Why The Quarantine Time Is The Best Incubation Period For Your Startup Growth

The world is going through a rough phase. We are experiencing an unprecedented turn of an event so fierce that it has left all our plans, visions and goals rattled for the coming weeks and months. And this domino effect of consequences is across industries, sectors and companies of all sizes.

Honestly, the moment you switch on your television, all we get to hear are negative news on the infection counts and death tolls. These chunks of information are finding their ways into our portable devices through instant messages, video links, calls, notifications and more.

However, it’s in the time of calamities that one should attempt to count the blessings as well. We’re privileged if we have a roof over our head and a meal at our table. If we belong to this blessed mass portion of people, then it’s definitely on us to make it better for those around us as well.

One of the smallest ways we could do this is by staying indoors and continue to put in our efforts on doing our job so the economy has little or minimal impact once we get through this. Isolation is the best way to prevent the increase of this viral onset, which has no official cure as such.

And as business owners, this time of isolation is also the best time to get back at our work that needed crucial revisits. This is the time we could all work on our long-overdue tasks like working on our startup, coming up with that business plan, preparing launches, preparing our pitch and doing more to ensure our solid foundation today stands the test of time tomorrow.

Bewildered?

If you look at the life history of some of the most enlightened souls, you would notice that they all attained a state of nirvana or perpetual bliss only after they isolated themselves from the rest of the world. Drawing parallels to our current scenario, time has offered the best gift it possible could – time.

From our daily hustles of balancing two jobs, taking care of the family and household chores or just struggling to maintain a business that was only going downhill, we now have the break and time required to channelize all our energy and focus on finally resurrecting it.

Isolation is indeed a blessing in disguise as we can finally afford introspection of ourselves and our business, which would only yield resourceful insights. Apart from the fact that you are helping curb the infection by staying home, you also have the time to work on your startup and take it to where it deserves.

There are a lot of ways and aspects you could look into your startup with all the time you have right now.

• Firstly, you have additional time with you now as you don’t have to commute to work right now.
• You feel healthy and fresher because you’ve been eating at home and not feeding yourself junk or fast food.
• You finally have the time to work out, read or indulge in your interests that would keep you fresh.
• You also have the entire 24-hour cycle with you to organize and stay focussed.

In short, you now have the power to transform whatever you touch and we recommend starting it with your business. If you’re still unsure of how you could go about it, here’s our step by step approach.

We’ve mentioned this before. Most of the businesses are established because an opportunity is identified. And this opportunity usually translates to the lack of product in that particular space. Honestly, a lack of product is not a good indicator of a profitable business.

A business idea clicks when a real problem is identified. Problems faced by people on a daily basis. Made up problems sugarcoated for funding purposes don’t count because it eventually becomes evident in the longer run.

So, when you’re in isolation currently, do your research on the market you are venturing into and identify crucial problems faced by your potential end-users. Analyze if the business idea you have in mind was born out of an opportunity or a necessity.

This research would give you solid answers to the success or failure of your product because if your idea already exists in a different tangible form, it would either fail or require too much time, capital and effort on pushing it into the market.

Nobody wants another E-commerce app because you have a different UI approach or a unique feature. So, carry out extensive research on your market, the competitors in it and also study about brands and businesses similar to yours that failed.

You will have a fresh idea of how to go about positioning it in the market or completely pivot if required.

Because the market is stalling and your routine of going to work is disturbed doesn’t mean the situation will stay like this forever. Tomorrow is going to be better or at least we will have the essential tools and approaches to make the coming months better.

While in isolation, most companies are still doing things that they do otherwise and some are, in fact, going the extra mile in terms of putting in efforts. The market is still functioning but has taken a backseat with respect to news and information about its functioning.

Besides, the pandemic also rewriting conventions by bringing in unplanned transformations in workplaces and the market. Despite the fact that industries like tourism and airlines have been massively hit because of lockdowns across the world, the end of the pandemic will only potentially help the industries spring back up.

This not just comes from optimism by the psychological effects lockdowns are causing in our minds. Most people have already made their decisions on what they would do after the quarantine period is over. Mental transformations have happened and people are starting to get their priorities right.

Experiences and happiness over routing and monotony is increasingly becoming topics of discussions and the end of the viral infection would only make the market riper and an avenue of opportunities.

So, from your end, it’s on you to study the specific transformation happening in your niche and tweaking your business idea accordingly.

If your app or product is already on the verge of completion or if it’s complete, now is the time to focus on its launch plan. If you notice, a lot of companies spend months charting the ideal launch plan for maximum impact and patronage.

From conventional to guerrilla marketing, businesses make the best use of available resources to get laymen become familiar with their products and then finally push sales and usage. In this time of isolation, you should sit back and plan your launch too.

Some of the suggestions you could consider include these –

• An ideal start would be testing your product with a small community of end users. They would use your product and give you constructive criticism on a lot of product aspects like
  • UI/UX
  • seamlessness in using your app
  • if your product actually solves the problem it intended to in the first place
  • If it does, how long does it take or how many layers does your user have to pass through to get the specific task done
  • Is it friendly for both laymen and pro users
  • Potential bugs in terms of security and payments and more
• Once the criticisms have been worked on and implemented, you could start with your product positioning. This is finding the right space in the market to make it the most visible. Positioning should consider geography, customer demographics, likes and interests, purchasing power and more
• Your positioning has a direct influence on the messaging and tone of your brand. A product for elderly people will have a different tone and language than a product for generation z.
• Once this is done, you should indulge in creating a rock-solid pitch deck for your product. Your entire research should be summarized into a slick presentation you could show to both investors and users.
• Social media promotion is an integral part of a product launch plan. However, the approaches vary from one business to another. Depending on your product, Instagram and Facebook could be more ideal social media platforms than LinkedIn or Pinterest. You have to identify the apt medium and make the best use of its audience.
• You could also look at influencer marketing and collaborations for further reach and word of mouth about your product.
• Because there are at least three months from now, you could also chart a content marketing plan and involve blogging and email marketing to help reach people and potential clients.
• Apart from this, you should also work on a cool origin story for your product, work on press releases, get creative such as brochures and other collaterals ready and do more.
• You should also eye for the perfect launch date in the coming months considering sensitive factors affecting the globe currently. A product that could make this world a better place significantly can have a priority than the rest.

When we say invest, we mean investing in Information Technology. Or, in other words, your IT infrastructure. Generally, businesses tend to put up with an existing infrastructure under the pretext that things are smooth.

But your massive ambitions cannot be realized until you equip yourself with the right tools and infrastructure. You should make use of this time to rethink your IT investments and look at optimizing your performance.

If you think you need an upgrade in terms of computers and software applications, assess the need. Also consider if you need a better internet connectivity or an enterprise connection, consider that too.

Considerations on IT investments also include the need for new IT professionals like dedicated specialists, data scientists, machine learning experts and more.

Like you know, running a business is a team effort. While you will still be spearheading tons of processes, you wouldn’t have time on micromanaging most tasks and processes. That’s why you need solid teams and team leaders in place for your product/app.

A lot of factors should be considered when identifying your team starting from your budget. With proper consultation, you should be able to identify the various teams you would need for the development process, managing the teams, running the operations, hiring team members and managing accounts.

Depending on your requirements, you could also decide to implement different hiring frameworks like outsourcing, freelancing and even staff augmentation.

With the time available currently, you could also work on allocating the maximum you could spend for each job role and team members and check if you could afford C-level associates for the bigger tasks in hand.

One aspect you could consider when identifying your teams is you could look for stable territories like India if you intend to outsource your tasks and projects. Not just in terms of handling pandemics and economies, a territory like India has always been fostering a productive environment for staff and employees. Productivity has always been optimum and approaches have always been goal and customer-oriented to keep company and business operations at peak, regardless of the time.

In simple words, a business model is your plan of action to make profits. It is through your business model that you identify your target audience, your products and services, expenses, your product or service delivery, marketing and all other aspects of running your business and earning revenue.

There are different business models you could implement for your business but not all can be incorporated. You should consider your product, market/niche and other factors to identify the most ideal business model. Some of the examples of business models include.

• Franchising
• Direct sales (retail or online)
• Crowdsourcing
• Bundling
• Affinity clubs
• Leasing
• On-demand
• Subscription-based and more

You should make use of this time to assess which business model would make the most sense to your business with respect to the fact that you could chart the road for stable revenue generation in the longer run.

So, a comprehensive coverage, right? Well, this is essential as this time can never come back (and hopefully it doesn’t have to). You can finally focus on things that mattered to you the most and get your business out and rolling.

When you’re isolating and introspecting your business, consider our suggestions and recommendations and make way for business growth this year. Also, let’s together fight the global pandemic and foster a healthy environment for ourselves and those around us.