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Dear EO Melbourne,
Apocalypse!
If you tuned into our End-of-Year Gala celebration a month ago, you would have heard me start my welcome speech with this bizarre word. In all honesty, I knew I had a tough job on my hands to grab your attention as the celebration was held virtually for the first time in EO Melbourne history. I hoped it worked.
As your business grows, you will find that tasks increase, files pile up, materials (and dust) gather and more things need your attention. Some items take longer to turn around, need several documents and require to deal with a lot of people. When work gets more complicated and unproductive, maybe it’s time to review your business and see where you need to streamline and simplify things.
People exiting an organisation is a common occurrence in every business. There are plenty of reasons why staff members leave the company. Whatever is the circumstance behind an employee departing, the changing of employees is something that every entrepreneur should prepare for to ensure that there are no gaps in-between periods of a team member leaving and a new one coming in.
Most companies and businesses nowadays do not have a physical product to sell. With information and transactions mostly done online, many brands that we have come across offer various services through websites or phone applications. From photo sharing, social networking, email marketing to buy-and-sell, there are plenty of industries that now rely on the internet to push their businesses forward.
Restrictions have eased up after the quarantine, but movements are no longer the same as to how it was before COVID-19 hit the world. People are still advised to observe distancing as much as possible. Some companies have opted for flexible work arrangements with their people where certain staff members work from home. Many events and activities are still held online. As long as no vaccine is available, precautions are still advised to be taken to avoid a similar occurrence in the future.
Whether it is in the form of a natural disaster, an armed conflict, a stock market crash or a pandemic, a crisis is bound to happen, and often when we less expect it. Rather than be caught off guard, such as how other businesses were during the recent events, it is better to familiarise yourself with various scenarios and know the strategies on how to cope and survive them.
"We've aged a generation in the past three weeks. What matters has sharply come into focus. Family matters. Love matters. Kindness matters. Health matters. Generosity matters. People matter. Community matters. The rest is just noise.
Aside from physical distancing, the biggest thing you can do right now is to choose to see the best in each other. Be kind. Be patient. Be tolerant.
Be quick to help out in any way that you can. Be forgiving when you would otherwise be upset. See things through the eyes of others and try to understand where they are coming from.
Seek out opportunities for generosity. Reconnect with your community. Reconnect with yourself. Reconnect with your priorities. Live them."
- Anonymous
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought governments, businesses, and communities to a standstill, affecting lives all over the world and across all levels of society. Entrepreneurs are not spared from the adverse effects of this pandemic. EO Melbourne’s President Kym Huynh shares how the crisis has impacted the lives of entrepreneurs in Melbourne and how he, and his Board, tackled the situation head-on to both help those affected navigate through the challenges and prepare for a world post-crisis.
There are entrepreneurs and there are serial entrepreneurs. But what is the difference between the two? Both start a business from an idea. While a typical entrepreneur may opt to stay to run their venture, a serial entrepreneur may pass on the reigns of managing the business to someone else and moves towards starting another one.
Organisations and businesses are composed of people. Emotions are part of our human nature, and they may intensify when we interact with others. When you are working as a team, and there is so much energy, pressure, egos and excitement in the environment, it is unavoidable that emotions may run high, which can lead to conflicts or friction among colleagues.
Selling a business, big or small, is not something that happens overnight. If it is part of your exit plan, you need to outline how to go about it so that when the right time comes, you can easily start the ball rolling. Whether it’s the point when you feel you need to move to another industry or retirement, attend to other personal matters or navigate through a crisis, such the pandemic that the world is experiencing, selling a business is always an option that an entrepreneur can consider doing.
Dear EO Melbourne,
Reflecting on what I most want to share with everyone this month, an idea my mind turns back to is that of service. From the contribution I have witnessed Member-to-Member as we collectively lean on each other (“we are stronger together”), to being witness to our Board ideate, plan and execute on our 90-day Member Support Plan and thinking beyond, to watching our Chapter management team learn how to navigate the technologies of webinars and think outside-the-box, to Past Presidents and tenured Members appearing out of the woodwork to support, guide and lead, one word that encapsulates the entirety of the above is “service”.
Good ideas can raise your business to greater heights. Whether it’s a brand name, logo, packaging, new product or service, promotional design or marketing campaign, concepts help your venture grow and thrive. But how do you know if your brainchild is indeed a good one? Some may seem brilliant but they don’t necessarily translate to sales or profit.
Companies, big or small, sometimes work together for a common goal that will mutually benefit each party involved. Collaborations are not uncommon among brands and organisations, especially if this can lead to increased knowledge and sales. Such partnerships may occur through joint projects in developing new products and services, enhanced processes, training and upskilling of people, sales and marketing initiatives and so much more.
At some point in your business, you might encounter unhappy clients or customers. It could be that a fault in your product or service was found, a mix-up took place or an unexpected misfortune occurred. Whether the concern was caused by internal or external factors, businesses have the responsibility to look into the complaint and even appease the customer.
During interesting times, such as a global pandemic and an economic crisis, some industries and businesses suffer due to little, no or negative growth. It often happens during normal days as well, when the market does not seem to be enthusiastic about a brand or certain products or offerings. There are several moments when a business hits a plateau or reaches a downward slope. When this occurs, maybe it’s time to revisit your goals and if you need to do a pivot.
