How to Create Opportunity Out of a Crisis
Most of us are almost a month into being on lockdown because of the pandemic. Like most situations, things have to get worse before they can get good again. Even Dean wasn’t an exception to the virus; he was deemed to have been positive and was quarantined for ten days before coming back to the show.
In today’s episode, James and Dean chat about how you can create opportunity out of a crisis. They share a four-step framework that you can take and apply in whatever business you are in right now. This process is applicable in any situation to help you figure out how to move forward.
James also emphasizes that the way you can dramatically accelerate the growth of your business is when you see the opportunity in a crisis, you go through it, and figure out your way. Opportunity is everywhere, but you are going to have to go and catch it.
How do you evolve with this situation? You adapt to the change. – James P. Friel
Outline of This Episode
– [08:00] Opportunity is everywhere but you have to go and catch it
– [11:31] The importance of evaluating where you are during a crisis
– [13:34] Why you should stabilize your business
– [21:52] Optimizing is your opportunity to unleash creativity
– [29:40] The difference between optimization and disruption
Why you should stabilize to the best extent that you can
In times of a crisis, as a business owner, you cannot expect that things will be figured out for you. You have to make sure that you are not bleeding cash. Hence, you need to stabilize things yourself.
The best way to approach it is by making a fast decision after you are done running different scenarios. You have to check the resources that are required to support your current level of income. It may either mean that you have to pivot your offers or let go of some employees, vendors, or contractors.
How to unleash your creativity through optimizing opportunities
Optimizing opportunities is when you add more value to your existing marketplace by giving out interesting offers or presenting more ways of helping people. If you feel stuck and don’t know how to pivot, the best way to get out of a rut is to have conversations with other like-minded people.
One of the things that is critical in optimizing is to understand that things can fall into one of three places – good, better or best. During a crisis, your ideal version of what should be out there should not prevent you from letting out something good that can meet people’s needs.
The difference between optimization and disruption
Optimization is when you improve or pivot the things that you already have. On the other hand, disruption is saying how you can go after a big player in the market who is having some challenges, and how you can come in on the low end to do something there. How you can serve a new market of people that are not able to get access to the things that the bigger businesses are unable to provide.
The opportunity to capture a large amount of market share is available right now. Once you’ve gone through the first three steps, it would be smart to look at the marketplace and look for opportunities for disruption.
Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
