Just because the World is shutting down, it does not mean your business has to.
Hard as it may seem right at this moment in time, there is plenty of good work to be done in the downtime, so you can come back stronger than ever.
Are you on Linkedin?
Have you seen the onslaught of commentary about the effects of the Co-virus on our businesses and the economy?
My friend Leah from Norway posted that realistic and heartwarming video message.
Leah’s main point was to use the downtime to gear up and rise above being down about business slowing down.
She runs an in-person communication training company with her husband, Oscar. And the isolation order wallops her business so there’s not a lot of in-person happening right now.
Her main point is to actively use the downtime to gear up and rise above the slowing down of your business.
And with that, I’m going to use this time to gear up, get blogs, podcasts and online training completed.
It’s tough
Friends in events got struck and I heard how tough work is getting from talking with a lot of you this week.
>> If you are in events get to the Event Manager Blog go remote webinar here on Wednesday 18th
I’ve spoken with more than one coworking space owner who is worried because they don’t know what is going to happen.
Most independent coworking spaces are home to people who run their micro or small businesses and have their struggles with the world grinding to halt.
Between cancelled events, postponed orders, supply chain issues and people stopping buying anything expect toilet roll the uncertainty is everywhere.
It seems very unfair that people who have built their own business or project are now faced with the injustice of something like the Co-virus bringing the world to a stop.
How do you keep going?
I get the sense many of my people are wondering if they have what it takes to keep going.
But it does not have to be like this.
I believe that just because the world comes to a stop, our business and projects don’t have to.
All my events for the year got cancelled one after another, I too was spinning earlier this week.
A lot of them I was talking at or running workshops. I am even more pissed off as I have put so much effort into listening over the last two years and building a message that connects and helps people in the coworking industry.
I feel for people like:
Marko in Prague. He got funding for a coworking symposium at the university where he is an assistant professor.
Mark and Manel in Spain, who put so much effort into raising the bar of the content even higher for their 2020 conference.
The German Coworking Federation conference held out to the last minute and then finally cancelled!
And our monthly London Coworking Assembly breakfasts will probably become an online event for a bit.
But then
I spent most of this week in a funk. It was the first anniversary of my Dad’s death and everything is cancelled.
My head was certainly not in the right place, but these days I know it is ok not to be ok sometimes.
Then Thursday happened.
2 pm UK time I get a WhatsApp message from my mate Hector, founder of Included, the worlds most excellent collaborative buying platform for the coworking industry.
We have a group call in a few hours; last-minute get together can you come?
The European Coworking Assembly, Included and the amazing Women Who Coworking movement, the call is a joint effort between them.
Four hours later, there are around forty people on the call.
From every corner of the earth, people were sharing about the co-virus and how to deal with it.
There was uncertainty all around.
But there was also an immense sense of community. And it is always a joy for me to see so many people I know from so many different places online at the same time.
