Ninety ideas to help small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs survive an epidemic!
Johannesburg, South Africa (24 March 2020) – Marnus Broodryk, an entrepreneur and founder of The Beancounter, has just launched a free eBook for small businesses on how to survive the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“Because, what we have in the following 30 pages, is a selection of tips and tricks, collected from a community of business owners.”
When Broodryk originally put the call out for ideas to 27,439 business owners on his mailing list, he never knew how big the response would be. But, it was big enough that his team decided to make an eBook out of all of the best ones.
It’s a book of ideas, all of which are relevant in almost any era. Some of these may resonate with you. Some may be valuable to you. All should make you think. Because, if we want to see tomorrow, we need to get stronger today, and the easiest way to do that is to get stronger together.
“Thinking smarter will help us through this. You know what won’t? Naïve positivity. I saw a business coach posting “Ignore the virus and think positively!” which, in my mind, is just irresponsible. COVID-19 is very, very real, and we need to deal with it in reality. On the other side, we have unbridled negativity and doom, which won’t do any of us any good. We need to be realistic, have solid plans in place, and look for the opportunities.”
WhenBroodryk’s mailbox started filling up, rapidly, and he started reading through all the things South Africans wanted to share with peers, there were a few things that struck him:
1. If this epidemic happened before the ubiquity of the Internet (just 20 years ago!), it might have been a complete and utter disaster. But, with so much tech already in place, most industries can actually carry on with work as usual.
2. I have read so many, many sad stories about people closing down their business, retrenching their staff and losing everything. Each one is a tragedy, but I hope we can minimise this fallout in the weeks and months to come.
3. Despite the bad news, there are a lot of people trying to make new plans in a very trying time. South Africans are just like that. Ons boere maak planne. The rest of us can, too.
4. This is probably going to be the turning point for how we do business – people will be forced to do more things online, like conference, and meet and plan and sell – and might just see a new world opening. This is the start of a new way of work – one we’ve all been very interested in for a very long time. We just needed the push to make the change.
5. There must be a big call on society now to actively support small businesses. The corporates will be able to absorb the knock, but most small businesses won’t survive a month or two without active support. So, start buying small. Move service providers around. Every business we lose makes us all weaker.
Broodryk believes that despite everything, we must not let ourselves use this as an excuse for getting sloppy, or not getting stuff done.
“It’s so easy to fall into a trap of mediocrity when the world around us is lagging a bit. Now is not the time to do that. It’s never the time to do that!
Now is the time to give it your all, improve your business, get systems in place and come out better on the other end. And that’s what we hope this eBook will start. Feel free to share it with your friends, peers and colleagues.
Let’s do this thing! Act small, think BIG!”
You can download the free eBook by clicking here.
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Reading this article is all worth it! Thanks for sharing these guidelines on how small business survives this pandemic. It’s really applicable to all. Great job.
Hello there
I have tried contacting the Department of Labour and other government officials, to no avail. I have a friend who is a mobile dog groomer. May she operate under the country’s upcoming Level 4 Covid 19 restrictions? Don’t know who to ask anymore. Thanks.