx, and Microsoft had their beginnings during hard times. “A lousy economy didn’t stop their founders,” he says.
Closer to home, SM Founder Henry Sy Sr. started his company by selling shoes after World War II. He then established a shoe store, which grew into a department store, evolved into a chain of retail stores, shopping malls, and eventually into the dynamic conglomerate it is today.
He encountered many challenges along the way, but with vision, hard work, and optimism opened his first shopping mall in 1985 amid the political and economic crisis the country was undergoing, and prudently grew his company, unfazed by global events like the Asian crisis.
It is said that in the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity. This is perhaps why James believes that this is the best time to start a small business. He cites five reasons:
1. There are unmet needs everywhere
James recalls that a famous entrepreneur once told him that, “every time you hear a person swearing when using a product or service, it’s an opportunity to sell them something better.”
Or, he wittily puts in another way, “misery loves companies.” James notes that “while there are some products (like smartphones) that satisfy needs that people didn’t know they had, most successful products fulfill needs of which people are potentially aware.”
With plenty of pain—and complaints—out there right now, there are also “endless opportunities to create sustainable businesses that help people cope with this perfect storm of disruptions.”
2. There’s a huge pool of available talent
When businesses and industries collapse, unemployment grows. This means millions of valued, experienced, hard-working employees are in the market for a new job.
Under these circumstances, “creating a business that hires people is a good deed on its own merits. And with so much talent to choose from, you should be able to assemble a team that can take on any challenge.”
3.Marketing has never been cheaper
As businesses encounter difficulties or eventually close shop, they naturally lessen or stop advertising. Inevitably, this means that ad rates may go down.
This, James says, means that “it won’t cost your start-up all that much to achieve local, national, or even international visibility.”
4.Potential competitors are in disarray
While James says some large companies like Amazon or Zoom lucked out because they provided a product or service that exactly matched a major need resulting from the pandemic, others have not been so lucky.
This means that “you can start a company even in a market that has dominant players without worrying about them squishing you like a bug because, frankly, they’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
5.The post-Covid recovery is inevitable
As awful as things are today, “there will inevitably come a time when the pandemic and resulting depression will be over.”
James believes that it is then that “companies that will have adapted to thrive in these troubled times will be perfectly positioned to take off when the nightmare is over.”
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chairman.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.
Image credits: www.pexels.com | by Ketut Subiyanto
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