Truthfully, nothing changed when the clocked switched over to midnight on New Year’s Eve, ushering in January 1st of 2021. But still, there is something powerful about saying goodbye to the hellish 2020. For all we know, 2021 may be just as hard. But one thing’s for sure: we’ll be facing it with some hefty new business lessons under our belts.
However, what good are those lessons if we don’t use them to propel us forward? That’s why this is a good time to look back at the business lessons of 2020, so we can look forward to growth and joy in 2021.
#1 Value Is More Important Than Ever
We’re still living through a worldwide crisis, and people are on edge. When shutdowns occurred in March of 2020, people worried about spending money. Would they lose income? Should they save their money for supplies that were disappearing from shelves? There was a lot of fear and uncertainty.
Parting with money during uncertainty is scary. For businesses to stay afloat — and thrive — they needed to offer clear and demonstrable value to their customers.
This isn’t a bad thing! In fact, this is one of the greatest business lessons of 2020. In a time of fear, provide solutions. Bring your focus back to the value you offer to your customers, and you’ll connect in profitable ways.
#2 Team Members Are Freaking Important
We always knew our team members were important, but once we were all ripped from our offices, we learned how much we need each other. Communication became trickier in 2020, as we all worked remotely, but the contributions and importance of each employee didn’t diminish.
Unfortunately, as we attempted to manage our businesses through Zoom and email, fatigue set in. Keeping employees motivated became a unique challenge in the remote work of 2020. Your business may still be remote, so let this 2020 business lesson stick with you: team members are important, and they need to know it.
Here are some ways you can keep your team members uplifted and motivated as the pandemic drags on — and even in the future when the pandemic is a memory:
- Show trust. Step back from micromanaging, and allow your team members to take the reins in their projects.
- Make communication easy. Use platforms that are easy to access, and choose times that work for everyone.
- Be understanding of employees who have children at home.
- Celebrate successes of individual employees, teams, and the business as a whole. One way to do this is to create a group chat specifically for announcing and celebrating successes.
- Give helpful gifts that show your appreciation.
#3 We All Make Mistakes
Hoo boy, did we make mistakes this year! One positive of experiencing a pandemic all together is that we all scrambled, messed up, found our footing, and messed up again — together. This was not a year of perfectionism, and that just might be the greatest business lesson of 2020. (Okay, we’ve said that more than once now.)
But seriously, lean in close and hear this message: Perfectionism halts progress.
Mistakes move us forward. (If we let them, that is.)
This is a great time to look back at the mistakes you made in business last year, forgive yourself, and learn how you can do better next year. Nobody was blessed with the perfect year. Nobody had things turn out as they planned. This is the time to embrace the lessons that messiness gives us, and learn from them.
#4 We All Have Incredible Strengths
Just as we all slipped and stumbled in the mess of 2020, we each found some unique strengths that allowed us to rise up and find solutions. If you don’t believe us, sit down with pen and paper and write about what you accomplished in 2020. Write about how you pivoted when wrenches were thrown at you. Write about how you persevered when you didn’t think you could. Write about your fears and what you did to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
We promise you: you brought out new strengths in the challenges of 2020.
#5 Transparency Is More Important Than Ever
People felt unsafe in 2020 for hundreds — maybe thousands — of reasons.
For businesses, transparency has always been important, but in 2020, it became critical.
Customers and employees needed to know their safety was being considered at every step of your business’s process. This was a good business lesson to learn, and it should be taken into the future.
Be upfront about how you plan to keep your customers, employees, suppliers, and partners safe, and they’ll feel secure doing business with you. Continue being transparent in all aspects of your business.
#6 Goals Are Still Important — But They Need to Be More Adaptable
Most of us began 2020 with specific goals on paper, and then felt helpless as they seemed to slip out of reach. Some of us were knocked down, and struggled to get back up.
That’s okay.
Now we know that can happen, and now we know that we need to be prepared for this possibility again. Even without a pandemic, we’ll all have personal crises in our future that will call for us to rely on this business lesson of 2020: Goals can — and often should be — adjusted.
In 2021, keep setting goals, but be prepared to adapt them. Make a plan for what you’ll do if your goal becomes unattainable. How will you cope, how will you pivot, and how will you recover? Check in with your goals more frequently, so that pivoting is easier to do.
Embrace innovation as a company culture. Be flexible, innovative, and willing to learn from failure and mistakes. When your company has this culture, you can be prepared to adapt quickly, no matter what happens.
This isn’t the time to rely on the models of the past. Take the business lessons of 2020 into 2021 for a time for flexibility, innovation, and a growth mindset. At Impact, our lifeblood is helping your business succeed. We can help you find the right way to share your branding. Call us at (888) 441-1233, or contact us online for a free consultation.
