Lessons I Learned About My Small Business — and Myself — in 2020
/Do you feel as if you are emerging from a great fog and seeing the blue sky for the first time in a long time, like I do? As things started to shut down in March 2020, I realized our team needed to shift how we were servicing our clients and make it a priority to help them figure out how to pivot their offerings immediately. My goal was to keep my whole team working through the crisis and to keep 100% of my clients.
Recently, I’ve had time to take stock of what my business has experienced during the past 10 months and I’d like to share some of the ways I stayed on task to achieve my goals and stay sane during this time:
Stay confident. I entered the pandemic with determination, not fear, knowing that I had built my company lean, nimble and built on strong pillars and this would keep us going strong until the crisis lessened.
Stay connected. Through the pandemic, I continued to network and reach out to those I knew would provide me with support. It’s crucial during difficult times to continue to invite people into your circle who can be your sounding board and cheerleaders. I dug in and made sure I was making time to join virtual Zoom networking meetings, call on clients and check in on treasured contacts.
Stay organized. I made sure I had a To Do list for me and my team every week but kept it supple enough to change if need be. I had my team write down weekly goals and set up weekly meetings with clients to stay in touch and in the loop with our clients’ needs.
Stay true to your mission but...stay flexible. This last one is probably good advice for any entrepreneur, even when you’re not in the middle of a global pandemic. Shift and pivot when you need to. Keep an open mind and know when to put your head down and move forward and when to come up for air and reassess. I strove every day to be the reed and not the oak.
I’d love to hear what you have been doing to keep strong and run your business during this challenging time.
Jessica Maarek, is the Founder and Owner of Red Root Marketing. This agency specializes in social media marketing for small businesses and nonprofits and focuses on community driven content creation and engagement.
