“Some of the greatest business ideas are going to come from this time.”
Meg O’Hara
As challenging as these times have been, I firmly believe that we will look back and know that some amazing ideas and great solutions will have been born this year.
Meg O’Hara – is a Canadian landscape artist who I listened to on this podcast. Meg was best known (pre-pandemic) as a landscape artist focused on creating commissioned art for ski resorts, lodges and private ski chalets. You can only imagine what happened to her business last March. Yep, every last order disappeared literally overnight as all the ski resorts in North America shut down. Turns out that commissioned art is one of the first expenses to be cut from a budget.
I could identify with this story so much. In addition to my work as a Fractional COO with my clients (helping CEOs create and implement strategize to optimize their business), my business partner and I were due to open a beautiful new coworking space – La Suprema Works & Events – last March.
Just when everyone was getting their “work from home” orders, we were slated to open a full-service office space for entrepreneurs and remote workers. The timing felt and was terrible. When we finally got our Certificate of Occupancy in May, we had just five of our eighteen offices reserved, as most of our early reservations had backed out. There were days when our 5,000 square foot building had zero occupants.
Which brings us back to Meg O’Hara.
Last March, she asked herself, what problem is being created by this pandemic that I have a solution for?
And the answers to that question, helped grow her business today past what she was doing before. In fact, she sees many more opportunities than she had previously.
For us, we had to tally up our core competencies, check-in with our values and ask ourselves the same question as Meg. And we did.
We were a brand new, completely renovated space in a historical building with all new HVAC. We were mask-compliant and instilled strict cleaning protocols and social distancing measures. We installed new filters in our HVAC system and created Covid safe touchpoints throughout the space.
What was the problem created by the pandemic that we had a solution for?
It turned out not everyone was able (or wanted) to WFH – Work from Home. Slow internet, sharing a desk with a partner or children, or even needing to meet with clients or colleagues, increasingly became a problem. And those that were looking for an office or coworking space, put health and safety at the top of their list.
Slowly, new members showed up.
We set a goal to have all the suites reserved by October 1 and achieved that goal on September 30. You can hear more about our journey in this podcast.
With 2021 now upon us, you may still be tweaking your 2021 business and looking into 2022. Consider asking yourself and your team the question, what are all the problems created by the pandemic that we have a solution for?
This question is such a great reminder that going back to basics can create amazing results. Even in a pandemic.
If you’re unsure of how to make this happen for your business, I’d love to help. You can schedule your free Strategy Call with me here.
I guarantee that you will have at least one actionable solution that you can implement quickly to make 2021 one of your best business years yet.
Wishing you great solutions!
