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4 Business Lessons I Learned From Coronavirus

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Hub Australia

30th June 2020

5 min. read

Shamila Gopalan is an experienced entrepreneur and founder of HerWit, a business strategy and leadership consulting and mentoring firm focused on helping female founders and leaders start, maintain, and scale businesses.

One of Hub Australia’s 2020 Flexi Impact members, Shamila has worked to adapt her business in response to coronavirus, learning lessons that she can carry forward and share with other entrepreneurs as they go through the same experiences.

Lesson 1: Innovate or fail

As business owners, we have to constantly be innovating, implementing new ideas and technologies where relevant, and learning new skills.

When I held a recent Hub Talks webinar on personal branding, I used a site called Mentimeter to allow for audience engagement, to prevent it from feeling too one-way or stagnant.

Coronavirus has proven that businesses need to be ready to adapt and learn new lessons if they want to survive and succeed.

Lesson 2: Refocus

It’s essential to take time out from working in your business and look at working on your business.

It’s hard because many of us are constantly hustling to gain revenues and traction, but this practice helps us to be aware of our blind spots and correct our direction.

Lesson 3: Know your why

Always go back to your ‘why’, the core of why you started your business journey – your purpose.

Building a business is very hard, and can be underestimated and undervalued in a world dominated by a handful of successful Zuckerberg’s and Bezos’.

As someone who’s now a third-time entrepreneur, I know it’s hard work and a long road to success, along with lots of frustration, anxiety, and worries.

Having your why at front of mind and channeling your passion and your skills with that purpose will keep you and your business moving forward.

4. Build a strong brand

There is a reason why Coca-Cola, Amazon, and Apple have such loyal customers and have become billion-dollar companies.

A strong brand stands the test of time and will withstand pandemics or recessions.

Many people get confused that marketing is just branding, when in actual fact it is the execution and communication of your brand, story, and purpose, demonstrating why people should buy from or choose you over someone else.

This is why it’s important to bring someone experienced in to help you with your branding and marketing, especially when it comes to building your brand (both business and personal).

In the case of entrepreneurs – the business is you and you are your business. It is as essential to build your business brand as it is to establish your own personal brand.

Adapting your business through coronavirus has been a hard experience for many entrepreneurs and business owners – if you want to learn more great lessons about a range of business skills from founders and experts like Shamila, head to www.hubaustralia.com/events.