The Rise of the Pandemic Entrepreneurs
This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book series, The Rise of the Pan-Entrepreneurs.™ You can read more about the series, resources, and support tools at www.pan-entrepreneurs.com (coming April 23rd).
Preface: I write this with full respect for the global fear, pain, and sacrifice that is being experienced by us all. With a family member that has recently tested positive for Covid19, my heart, hopes, and prayers go out to you and your families, and to all the medical, grocery and logistics professionals that are putting themselves in harm’s way to provide for, and save, others. May God bless us all; and may this experience teach us to be kind to ourselves and others.
Over the last couple of months small business owners have been asking me where should their business be focused; what should they be thinking about to weather this global pandemic. As a business coach, angel investor, and lifelong entrepreneur my response tends to differ depending on the type of business and where the entrepreneur is at in the maturity of that business. But the “social earthquake” of March 2020 forced me to distill my reply down to a few key points that are common for millions of small businesses today.
I’ve decided to coin the phrase “Pan-entrepreneur(s)” to abbreviate the words Pandemic & Entrepreneur; to simplify the explanation of who these points may benefit. Dozens of extended conversations with entrepreneurs also taught me to frame my responses in the following 9 ways.
9 Principles of Pan-Entrepreneurship™
1) Build business Tribes:
Customers don’t want the job of managing dozens of new vendor and brand relationships; most of their previous go-to choices are closed for business (often by law) or their favorite brands are currently difficult to find. This is an opportunity for small, niche entrepreneurs to band together into tribes. Dealing with one tribe that offers a curated bundle of products is much easier for the customer than “scavenger hunting” for a handful of products on their own.
Cooperative bulk ordering, shared delivery, shared staff, joint marketing, collaborative social marketing, all become possible once business tribes are formed. Some tribes could be local, others regional, others international. It’s always been true, but there is strength in numbers.
2) Bundle with Empathy:
Customers need more than just your single product. Their lives and social patterns have been disrupted and they are working hard to “un-break” their normal lives. Bundling complementary products and services allows customers to make a simplified choice and the work of piecing together a solution becomes easier; they may even be willing to pay a premium so that they can do less work.
Some examples of “empathetic bundling” could be extremely practical, like soap with bath salts and a shower cap; but other examples might be more centered around a customers’ emotional need to feel rewarded for a tough week with cupcakes, a book from a local author, a bottle of wine and a small arrangement of flowers.
3) Everything will become Virtual:
During this Pandemic, the Church has gone virtual, public education has gone virtual, even courts. Live sporting events have gone virtual. Retail businesses will be forced to do the same.
Customers are used to chatting it up with their butcher or asking their specialty market owner which soap works best for their type of skin. Today almost every aspect of social commerce has changed. Pan-entrepreneurs will have to rethink their customer relationships pre and post-delivery of their products. There are currently 3.5 billion active smartphone users, most of which have some form of video calling (think Facetime or Google Duo) that is free for both the customer and the entrepreneur to use. Recently one restaurant owner started offering to Facetime his customers in an effort to help them place an order and then to video chat with them again after their meal, to ensure they enjoyed it.
4) Become a Micro Amazon:
Most customers are desperate to put their lives back together as it was pre-pandemic. Amazon temporarily prioritized household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products to its customers for 3 weeks. This means that customers that need those products will begin to look for new ways to get those products. If your business has a way to provide offerings outside of your core products provide them.
One brewery is offering Joy Boxes for customers to customize and have delivered, in a contactless manner, every Friday. Choices include local popsicles, cheese, mushrooms, ice cream, etc. Customers are developing a “Get it where you can find it” mentality, and that is a huge opportunity to take back a small amount of the market share that Amazon has gained over the last couple of decades.
5) Make (almost anything) Locally:
With store shelves, half-stocked and customers roaming from store to store looking for the items they need, locally made products are more in demand. From farmers’ markets fresh veggies, craft businesses making everything from face masks to hand sanitizer, local now means,” Easily accessible and available” to customers (see point above as an example).
Soon national retailers will be looking for local suppliers that can quickly and consistently supply items that have become difficult for them to source or keep in stock. Imagine having a ten-year, big-box type lease on a 50,000 square foot space (or maybe hundreds of them), that is now often empty of customers and filled with half stocked shelves that once held big brand products. At some point, as the manager, you are going to consider how to restock your shelves, too draw customers back into your store; and if that means working with local producers, that can make and deliver locally (lower risk), then so be it.
6) Stake your claim to new Markets:
In a crisis, customers can become indifferent about how they source a product or service they need or want. Often brand loyalty (relationship) goes out the window. If you have an opportunity to provide a solution or solve a problem for a customer, even if it’s outside of your primary product focus, DO IT! Earn new customer relationships; Stake your claim to those potential new markets.
There are a number of examples of this “customer shifting” happening daily. Over 600 distillers have moved into the hand sanitizer business in less than 30 days, just in the US. In the past, they sold products to alcohol distributors, today their customers are governmental and non-governmental agencies, municipalities and national retailers.
7) Help your customers be Benevolent:
Allow your customers to be human and gracious. Think about allowing the customer to pay what they can, to pay on a sliding scale, or to pay it forward. Customers need a way to feel like they are supporting others, either indirectly or directly. They will likely trust you to curate their charity with those most in need. Helping them understand how their charity has benefitted others could potentially take your customer relationships to a new level. At that point, pan-entrepreneurs move beyond just being a product maker or supplier and into the mind space of a partner in their social benevolence and personal joy.
8) Enable Experiences (Virtual and Real World):
Human beings need rituals (going to worship, playing with their dog in the park, visiting their local bar) and social traditions (visit with family members, watching their local sports team, attending their children’s PTA meeting) to feel important, needed and productive. Many, if not most have been broken or put on hold.
This provides an opportunity for small businesses to move from simply providing products to providing customers with new experiences. There are examples of entrepreneurs that can no longer allow customers to eat-in at their restaurants, that are now providing home meal kits for those customers so that they can have the same food products, but the customer and their family cook the food themselves at home. It seems reasonable that the entrepreneur would not only offer the kit but also an online way for the kit-enabled customers to “cook with the chef” so that the end product looks and tastes the same as it would if the customers had consumed it at the restaurant. Pan-entrepreneurs will have to become comfortable with empowering their customers with support, insights, encouragement and new skills.
9) Service the Authentic Demand:
Right now, most customers don’t need a new mink coat, a new Rolex watch or a new Gucci handbag. Their minds are in other places; They’re worried about their family’s health, paying next month’s mortgage, etc. But they are deeply clear about what they feel they need, and that can change from day-to-day. This is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to practice focusing on only providing products that have true “Authentic Demand”.
I hope these nine (9) points are helpful and empowering to the millions of entrepreneurs working daily to survive and prosper through these uncharted times. Please share this liberally and remember to support and encourage your local pan-entrepreneurs.
Copyright© 2020 James Harris