Enugu business podcast my name is Emmy Osemeke am your host and in this podcast series, we look at the cloudy looking glass of doing business in our society, the ups and downs, and how entrepreneurs can break even and make that first 2-million-naira profit and be debt-free.
For today’s call sign, we’re looking at LIFE AFTER COVID-19 LESSONS LEARNT OR FORGOTTEN. So before I start I want to ask a very important question. How was 2020 for you in one sentence?
We are a very engaged community of entrepreneurs so free to leave a comment on this post and engage.
2020 is a breakpoint year by so many standards and what I meant by it being a breakpoint year is because, like the fabled thief in the night or the baba-yega who comes at the least moment you expect to jolt you, it exposed a lot of businesses. Like the parable of the scripture businesses that were left standing were businesses that were actually built and founded on a rock.
I say this because prior to 2020, we lived in an economy that was flourishing marginally, we weren’t in a solid-state like we were pre-Buhari but we could afford our luxuries and our businesses were doing okay and what happens when this is the case? We often end up taking too many liberties and not keeping an eye out to grow our businesses or protect ourselves from a collapse. Most of us on this podcast don’t know what it was like to have lived in the civil war era and haven’t really lived through such a lockdown and this lockdown came down hard on everyone.
As a people, we were faced with the danger of a complete lockdown and while we were quite lucky here in coal city most states got hit hard with the lockdown being supreme and severely enforced. A lot of business owners came to rue chances missed to take their business online prior to the lockdown. Stores and pharmacies alike had challenges getting goods into town or delivering products to their customers. Companies who did not have an active social media presence online lost a share of their business to other businesses who rather than contract actually did more to stay in touch with their customers.
So who won or lost this joust with covid-19 or the lockdown and how did they do it?

Losers:
I do not take this lightly but in all fairness, I will speak my mind based on the metrics and industries. The big losers in this lockdown era were businesses who did not have their digital marketing acts right or who did not act to remain in constant contact with their clients but major industries that took a big hit were luxury/ Hotel businesses. Obviously, these businesses could no longer count on the throngs of travelers from out of town who patronized them and this exposed just how valuable external import is to our local economy in Enugu. There’s nothing like looking at your books during the lockdown just to realize 75% of the lifeblood of your business comes from outside your state and at that point, your clients were either lockdown or quarantined or staying home with their families leaving you with a gaping hole in your bottom-line for the month. On this note I would like to highlight that local businesses need to be doing so much more to boost sales locally to at least cover their bottom-line running costs and to do this they need to engage their local audience, they need to be visible and active in their host communities.

Winners
Businesses that won this joust with covid on the other hand were businesses in the necessities niche who already have that strong demand for their services/products and were equipped to pivot to gather momentum that came from the lockdown and the sales rush that came. A lot of new businesses were started just off the back of the requirements the new normal brought.
Two months into the lockdown businesses that launched their native apps like “Market-square” and launched their delivery services were able to close their brick and mortar offices and take their businesses online. We didn’t see a rise in promotions online or offline as was witnessed in Lagos and other major cities in the country but that also speaks to the poor awareness of digital marketing and the negligence of some business owners.
How they Triumphed
Social media content marketing, Social media marketing, Outsourcing delivery/ app development, and introducing a religious BULK SMS strategy to remain at the top of their customer’s minds. I guess on a larger scale we were all exposed to the little things we take for granted that actually make the difference in what we do. Little things like customer service, Courtesy, kindness and maintaining contact, and improving the lifetime value of our customers.
Opportunities
The biggest general threat during the lockdown apart from covid was mobility and security. In our dear state, we witnessed the shutdown of Keke services after 6 pm and buses after 9 pm. This was a stimulant for the increase in cab services like Bolt, Uber and Lyft, and other brands coming to Enugu. The increase in awareness of the need for delivery infrastructure to bring goods to customers has seen a rise of delivery services in certain niches and this will keep growing irrespective of the covid-19 decline. The reason I say this is because as a collective we were more active online than ever and most baby boomers (our parents) had to become active on social media.
Have we stalled or slowly lulled our businesses back to sleep?
To answer this question, we need to individually take a litmus test which is quite simple. (LINK TO QUIZ)
Have I as an entrepreneur put out more content for my business post covid?
Have I invested in a mobile app?
Do I have a website?
Do I have a customer service team?
Do I have delivery capacity?
How many times do I contact my buyers daily/weekly?
Have I invested in building a customer database?
Have I invested in increasing our advert budget?
If on any of these questions we answer no, then we have not and are vulnerable to another lockdown. Hence this entire episode today is a wake-up call and cultured right hook to every business owner who got lucky and didn’t foreclose during the lockdown here’s wishing by the next lockdown tour business get wiped out or you actually stop hedging your bets and go all in.
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