Hey, everyone, I wanted to put this video together because as a small business owner there's a lot of uncertainty right now. I woke up this morning and saw a video from Gary Vee, where he broke down three key points to focus on during these are unprecedented times.

The points highlighted were pretty much common sense, but until someone points it out to you and you listen to it, you go like, yeah - it's a light bulb moment. So I wanted to share that with you because a lot of my audience, my clients, the people that I know and work with or even friends have small businesses.

The three key points are:  

• Perspective
• Patience
• Innovation

PERSPECTIVE

Perspective meaning you, your family and the people whom you care about, are healthy and safe during these times and just being grateful for that.

I am super grateful that people whom I care and love in my life are doing well. And we're all trying to stay safe, and we want everyone else to stay safe as well.

PATIENCE

We can't really do anything about what is going on from the infection and virus perspective. A lot of this is out of our control. I think we just got to hunker down and give it time for the situation to rectify.

All of our medical professionals are working super hard, and are doing the best they can in helping those in need. Organisations as well, as benefactors are working with scientists and researchers to scurry and fast forward in finding a vaccine.

Hence all we can do is just be patient and I think most of all, we have to be kind to one another, I think that's really, really important.

Let's remember that each and everyone one of us is going through this. Let try to practise empathy and kindness.

INNOVATION

The third point, which is the most important for small businesses, like myself, is innovation.

We have to start thinking about new ways to do things differently.  I've lost quite a bit of revenue in the next few months because a lot of our workshops, meetings, speaking gigs are cancelled or they're pushed to the end of the year. So we need to start thinking about how we need to do things differently that will help sustain our businesses and stay afloat.

I got on the phone with my team Wednesday morning and we had a brainstorm to come up with innovative and "out of the box" ideas in moving our business. For example, starting next week we are offering all our workshops and one on one consultations digitally.  

I know a lot of people go, that's common sense. But sometimes I think we need to hear it take the anxiety away and know that other people are going through it as well, and these are some of the things that we're doing. Just sharing those tips and tricks. And that's kind of what I'm doing right now.

We are kick-starting smaller, intimate workshops online because the other major opportunity during this downtime is having the time to upskill. I've signed up for a few workshops online myself to upskill and do some courses.

Hence we are going to provide that to our audience and community, specifically around the area of:

• how do you level up your personal brand through content - this is key now that you would need to step up and stand out as customers, audiences become more discerning with where they spend or invest their dollars.
• how do you level up your business brand - again you need to have a clear, concise offering and story giving you a unique positioning for customers to understand who, what and how your business will benefit them for them to invest in you.
• how do you streamline your business strategy during these times (in line with the 2 above points)
• what is the best sales strategy to reach your audience at this period,
• how to maximise your marketing and social media from a content perspective.

So we're going to start putting out smaller workshops that are limited to about six to ten people max, this would allow people to engage with each other. I think this helps greatly because when you are in quarantine, it gets isolating, you develop cabin fever and it can get really lonely.

So having these online communities get people who are in quarantine and isolation to start talking to each other, sharing and it creates social interactions elevating the loneliness. So if you are a small business owner, solopreneur out there, think of what your area of expertise is and what you need to do to innovate, to get to your customers, your audience and how you can give people value during this these hard times.

Remember, the big airlines and the big organisations will get bailed out even the big events, but for small businesses, we don't have that. So we really need to find a way to stay afloat.

Share this with people who you think might need a little bit of encouragement or some ideas, or drop me a note, for a bit more advice or you want to know what else we're doing. See my pro-bono offer below. I'd love to chat and help at this time and be of service and value to my audience, my community, and all of you out there.

We are committed to helping our #womenpreneurs, #femalefounders, #sidehustlers and more during these unprecedented times.

I am offering pro bono work for my consulting services to any female lead businesses going through these difficult and stressful times. We are living in very unpredictable times, #smallbusiness owners, #sidehustlers, #solopreneurs, #mumpreneurs, #womenpreneurs especially need to get through these very testing times by #innovating in your #business and staying afloat.

Shout out if you need a hand or need to chat to work through #ideas and initiatives to keep your businesses going. Click here to schedule a 20 min chat - https://calendly.com/shamila-gopalan/pro-bono-consulting

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We work for and with female leaders, womenpreneurs, side hustlers and corporate executives to craft compelling messages that ignite society, raise awareness of issues that affect women and elevate the profiles of awe-inspiring women.​

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