adminWe have nearly survived a month indoors but still going strong. I am glad I have had to re-look at those projects that I had parked. I have also started writing those books. I am a known procrastinator and I am glad I have at least started on the chapter outline. Watch out for book release next year. I promise though that this will be my last article on Covid-19 issues and next week I will look for a “sunny” topic to write about. I know that readers are now saturated with Covid-19 information.
However, I conducted some research to find out how SMEs are surviving during Covid-19 times. Interestingly, our technophobic SMEs have been forced to “seriously” use the internet and social media for their day-to-day business.
Margaret Sithole who owns a retail shop pointed out that she had “no choice but to learn to transact using the internet”. She, however, appreciated the fact that since then, she has acquired useful information to improve her business.
Inevitably, by using the internet, SMEs who are not normally “internet savvy” have started exploring what the internet offers, which is related to their businesses.
Mercy Shorai, who runs a drink-making business, has increased her “repertoire”. She is seriously considering making healthy fruit and herb-based drinks to cater for people with health related issues such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
On the other hand, internet literate youths have been maximising profits by conducting online related businesses. Thus we find that businesses such as graphic designing, online advertising have generally been doing well.
But SMEs, operating within the transport sector, events management, and tourism and educational have not fared so well. Understandably so, these businesses leverage on extensive human interactions.
So how can SMEs survive these corona virus times?
Be information savvy
Governments throughout the world have realised the need to consolidate measures that will cushion SMEs against the negative impacts of Covid-19.
In Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, is in the process of soliciting a database of SMEs who might need cushioning against the negative impact of Covid-19.
Furthermore, SMEs need to constantly keep abreast of different policy shifts that have recently been promulgated due to the pandemic.
Keep a positive mindset
There is no doubt that these days, fear and panic are rife at all levels of our existence. Not only do SMEs have to struggle with the threat of a disease, they have to contend with dwindling savings for both their businesses and their families.
Tankiso Komane, in his article “Covid-19 Survival Toolkit and Finance-Ways to Help Struggling SMEs” points out that; “In all high risk situations, it is essential to remain calm for fear leads to panic leaving chaos in its wake.”
To this end, Komane advises that decision making should only be done and backed by facts and then only can the necessary projections be done. SMEs should also seek expert advice from Consultants who are knowledgeable on risk assessment so as to make the right decisions.
Innovate
Though the President of Zimbabwe, President Mnangagwa has rightly extended the lockdown by two weeks, there is no doubt that social distancing, and other measures that restrict movement are the “new normal”. As a result SMEs have to innovate.
Here are some interesting innovative ideas being implemented by some innovative SMEs. One SME in the tourism sector has started working on a virtual tour of beautiful places for tourists who are on lockdown and are unable to travel. Another SME in the events industry has started online tutorials for wedding planning.
A Master of Ceremony (MC) who has been hard hit by the wedding lockdowns is compiling his jokes and requesting social media users to subscribe to the service.
Discover that undiscovered talent
Lockdown time is a time to be creative for talented people in the music, crafts, writing and other soft industries. Being an avid reader, I discovered an interesting application with extremely nice feel good stories. This application called Radish, makes one read novels for free up to a certain chapter. Thereafter you have to pay by purchasing coins. Our writers can take a leaf from this innovative channel and likewise write interesting home-grown stories with the sole purpose of charging readers minimal fees while riding on a huge subscriber base.
Leverage on your talents
Of course we have not heard when schools are going to open. In the meantime English teachers can utilise their skills through online tutorials to Asian students who wish to learn the English language. Content writing and participating in essay writing contents can earn one a reasonable income. All one needs is a laptop and enough data to last the tutorial sessions.
Start a blog
Blogging can bring reasonable income or can even make you a multimillionaire. Pat Flynn the owner of the blog entitled; Smartpassive Income started his blog to trace his progress with various websites and online money making projects. He earns about USD50000 a month. The beauty about blogging is one can be an expert in anything.
Ideally, bloggers write on topics that they are passionate about. For example blogging topics can vary from anything from goat farming, alternative medicine, organic farming, fashion, food and others.
The quickest way to make money on your blog is through selling advertisements. However, one has to ensure that you have a large viewership. One can use Google AdSense for this. With this programme you simply place the banner on your site, Google chooses the advertisements that are relevant to your content and your viewers click on the ads. If your blog is popular enough you can also sell private ads
Network and network
Though physical networking obviously has its advantages SMEs need to upscale their social media presence and enhance their brand visibility. This is the time to be more adventurous and experimental and ensure that your presence is felt on all social related platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and others.
Get paid to conduct online research
Research based companies are always in line to solicit opinions from a different array of stakeholders across industries. Companies such as Toluna are engaged by large companies to carry out online research for them. As such these online companies are always looking to pay respondents who are willing to participate in their surveys.
In conclusion SMEs should start exploring other avenues of doing business and adapt to changes that have been brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. I will end with a quote from Martha Stewart, “The more you adapt the more interesting you become.”
Joseline Sithole is an SME Consultant and founder of Southern Africa Development Consultants (SODECO). For comments write to her on [email protected] or whatsapp +263773634062
Online Reporter