Surviving COVID-19 As A Small Business Owner

G’day, Jon Fitzgerald here,

It’s safe to say 2020 has been a “shit year” so far!

The coronavirus pandemic is changing the way we live, work and socialise. Every day brings on new restrictions we are forced to live with.

The scary part? We haven’t even hit the peak in Australia, meaning it’s looking like an incredibly long winter ahead. Then our society faces the possibility of taking years to go back to ‘normal’… assuming we do.

Having said that though, out of these challenging times comes OPPORTUNITY.

It was Albert Einstein who said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.

Can you agree that this could be the case right now for you and your business?

I’m making a bold call here and now…

Regardless of how long it takes to get over this pandemic, bricks and mortar retail stores are in BIG trouble.

We knew the end was coming for bricks and mortar stores, but didn’t know the circumstance or the ‘final nail’ that would tip them over.

The answer and possibly your best answer is: eCommerce!

eCommerce has been around for a number of years now yet so many small business owners have flat out ignored it. In fact, vast numbers of small business owners blame it for stealing “their” business!

Rather than riding the wave, expanding their customer base and giving their business a form of “immunity” from the current financial climate, they were too busy coming up with excuses to dismiss it.

If I’m not making myself clear, YOUR business needs to sell online NOW.

Even during the Great Depression, one of history’s toughest times, some 65% of people still had jobs. Meaning they still had an income and money to spend; which they did!

As a matter of interest, the Disney Corporation started and grew during the Great Depression era. Walt Disney saw an opportunity to entertain people. He took it, and look where they are today.

Airbnb and Uber both got their start around the time of the GFC in 2008/2009.

Now it’s 2020.

We may or may not be facing the same circumstances, but the next few months are going to be tough for the Australian small business sector. It’s not time to despair; it’s time to look for an opportunity.

There is one: eCommerce.

And here’s more good news – the Government has announced freight services qualify as “essential services”. This means Australia Post and all the of other surviving couriers will be working hard despite the shutdown, the isolation and the social distancing rules.

Think about this. Research from Roy Morgan shows an average of 46.8% of Australians shop online in an 4-week period.

How much more could this rise if everyone is home for the next 1, 3, 6 or more months?

Australian small business owners, this is no time for excuses; it’s time for ACTION.

The next question, of course, is HOW? Simple. The answer is a platform that has revolutionised eCommerce and online shopping called SHOPIFY.

You can set up your own Shopify website, add your products and be ready to sell to customers within 2 hours.

Even if you’re a novice user, you CAN do this!

Shopify gives you a 90-day free trial before it bumps up to $29USD per month. That’s plenty of time to have a go!

Here’s some numbers to chew over:

If you had of launched an eCommerce website in 2015, with 100 new customers in your first year, with that number increasing by just 15% every year since, here’s what your database would look like now…

2015 – 100 new customers (100 total)
2016 – 115 new customers (215 total)
2017 – 132 new customers (347 total)
2018 – 152 new customers (499 total)
2019 – 175 new customers (674 total)

2020 – 201 new customers (875 total)

Your database would have 875 customers in it this year. If this was you, would you be concerned about shutting the front doors to foot traffic? I highly doubt it.

The bottom line is get your act together and give your small business the best chance to survive COVID-19. Get into eCommerce NOW!

Jon Fitzgerald
Think Web