The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world in ways that none of us could have ever imagined. With schools turning to online learning and corporations encouraging remote work, people are staying home now more than ever and avoiding contact with others as much as they can. Wearing face coverings and maintaining a six-foot distance has also become the public norm. Even with the recent development of the Pfizer vaccine, most people don’t seem to think that we will be back to normal any time soon. If you’re a small business owner or an entrepreneur reading this, you may find yourself wondering—how can my business thrive in a world where human contact has become nonexistent? What can I even do when everything is so uncertain?

These concerns are well-founded and justified. However, despite this, some industries and businesses have actually seen massive growth since the start of the pandemic. Just as the Great Depression brought us GE, Disney, and HP, and the Great Recession served as a starting point for the gig economy, the COVID-19 pandemic could be the start of a new business era as well. Entrepreneurs, during this time of uncertainty, are given a new opportunity to pivot and alter their businesses, which can be a really exciting and effective experience. The question to ask though, is how, as entrepreneurs and small business owners, do we get there? 

What ARE the businesses that are thriving?  

The businesses that have thrived over the past nine months have done so because they recognized the changing norms that people were implementing into their daily lives. These business owners also recognized the effects that the changes had on other businesses and the needs of those businesses. Rather than focusing on what they could have done to grow their own respective businesses, the owners of these thriving businesses paid closer attention to what the people needed the most in these trying times instead. Research indicates that businesses that thrived could be divided into three broad categories: 

• Businesses that allow people to stay at home as comfortably as possible and limit contact;

  • This category encompasses the goods and services that (1) help keep people occupied in their homes and (2) allow people to do things without leaving their homes. Examples of this first category can include delivery services, gaming, gardening, home improvement, and virtual personal training The second category includes businesses such as telehealth services, online counseling, and tutoring. 

• Businesses that help out other businesses;

  • Commonly including businesses such as food delivery, professional cleaning, errand services, and IT and cybersecurity consulting, businesses in this category are dedicated to helping other businesses manage the new landscape. These businesses allow other businesses to continue operating by meeting their demands. 

• Businesses that help manage the spread of COVID-19;

  • As a self-explanatory category, businesses in this group focus on creating masks and hand sanitizers. Although masks and hand sanitizers are no longer a scarcity in stores, people continue to them on a daily basis.  

Businesses that Help Other Businesses: A Unique Growth in the Age of COVID-19

Of the three categories mentioned above, the one category in which businesses are experiencing success is the second category. With the pandemic taking a heavy toll on businesses and forcing them to change the way they operate, businesses need all kinds of help to adjust to the ongoing pandemic. While this category does refer to services such as professional cleaning to sanitize the offices and IT consulting services to allow people to work from home smoothly in particular, these are not the only goods and services that people can offer. 

Here are a few other examples of our clients that have developed or pivoted during the pandemic in order to help other businesses in their operations:  

• Airbnb management company that provides space to frontline workers who need short-term housing;

• Experienced manufacturing consulting  helping a hand-sanitizing company find additional sources of production to fulfill the new brand; 

• A website, Fancutouts.com, that provides cutouts at college and professional football, baseball, hockey, and basketball games where there are little to no fans.  

Entrepreneurs might be able to start a new business that meets the needs of existing businesses, but I’m already a business owner. What direction could I take in own my business to meet the demands of people during this time? 

If you already are a business owner, now is a good time to pivot your business. Shifting the focus of your business in order to meet the demands of the people during this pandemic will allow your business to thrive more because you are selling goods and services that people will need or want. In fact, pivoting is often an appealing route for business owners because of the opportunity to allow people to become familiar with their brand and generate more clientele. For example, if you are a dine-in restaurant owner, you could change your business model to allow for take-out or offer meal-prep packages. This would allow customers to make your restaurant food in the comfort of their homes. If you are in the business of selling clothes, you could shift the focus to providing stylish masks for people. In both of these examples, people will have the opportunity to become familiar with the quality of your goods. If your business provides services, on the other hand, pivoting to meet the demands of other businesses affected by COVID could help you build new clientele by allowing the businesses that did not have the need for your initial business to work with you. 

However, it should be noted that pivoting does not necessarily have to be a permanent change. If the new model does not work for you, you can always revert back to the initial business model.  

Starting a business or pivoting an existing business idea to meet the demands of our world right now seems like a good idea, but what happens when COVID-19 ends? Won’t that mean the end of my business? 

The answer is NO! Just because many businesses are struggling during this time does not mean your business will end. If you pivoted your existing business, you can always revert back if you found more success before the pandemic. Or, you may find that the way you changed your business works even better. On the other hand, if you started your business during the pandemic to help other businesses, the end of COVID-19 won’t necessarily mean the end of your business. By helping businesses during the pandemic, you have made a name for yourself. The services that you currently provide during this crisis may compel the businesses that you work with now, and others, to come to your business in the future as well.

No matter what you choose to do, there will always be a market—and a need—for something. The Great Depression and the Great Recession have shown us that. So, COVID-19 pandemic, what businesses and industries will you leave us with?