Businesses Need A Re-Startup Mentality To Help Them Thrive In The New World

For businesses to enter the post-pandemic, new world with the right mindset that will set them up for success, we need to look at adopting Re-Startup Mentalities.

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The COVID-19 crisis has turned the whole world upside down. There are some truly terrible things happening with both people and businesses being dramatically impacted – some of those impacts will be ones that they may never recover from.

For those businesses and individuals, I can only offer words of condolences for the challenges they are going through. For others there is still hope – they have been impacted but not to the point of no return. The chips are down for sure, but there are still some opportunities out there if we look hard enough.

We feel that for those who can stay in the game and can weather the storm, new thinking will be required. 

I think we are going to hear a lot of the “R” word. That’s right, “recovery”. 

Recovery, and bouncing back which obviously make sense but is based in a negative way. Recovery means that things aren’t going well and getting back to where you were, rather than the opportunity of reinvention through innovation.

I don’t think that is the best mindset to have in these time and that’s why we are approaching our work with our clients with a “Re-Startup Mentality”, as the similarities of this situation with the challenges business face in a startup phase are plentiful.

We wanted to bring an optimistic idea, one focused on opportunity, reinvention and growth. We call it a Re-Startup Mentality; new thinking, ready for a new world.

So, let’s explore that idea by looking at the similarities and differences that face us now, and what I remember from the mindset I had in the early stages of business startup.

What’s on this page?

Click on the headings to head to the sections.

 

Similarities To Being A Startup

Unknowns/opportunities 🤷🏻‍♂️

Just like in a business startup situation there are so many unknowns. In the startup world, you are creating something new, and you have no idea about what it will look like (despite all the planning).

Obviously, the unknowns are for totally different reasons but you are faced with lots now. What will the new world look like? How will it change the business landscape? Because of that, there are lots of opportunities to be creative and do something different, that will resonate with people in a completely different way. 

Speed of change/adaption 🏎

This situation is moving so fast. Constant changes and adaption are required, just like in the startup phase of a business. You are constantly changing what you are doing and how you are doing it as more and more of the reality becomes clear to you.

New things/learning 🧠

Because you are in uncharted territory the skills you had may not be the ones that are needed. Learning is going to be a major focus of the situation we are in right now. You may need to adapt your skillset, and fast! The ones who can, will be the leaders in the new world.

Failure/Fail fast - that's ok 👎

Everything you try will not be a huge hit straight away, or ever for that matter… sorry about that.

However, trying something and failing fast is better than putting off the decision in fear that it will potentially fail and never doing it. Even more so now in comparison to a standard startup situation, people are pretty accepting of failure right now.

Bulletproof confidence 🎯

Balanced with authenticity and vulnerability 

Doing anything new, or quicker, or faster makes you stand out. The more you stand out the more you put yourself up for judgement from other people. This is just a fact of life. Unfortunately, the feedback you get isn’t always fair, asked for, or correct!

Now more than ever you need bulletproof confidence to do what you think is right and push yourself to do new things and stand out. The caveat, or the balance to that statement, is to ensure that you are being you, your authentic self, and allowing yourself to be vulnerable at the same time.

Laser focused 🤩

Laser focus is required to ensure you get the job done. Because everything is new, there are no rules, processes, boundaries for what you are doing. This is super challenging as it means that distractions are plenty!

When I set up the business with Ant I put my Playstation away in a cupboard… I knew that I would find it too easy to distract myself! I have to report that my PlayStation is once again in a cupboard so I can be laser-focused on the task at hand.

 

I know that anything we do now will have a multiplier effect on our future and the more ground we cover now, the quicker we get to our new world and grow our business.

The Differences To Being A Startup (For Us At Least!)

A team 💜

Initially, it was just me and Ant. We were doing everything that we could to stay on top of everything. Now we’re a team of almost sixty people with a GIANT network of people around to lend a helping hand.

Overheads 🏢

In 2008 during our initial Startup Mentality, we worked around a dining room table in my parent’s house. Now, our three floors of the office cost a fair bit more.

Customers 🛒

Initially, we started with none… that’s how it usually works. But now we have lots. So during this “Re-Startup” phase, we have to ensure we maintain the current relationship with them, but also look at how that relationship will look in the new world. 

Our brand 😎

We’ve got a pretty established brand now. People actually know of us and they didn’t back in the startup days understandably. This is something we, and other businesses, can use greatly to their advantage and perhaps use to ensure our ideas reach more people quicker.

The Revenue Trajectory Curve

The pandemic has impacted everyone in some way and we’ve identified four core revenue trajectories that businesses are experiencing based on a host of industry insights from our wide range of clients. The purpose of this revenue curve framework is to help businesses identify where they and their competitors are, and focus on how to reach the recovery trajectory quicker as part of the Re-Startup Mentality.

🧠 Marketing activity suggestions per sector
💰 Financial impacts of each revenue trajectory
📊 Insights into client & competitor sectors

The Pandemic Change Curve

As this all kicked off, we set about identifying what the next six months were likely to look like for our business. This activity helped us identify quick wins to help us keep ahead, to inform our marketing activity and ultimately, to help our clients succeed within their sectors. Combining the Kubler-Ross grief cycle, and knowledge and mentality of growing business from a start-up.

Our Template For Planning For The New World

So, ourselves and yourselves have spent time reacting, responding and adapting to the changes to business from the pandemic, and now it’s time to plan for the future… for the new world. Taking all the learnings from the past couple of months, and using them to inform the growth and stability of your businesses recovery and future.

We made a template that helps you work out the answers to three key questions that’ll help you plan for this. We’ve done this as a business, and it’s how we’ll be moving forward into the new world. Download the template and work on this.

🤔 What behaviours will change?
🤔 How will the impact my business?
🤔 Where are the opportunities?

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