What should small and medium-sized entrepreneurs do during the epidemic?

Because of the coronavirus outbreak these days, the New Year has lost all its festive atmosphere. I have stayed at home for 7 days and the New Year goods I bought are basically just sitting there, and I haven’t given away any of them. I couldn’t stand or sit, I was so restless that all I could think about was: When will this epidemic be over? When will you return to Shenzhen? When will the company resume work?

What should small and medium-sized entrepreneurs do during the epidemic?

It wasn't until I saw the news release on the afternoon of the 28th: ​​"Breaking news! All types of enterprises in Guangdong Province will resume work no earlier than 24:00 on February 9th." Frankly speaking, as an entrepreneur, I panicked instantly and had mixed feelings.

Oh no, what should I do? On the one hand, it has been basically confirmed that the severity of this epidemic has exceeded my imagination, and I am scared. On the other hand, there is deep worry. The company has no business after resuming work on February 9th. How is the company going to pay the rent, water and electricity, and employee salaries?

The sudden outbreak of this epidemic may not only take away a person's life, but more seriously, it may also take away the chance of survival of some companies and enterprises.

The Spring Festival holiday has been extended and companies have postponed their return to work. Objectively speaking, these are good measures for everyone. After all, it is shocking to see the number of infected people increasing every day. No one can afford the consequences of another large-scale flow of migrant workers returning to the city.

Indeed, this is the risk that a boss has to take. There is no way around it. Natural disasters are unavoidable. Sometimes I think about it, it’s really not easy for an entrepreneur. Whether you make money or not depends half on your own strength, and half on luck.

On the one hand, entrepreneurs must have strong strength, which includes personal abilities. You must have strategic thinking, professional practical experience, management and risk control capabilities. In terms of resources, you must have a team that can work with you to conquer the world, financial reserves to pay employees' salaries, and various business-related connections. Even if you already have the above abilities, whether you can make money is another matter.

At the end of 2019, I chatted with no less than 20 friends who were engaged in self-media and Internet e-commerce, discussing the development of the company that year, how much GMV increased, and how much new traffic was attracted. Did you make any money? , basically the whole army was drowned, all of them were laughing bitterly, haha, I am very grateful to be alive now, how can I make much money?

Take myself as an example. Many of my friends think that since I run my own media, it should be easy to do business on the Internet and make money. Yes, compared with the current physical industries in China, such as catering, beauty salons, and offline education, my business is slightly easier to do. After all, it does not require too much capital investment.

But if you want to expand your business, you also have to rent a place. In Shenzhen, an office with a slightly better environment and location, near a subway station, and a usable area of ​​60 square meters will cost about 20,000 yuan. If you hire a few people, the average salary will not be less than 6,000 yuan. The rent, water, electricity, and employee salaries alone will cost about 100,000 yuan.

In 2019, WeChat's self-media ecosystem was hit by external short video platforms. Users' attention was attracted to short video platforms in large numbers. The reading volume of public accounts gradually declined. Most public accounts could not receive high-quality advertisements. Many public accounts could not increase their channel volume and could only maintain the volume and speed up the monetization speed and volume within the existing traffic.

E-commerce monetization is the most stable method compared to other monetization methods, so most public account traffic channels have increasingly higher requirements for the selection of e-commerce products. As a supplier, the products you provide must not only be in high demand and low in price, but also have more outstanding selling points than similar products in previous years. The competition is already very fierce.

In the second half of 2019, in some months everyone worked harder and found good products, and the company made a little money, but in most months the income was not enough to cover the expenses because the cost expenditure was too high. A friend who has 19 years of entrepreneurial experience advised me: Surviving is the best respect for the company than dying gloriously.

This year is really unfriendly to entrepreneurs.
Movies scheduled for the Spring Festival have been withdrawn one after another, hotels and restaurants are deserted, fresh poultry is stockpiled and unsaleable, and tourism and transportation are sparsely populated. This situation has already dealt a heavy blow to many offline physical industries and caused heavy losses.

It really makes me feel bad when I see these messages on the official account. It doesn’t mean that entrepreneurs have to complain. The greater their abilities, the greater their responsibilities and the more they have to bear. There is nothing wrong with that.

But it is really difficult for them. It is still unknown when this epidemic will end. The cash flow of most small and medium-sized enterprises is very limited. When there is no business income, it is another matter whether the company can survive.

In addition to their role as company bosses, they are also parents and children. In addition to the visible losses caused by this natural disaster, they also have the pressure of life to bear. Many people have mortgages and car loans. What should they do?

Facing this situation at the beginning of 2020, I think it is a big challenge for entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprise owners, and individual business operators. This year is not about how many times my GMV can be multiplied or how much the traffic can be increased, but about who has better cost control. What you save is what you earn.

Whoever can increase revenue and reduce expenditure and control costs will live longer and will be the winner. I don’t remember who said this: “Behind every crisis there are new business opportunities.”

Just like the SARS virus in 2003 ushered in the spring of online e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba and JD.com, what new business opportunities will there be after this black swan event? I have some related thoughts to share with you:

1. The industries that are most affected are those that require offline traffic, such as catering, indoor entertainment, hotel services, tourism, beauty SPA, etc.

2. The outlook for office buildings and shops in the next few years is not optimistic, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to operate physical stores;

3. Mobile office, freelance, individual economy, making money from side jobs, multiple channels of income, and micro-business culture are reaching a climax, and more and more individuals will step out of the system and rush to the Internet industry.

4. The Internet industry's sub-sectors, short videos, live broadcasts, self-media, online education, and knowledge payment will have a new spring, and Alibaba, Tencent, and Douyin system companies will be the biggest beneficiaries;

5. The healthcare and medicine industry will grow rapidly. Protective products such as masks, alcohol, disinfectants, goggles, oral antiviral sprays, etc. will become high-frequency products that are in high demand by the public. At the same time, there will be new opportunities for health care and immunity enhancement.

6. Among people’s daily necessities of life, people will become more particular and refined about “food”. Agriculture and agricultural and sideline products will become strong economic growth points.

Being born as a human being is difficult, and being born as an entrepreneur is even more difficult. But what can we do about it? Entrepreneurs, although you often face life-threatening situations, don’t we still have a “life”? For this glimmer of hope, we must be strong and work hard to survive.

Professor Zhong Nanshan said: "The epidemic should reach its peak in about a week or ten days and will not increase on a large scale." If you can't make some contributions to the country, don't cause trouble to the country. Stay at home obediently, get through this special time, and wait for the arrival of spring.

God bless China, winter is over and spring is not far away.