Covid19 pandemic has really impacted our lives in many ways. Many ways left to imagine. Across the world, norms have been shifted, new normals are forming and taking shape. Of the many viruses the world has experienced in the past, Corona virus seems to have separated us more from our loved ones, Business and lifes like no other. Pre covid19 era, Nigeria already had challenges with our economy. The GDP was nose diving at a geometric rate. Our exchange rate was on an all time low and businesses were struggling to get by. But our resilience and dogged spirit kept us on. Then the dreadful almighty Corona virus knocked our doors earlier in the year. Businesses and economic powers have since experienced a downturn like never before.

"Every 90-years there is a giant stock market crash followed by DEPRESSION. 90-years ago was 1929 followed by GREAT DEPRESSION, lasting 25-years to 1954. Will history repeat? I BELIEVE SO. Employees will lose jobs. Smart Entrepreneurs get rich. Start business now before crash." Robert Kiyosaki Author of Richdad Poor Dad.
True to his words. Millions of jobs have been lost world over as as result of the pandemic. Most affected are salary earners and self employed individuals. We definitely would need to continue living even with the challenges that this pandemic brings, so it is imperative for us to start now.

While some businessess have had to face hard times even declaring bankruptcy, other businesses have had geometric increase due to the pandemic in the same industry. Let us look at just 3 different companies and the impact of covid19 on their performance. NETFLIX is an online stream movie website while CMX CINEMAS is the regular physical cinemas with many branches spread across the nation. While Netflix has grown in download streams and declaring major profits in this season, CMX Cinema is declaring for bankruptcy. The same can be said of Amazon an online variety store and Wal-Mart a physical variety store. Zoom a cloud meeting application has seen unprecedented increase in number of subscribers while Herts a rent a car company has since declared bankruptcy. The list is endless but the lesson is the same. For any business to stay afloat in the new business world, you have to come online.

To encourage this SME's that are already struggling and those that will spring up due to loss of jobs, our regulatory agencies and government representatives must begin to draw new economic framework and measures on how to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on businesses. Finances have been scares because of the emotions of fear and greed that normally plays out in this kind of unprecedented times. Government needs as a matter of urgency, look into our tax regime, bail outs and palliatives for SME's knowing that they make up the majority of the employment market which creates stability for good governance. Businessess too must take advantage of the provisions made by the government, international bodies, High net worth individuals, and community initiatives to mitigate financial burden on their businesses by gathering information.

In these difficult times, businesses need to use the customers first approach to stay afloat. The atmosphere is tensed already which makes customers very sensitive to behaviours and patterns. Every serious business that wants to stay in the game must put their customers first within six pillars of Empathy, Personalization, Time and Effort, Expectations, Resolutions and Integrity. They must deliberately put these into consideration in an hierarchical structure to benefit them for the outcome of impact on results.

As the world continue to learn about new ways to approach this obstacle, Nigerian businesses must look to information technology for solutions that can help them create online presence, e-commerce solutions, cloud meetings, social media marketing, Search Engine Optimization and cyber security. Since alot of Business now operate remotely, it would be imperative that any serious business invest more in the online presence. A good place to start is read up
https://www.godaddy.com/garage/take-your-small-business-online/. You might find it however cumbersome to navigate through the process. After all, all of us cannot be savvy tech, that is why some people have been trained professionally to help your dot com business thrive.www.jpssuppourt.com will
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It will definitely take ample time to get businesses running at their very best again but we must continually re engineer our module of operations to conform with the new challenges that the pandemic birth. New opportunities have been created by the restrictions on movement. We as SME's need to think outside of the box to help our business keep up with the challenges.