A lot of people say that there is never a time as good to start a new venture as in a time of crisis.
Maybe it’s true. I don’t know. But lets assume it is. What are the things that makes it different and perhaps even better?
Normally, most would suggest that the reason it is a good time to start is that you can put pressure on the ressources you need to get going; vendors are hungry for cast and talent may not have the opportunities and bargaining power they had before.
I am not sure that goes for the tech sector, though.
But what I do find interesting is when it comes to customers and customer relationships. Maybe that’s where the real differentiator is?
When I look at my own personal spending patterns during the Covid-19 pandemic, they have largely gone one way: Down. I have cut out a lot of the day-to-day personal operating expenses – the little guilty pleasures – that I have been used to. Simply because I haven’t been able to venture out in the same way.
Now that my spending has been cut back, I am using the opportunity to assess my future spending with bigger scrutiny. I think more about what I spend the money on, and I think more about making sure that I get the value I pay for. And that I relentlessly cut out excess spending.
Case in point: I have become a cable cutter. Goodbye flow TV and big packages. Hello, select streaming services. Net effect? Minus 50 percent in cost. Per month.
I am not assuming that I am the only one who have experienced this. And let me add more to it:
It’s not that I think I am worse off than before. I think what I have now suits my needs better and more precise, and all the stuff I have cut out were things, I could easily live without.
Let’s go back towards the point about a time of crisis being a great time to start a new venture:
Perhaps it is not so much about the short term propensity towards trying to squeeze your suppliers, partners and employees.
Perhaps it is more about making damn sure that you deliver real value to your customers based on what they define as real value – not you.
Maybe it is about making sure that every single time one of your customers contemplate whether they can live without what you’re delivering, they will quickly move on to the next item on their list, because what you’re doing is an evident ‘keeper’.
If you get that out of starting a new venture during a time of crisis, I think you might just have something that will not only be able to make it through the crisis but actually thrive during and afterwards.
You’re welcome.
(Photo: Pixabay.com)