“The Covid19 pandemic has taught businesses across the globe valuable lessons:
Lesson 1: Expect the unexpected
Lesson 2: Don’t sit on your laurels
Lesson 3: Adapt quickly to unforeseen situations
During the two years of the most severe lockdowns (some countries are still periodically in Covid lockdowns) the UK watched as businesses simply shut down as they could not be effective if they were not physically open.
We are all aware that travel & tourism were hit the hardest by the restrictions the height of the pandemic put in place, whereas other businesses (especially the independent sector) adapted quickly to a rapidly changing situation.
One such company was MasterPeace (a Deborah Meaden ‘Dragons Den’ investment) which launched in 2019.
The MasterPeace business model was London’s first dedicated mindful painting experience, with an initial focus on in-studio classes, hosted in the MasterPeace Belgravia studio. (1)
In the wake of Covid-19 the business had to adapt & adapt quickly. From an in-house painting experience, MasterPeace rapidly developed the ‘At Home Art Kits’ enabling the young business to survive & thrive, reaching an online/home-based audience they never knew they would need to reach so quickly.
During the height of the pandemic & beyond, MasterPeace has grown to reach customers in 17 different countries around the world & their journey has subsequently been celebrated on the pages of the Daily Mail, Evening Standard, the Mirror, Forbes, Tatler & more.
MasterPeace is just one example of companies making savvy & rapid changes to their business models & have, in challenging times, managed to diversify quickly & been successful.
One of the other business models to become very popular from the pandemic is the pop-up mobile eatery & or street food experience.
A lot of restaurants tried to run their businesses as take aways during the height of pandemic, but some found they could not function on reduced staff & reduced access to certain foods/catering necessities, whereas, street food vendors being used to working in small teams, in small spaces, saw opportunities to cash in on a challenging situation.
These are just two examples of how businesses managed to diversify during a challenging situation. However, on the other side of the Covid lockdowns, the UK now finds itself facing more challenges; the fallout from Brexit & the impact it continues to have on imports/exports & the cost-of-living crisis.
Having just about weathered the Covid storm in the business I share with my partner in life & business, we are now facing additional challenges.
Challenge 1: Although we do not move goods back & forth into Europe, what we have noticed is that parts we do need from Europe are taking much longer to get here due to import changes at borders. Whereas parts from Germany may have take 2-3 days to arrive pre-Brexit, we are often seeing 2-3 week lead times & on top of that, we often are charged an additional import duty on certain items.
Challenge 2: The cost-of-living rise in the UK has affected everyone. However, when you are self-employed & running a small independent business, unable to physically sell anymore hours in a week for the service you provide, but the cost of everything around you continues to rise – something has got to give, right?
Wrong!
The title of this blog ‘Diversify or die!’ is my new mantra. Through a year of tantrums & tears & trying to fathom how on earth we would survive, we are now about to diversify & enter the world of eCommerce.
The business I run with my partner is based on physical services for our customers & with that comes a finite amount of hours per week we can practically invoice (there are only two of us – Daniel is the technician, I run the business around him) So, if we cannot sell anymore hours, we need to look at selling something else & in our case, this means motorcycle parts & associated accessories.
Daniel has always been keen to sell physical items alongside the physical services we offer. However, we are a destination business & therefore have limited footfall.
Therefore, with the world being mostly online, this is where we are headed.
We have already employed the services of our web designer to start the process of developing an eCommerce side to our website. I have spent the past few weeks reaching out to suppliers to develop dropshipping agreements & we are looking at a small investment to enable us to purchase some small parts to hold on stock.
I cannot lie, it is a lot of work, especially when Daniel & I are already at maximum capacity. However, with our focus now clearly facing forward, the option of an eCommerce bolt on to our current business model should – we hope, give us more scope for the future & with other projects we are currently developing, ultimately give us a pensionable product to either sell on in the future, or scale back to the online section of our business & continue into our senior years.
‘Diversify or die’ sounds a little dramatic, but when you are in business it really is just that & if you don’t change & adapt, you can get left behind”
Written by Katy-Jane Mason Executive Assistant @ Virtually Smart Ltd. Business partner at mono motorcycles. Content Manager at Dolphin N2.
