5 Tips to manage your start-up through a crisis. All companies, small scale or large scale, can all find themselves, during any given time, getting hit by a crisis. The problem or crisis may strike during any juncture, and it may occur in any form. Crisis management becomes a vital management tool to solve a crucial situation and here are a few tips to guide you;
1.Look For The Opportunity
While crisis can cause a lot of irreconcilable damage, it also creates a lot of opportunity as needs and priorities change. Sometimes, like during the COVID-19 crisis, these fluctuations are enormous as the habits of countless people change overnight and huge amounts of money and energy are redirected to new needs.Now is the time to seize opportunities by considering new habits and practices that will work for your start up.
2.Toss The Playbook, It’s Useless
When the economy is in flux and everyone is scrambling to adjust to an unexpected new situation, you need to question your assumptions about how businesses should operate. The same rules do not apply. This is not something you can plan for, so you need to be as open-minded as possible.
Your best shot at resolving the situation is being calm and think there is not always a playbook for such instances. rather thinking out of the box will save you. Diversify and try different approaches like giving your product away for free.
3.Create A More Comprehensive, New Guarantee Of Services Or Products
If the crisis is due to an affected service or product, you must take remedial measures to inspire customer confidence. Whatever measures you take, such as recalling a product, refunding a customer, or compensating damages – present the remedial measures as a company policy. If needed, don’t be hesitant to issue an apology for inconveniences caused by this crisis and provide new guarantees.
4.Keep it cool
You might want answers immediately, but don’t expect that. You need to embrace uncertainty because no one has a crystal ball. Panicking only leads to hasty decisions which might be bad for business. The sooner you get comfortable with this uncertainty, the sooner you will thrive. It is helpful to know that a crisis can’t last forever and approach matters in a calm manner. Eventually, it will come to an end, and you want to be ready when it does.
5.Embrace Your Strengths
Some strengths are unique to your product or service, and some are unique to you and the individuals in your startup therefore now is the time to let your strengths shine. Look hard at your company to find out what you do best and do more of it. All startups have the advantage of being small making it flexible than a large company to adapt, change focus, or maybe even completely re-brand themselves if necessary to overcome the crisis.
Startups are often more comfortable with new technologies, and that can be a big benefit – like in the COVID-19 crisis, where the workplace has become virtual and moved online to comply with social distancing guidelines to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
