COVID-19 for entrepreneurs: New normal or lost hope
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Since late 2019, the entire world has started to face a pandemic called COVID-19 because of a Coronavirus. As this virus is very highly infectious by nature, the entire world has been facing many difficulties since then. Like any other people or professionals, many difficulties have been brought by COVID-19 for entrepreneurs.
Here, I have discussed the following things;
What is COVID-19?
COVID-19 is a Coronavirus Disease, which is a highly infectious disease caused by the virus called SARS-CoV-2. On 31 December 2019, China was the first country to inform the World Health Organization (WHO) about the cases of pneumonia due to an unknown cause in Wuhan, the capital city of Hobei province in China.
On 7 January 2020, China authorities identified a new Novel Coronavirus as the cause of those cases. Later, this new virus was named as COVID-19. On 30 January 2020, WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
Till now, the World Health Organization has designated 7 variants of COVID-19. Those are:
- Alpha
- Beta
- Gamma
- Delta
- Lambda
- Mu
- Omicron
COVID-19 for entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs have been having a tough time since the beginning of COVID-19. As the entire world had to go through lockdown with many restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus, many entrepreneurs have lost their dreams. Due to COVID-19, entrepreneurs have been encountering many ups and downs within a very short period of time.
Read: 6 Lessons every entrepreneur should learn from COVID-19
In different phases of COVID-19, entrepreneurs have been facing different challenges. From the beginning to till now, the world has seen three major waves of COVID-19. All of these waves brought challenges for entrepreneurs to sustain with businesses.
As of now, entrepreneurs are facing the third year of COVID-19. So, the effects of COVID-19 for entrepreneurs could be described on a year by year basis. Like:
- COVID-19 for entrepreneurs in 2020
- COVID-19 for entrepreneurs in 2021
- COVID-19 for entrepreneurs in 2022
These have been described below.
COVID-19 for entrepreneurs in 2020
COVID-19 was an unknown and clueless thing for the entire world. As the world was totally unprepared to face this pandemic, it took time for people to get proper knowledge about it. So, the year 2020 was very challenging and fearful for the entire world, as well as entrepreneurs.
At the very beginning of 2020, the world has started to face the first wave of COVID-19. This wave of COVID-19 began in early 2020 and lasted about the end of the third quarter of that year. In this timeframe, almost the entire world was in lockdown. So, entrepreneurs had to face many difficulties to sustain. Many entrepreneurs lost everything due to that unexpected situation.
Besides entrepreneurs, 2020 was a year of fear and uncertainty for all types of people and professionals. Many people lost their jobs and businesses at that time. It affected their economic status. As a result, people started to cut their expenses. It also made a huge negative impact on entrepreneurs’ start-ups to grow.
But the case was a bit different for digital entrepreneurs and hybrid entrepreneurs. They had many advantages at that time compared to traditional or offline entrepreneurs. Due to uncertainty, lockdown, and various restrictions; people became heavily dependent on the internet or online based services for professional and personal activities. This made a huge growth in online based start-ups and businesses. As a result, most entrepreneurs or businesses related to online have seen a huge growth at that time. Besides many existing online products and service providers, many new entrepreneurs started their online start-ups during that time.
COVID-19 for entrepreneurs in 2021
As the number of infected people was decreasing in late 2020 and some good news about vaccines were there, the world was expecting a COVID free 2021. As like other people, entrepreneurs were feeling relaxed to think about something good very soon.
But in the second quarter, the world has witnessed peak form of Delta, which has proven as the most dangerous variant of COVID-19 till now. It broke all the previous records in terms of the number of infected people and deaths. It also broke all the hope of people to go back to normal life very soon.
Despite the progress of vaccination, the terrible form of the variant has forced governments of many countries to think about strict lockdown again. This made entrepreneurs hopeless. Many entrepreneurs who lost everything in 2020 were thinking of making a fresh start again. But it could not happen. Although in 2021, the duration of lockdown was much lesser than the 2020. Many countries have avoided this lockdown by applying various restrictions.
For digital or hybrid entrepreneurs, 2021 was better than 2020 as more people were becoming habitual in online activities. It helped to maintain an upward growth rate for their businesses.
In the late third quarter 2021, the situation started to become normal again as the number of deaths and infected people were decreasing. But the situation began to get worse again in December 2021. This time the world was starting to face Omicron, the most infectious variant of COVID-19 till date.
COVID-19 for entrepreneurs in 2022
Although by the end of 2021, most adults around the world have become vaccinated by at least one dose of vaccine, the world has seen another wave of COVID-19 by the variant called Omicron. Omicron started to infect people at a rapid speed. The number of infected people started to break previous records. Omicron has proven as the most spreadable variant of COVID-19 till now.
Initially governments of different countries around the world became alert by applying restrictions in many activities of people. But this time the lockdown was not applied despite the high number of infected people. Because the number of deaths and hospitalized people was much lesser compared to previous variants.
In February 2022, the situation started to improve as the number of infected people and deaths started to decline. Many experts have declared Omicron as the end of COVID-19. Many countries have already removed all the restrictions for people.
But on the other side many experts and scientists are thinking in other ways. They are still very careful and also unsure about the future of COVID-19. They are still encouraging people to maintain the health rules properly to avoid COVID-19.
For entrepreneurs, this is a crucial time. They should take time to observe the situation very closely and calmly. Entrepreneurs should find out the lessons of COVID-19 to enrich their knowledge. It will help them to make decisions regarding their start-ups in future.
Is COVID-19 a new normal? Or a lost hope?
In the first quarter of 2020, when the virus infected a huge number of people, the world became panic and restless. All the countries started to think and fight against the spread of this virus at any cost. All the countries had applied a few rules and restrictions on people’s activities. But the duration of lockdown was going long without giving expected results.
Keep all these things in mind, some people had lost their hope and calmness too early to maintain proper guidelines. They started to believe and tried to take this pandemic as a normal for the coming days. They started calling it the “New Normal”. But the reality is not that simple. A deadly pandemic cannot be a normal thing. All the previous pandemics took time to become weak. So we all should keep patience.
From entrepreneurs’ point of view, “New Normal” is a baseless concept. Entrepreneurs should not think in a negative way. They should not lose their hope. All entrepreneurs need to stay calm, positive, careful, and responsible toward the world to make a better tomorrow. We should pray to the Almighty for the best.
