With crisis can come opportunity.
Shortly after the 2008 recession, we saw Airbnb, Uber, Pinterest and several other huge companies take an idea and turn it into profit.
"I’m sure many people have fears of starting a new business because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the truth is, a crisis is a good opportunity to start a business," said President & CEO of NFTE J.D. LaRock.
NFTE is a nonprofit that helps students learn what it takes to start a company.. Dr. LaRock shared that right now, it’s not just students who are able to come up with ideas. It’s adults too. But how do you make it happen?
"My advice would be to think about how their own lives have changed and how the lives of their customers might have changed to encourage them to pivot into new ways of doing things," said Dr. LaRock.
An example would be restaurants. When you couldn’t sit inside, they had to get creative by marketing to-go or curbside service on social media. And it worked. A survey shows 44% of Americans utilized take-out when the pandemic started,
"The interesting thing about this pandemic is that this moment has required us to be creative and flexible and comfortable with risk," said Dr. LaRock.
If you have a business idea, Dr. LaRock says you should map it out. You can make it happen if you have an "entrepreneurial mindset," which he says is someone who can spot opportunity and take advantage of it. But if you need a little help, NFTE is well, a nifty tool.
They’re offering a free career relaunch program that walks you through how to identify a business idea, how to find customers and how to create a business plan. Then it connects you to financial resources to get the business started.
And when we asked Dr. LaRock for advice for someone who needs that extra push, he said to "take a chance because the worst that can happen is you don’t succeed and you’re in the same space as you were when you began."
For more information on NFTE and their career relaunch program, you can visit their website here.