This year marks its 13th anniversary, a lucky number, it seems, since I decided to open the Klain company, after identifying a need in the local market and creating a project that offered an online presence for hotel units. It was my first personal project, a project that still works today.
A lot has changed since then. We have developed as an online marketing agency, we have diversified our services and products, but also the range of clients. We have overcome many difficult situations, even the economic crisis, a crisis that began for some in 2008, for others later.
That’s when I saw for the first time how projects are suddenly interrupted, although they had started with a lot of momentum, teams fall apart, companies close and social dramas are accentuated. At the same time, I saw teams that found solutions, companies that reinvented themselves and people who didn’t give up. Life went on for them.
At that time I understood that life, even more so that of an entrepreneur, is about challenges, about identifying solutions, about how adaptable you are in a delicate situation and about how much you can see beyond today.
And we are currently in a similar situation, but different at the same time. Although we all knew that we were on a peak of global economic growth and expected at least a correction in the coming period, no one could anticipate that we would be hit by such a violent tsunami while we were sitting on the beach in the sun.
Today, more and more companies are closing or restricting their activity, waiting for this wave to pass. It happens everywhere, in almost all fields of activity. Companies forget about customers, forget about collaborators, forget about suppliers or even employees. Forget that in difficult times true relationships are made.
And in our agency, many clients left immediately after the first drastic measures were taken by the government and cut off any form of communication, in order to conserve their resources, barricading themselves in a “safe” corner.
At the beginning, both I and my colleagues tried to come up with solutions for them, to show them that, especially in the case of some of them, there is a need for their services and products even in these crisis conditions, but they have to change their approach. We tried to show them that if we make a simple sales funnel, they can generate requests and cash flow during this period. But they still didn’t see it as a solution and gave up.
Instead, others have activated themselves and told us that now is their time, and because their customers are online now they also have to be there. Others have chosen to continue the projects we have started regardless of the current context, because they see beyond today and want to be prepared for the day when this wave will pass.
I am convinced that it is difficult for all of us, but the way we act during this period should define our business for a long time. It depends on each one.
The more we panic, the lower the chances of being creative and identifying adaptation solutions.
Let’s not forget that our most precious resource is time, and now we have it in abundance because we #stămacasă.
P.S.1.: I haven’t written for a long time, but today I got active after a day of uninterrupted phone conversations with 80% of our clients and our former clients.
P.S.2.: If you are passionate about online marketing, read the article I wrote about: What changes will this crisis bring for online marketing?
