I first heard of Covid-19 in December 2019, from a small exotic meat market in Wuhan, or so we’re told. A few months later, this virus has ravaged the global economy, forcing industries to be shut down.
In March 2020, some of the measures began taking place in Singapore. Measures that hurts my business and the industry we’re in. It hurts, but it had to be done. It must be done.
This Covid-19 is indeed a big wake up call for me and my company. I designed this company to run with minimal overhead. We started the company in April 2018, began sales efforts in May 2018, had no business until January 2019. A few things didn’t go as planned as some of us have other pressing obligations. We started slow but steady, bringing in more trainers as we progress and creating more programmes as our new product lines.
We didn’t have an office until this year. As part of the growth strategy, we planned to get an office and then employ one or 2 interns.
When we finally got the office, Covid-19 measure called the Circuit Breaker come in full force. All events had to be cancelled, both school and public workshops also had to be cancelled.
In one fell swoop, all or most of our trainers lost their training hours. I was a freelance trainer from 2009 to 2012 and 2014 to 2017, and I know what it feels like when you have your expected training hours wiped out and you’re not sure what’s next. I hope they can hang on for a little while more.
Now, we’re in a situation where we really need to decide to focus on a long term plan or just for the post Covid-19. Limited time and resources to really push both at the same time.
One thing I agree with Howard Schultz is that it’s easy to lead when things are going great. It’s really hard when you got headwinds, disappointments and people telling you you’re on the wrong way.
The big plus point of this Covid-19 Circuit Breaker, to me, is that it gives us time to re-look into the direction of the business, re-evaluate our skills and opportunities and decide on where we want to head.