There is no doubt that the past four to six weeks have been tough on everyone right around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic that is currently in play. COVID-19 has taken many lives and threatens to take many more over what will inevitably be a long-term guest in our daily lives.
However, as they say, the show must go on.
Many companies have had to close their doors, lay off staff, and stop operating for an unknown period. Unprecedented! (how many times have you heard that in the last month?).
Here are five creative examples of how you can innovate your business and position yourself well for the post-coronavirus market.
1 – Real Estate
Virtual walk throughs, auctions by online video meeting, more sales by negotiation in lieu of auctions and managing inspections whilst complying with social distancing rules. With minor adjustments to how you deliver rental management services and help connect buyers and sellers during this tough time.
There are still lots of properties selling in the market, with a clearance rate of 85% on the 246 Auctions reported (compared to 790 at the same time last year at a clearance rate of 57%). Perhaps there are less sellers currently, or less tyre kickers?
2 – Movie Cinema
Evo Entertainment in Texas converted their parking complex into a drive-in movie theatre to help combat social distancing rules. It opened a fortnight ago to Spider-Man Homecoming and every show since has been sold out. Nice!
3 – Mobile Escape Rooms
Mobile escape room? Escape mail! Transitioning to a monthly subscription, mailing out packages to keep the whole family entertained whilst restrictions and lock downs continue.
4 – Shoes
Made shoes yesterday. Making masks today. Enough said!
5 – Muay Thai gym
This one a personal story of mine. From Monday 23rd of March, gyms were among a wide range of businesses that had to close the doors from 12:00pm.
Most gyms are run owned and run by a person or small business.
WFC is where I have been going to the gym since early 2018 before giving their Muay Thai bootcamp a crack in early 2019. Best decision ever!
But its now March 23rd at 12PM and the gym is officially closed.
March 23rd at 4PM and there is now a private Facebook group for those who haven’t cancelled their membership
March 24th at 7PM and the first online training video is released. A 27-minute post produced video that has demonstrations of what to do, timer, etc. Two more videos following on the 25th and 26th to give everyone something to work on.
March 27th at 6PM – the first Facebook Live training from one of the coaches from home.
A schedule is released for more live training with a different coach for each day. March 30th to April 9th sees two full weeks of 10 classes run by the same coaches we would normally be showing us techniques in the gym.
April 13th – live two-way training.
Being such a technical sport, being able to provide feedback is key to improvement. There are heaps of exercises out there that you can do at home with no feedback that will give you a good workout. Improving in Muay Thai is both technique and fitness based.
Innovation is the key!
These five examples are why the businesses (both big and small) will thrive once the coronavirus pandemic subsides. They are contributing to improving peoples lives in a positive manner through innovative tech and non-tech solutions that keeps them in market. This shines through in what they deliver and makes you feel good for consuming/buying.
If you can sustain supporting the local businesses around you, it will get things back to normal quicker. Things are changing enough as it is, try to keep things as normal as possible.
