8 ways women entrepreneurs can turn Covid crisis into opportunity

By Vertica Dvivedi

Leaders are accustomed to steering from the driving seat, however, the current testing times require entrepreneurs to manoeuvre multiple channels that have uncertain twists and turns.

It is time to be highly alert, resilient, and adaptable. Your response to circumstances today will decide your company's future. Kiran Bedi, Lt. Governor, Puducherry, explained this well during a recent appearance on ‘The Vertica Dvivedi Show’. "Accept the reality as it is. It will help you get prepared for a bounce back,". Listed below are some of the ways I think women entrepreneurs can turn a crisis into opportunity.


Form a crisis management team
Navigating a crisis is better with a team. A crisis management team should include the heads of various departments as well as their key people.Roping in external advisors for areas outside your expertise can also be helpful. There are several benefits of creating this team - accountability, focus on solving rather than deliberating, and clear responses with solutions to a problem. People in this team should be more open to learning, training, and responsive to situations. This team can become your biggest strength to navigate this crisis and an asset for the future.

Channelize your internal & external communications effectively
Honesty and transparency in communication will be paramount at this stage. Clarity is the key. Make it clear to everyone that the situation is fluid and the company’s priorities may shift to adapt. It is time to call the vendors before they call you for money to convey how you will be able to pay. You can ask for support and in return support them. A robust and transparent communication system will help dismiss the everyday bottlenecks. Clarity also helps employees, vendors, and other stakeholders get and provide support during crises. Clear communication will help in decision making, make it clear who can be relied on or not. This learning can be bitter, but it is better to face bitter situations head-on to plan for a better future.

Plan the contingency fund
Small businesses rarely have the luxury of a contingency fund to tide over crisis. With the Covid crisis, however, many businesses have learned the value of contingency funds. Since we have no idea how long this crisis will last, it is advisable to increase the liquid fund component for a few months. Your contingency fund provision should be the money required for running the business for X months, plus emergency fund for Y months. As the stock market is volatile, many might be tempted to use contingency funds to invest, however, my advice is that you strictly avoid this. '.

Forget your long-term plans, for now, plan for each day
Uncertainty brings fear and sometimes denial with it. I have seen many women leaders taking a backseat and hoping the situation would automatically turn back to normal. Yes, nothing is forever, but the current situation calls for courage and action. There may not be a ‘normal’ like we knew earlier, so it is best to adjust to this new normal. This is the time to embrace uncertainty. Keep your long-term goals for the future and without wasting time, put all your energies into the present. Be agile in shifting priorities and act as per the problem. Uncertainty can be dealt with flexibility, agility, focus, and fluidic preparedness. Many of you will come out of this successfully, with the best ideas of your lifetime and the best of performance. Opportunities sometimes come in the garb of a crisis.

Fuel the catalysts for recovery
So, what could be the catalysts for recovery? Well, you are the most critical catalyst for the recovery of your business! Many organizations are under-utilising their resources due to a lack of clarity on the part of their leadership. Every step that can take your company to recovery starts with your clarity. Press the refresh button, accept the reality, and embrace the uncertainty, for action. The next step is to mobilise your company's strengths to re-align every asset for recovery.

Use Covid-19 as the watershed moment for shifting business online
We know most B2B businesses have in the past relied on real-time face-to-face meetings. The Covid-19 outbreak has led to less interpersonal communications.. Women entrepreneurs have often wished to do business meetings virtually to strike a better balance with work. Use this opportunity to get accustomed to the new normal and shift your work online. There has been no better time than today for this shift.

Right time to push B2B e-commerce
Unlike B2C, B2B businesses have been more about handshakes and offline meetings. The outbreak of Covid-19 has paved the much-needed way for the growth of B2B e-commerce. In the last five years, B2B startups in India have more than trebled from 900 to 3,200 and the numbers are growing. Don’t miss the bus to ride the B2B success in e-commerce.

Re-calibrate your sales funnel for digital leads
We do not know when the Covid crisis will be over and it will be fine to meet without social distancing. However good your sales channel, for several reasons the new normal demands getting even better. First, the current client pool may reduce their requirements . This will require you working twice as hard to understand how to generate demand from new clients post understanding their business needs. Use digital tools extensively and effectively for communicating, establishing your expertise, and recreate sales funnel to generate leads.


(The writer is the host of The Vertica Dvivedi Show, Founder, WADE ASIA and Co-Chair, Women Entrepreneurs Committee, PHDCCI)