Here are Some Ways Most African Entrepreneurs Overcame Failures During Covid-19 Pandemic.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many African businesses had a hard time. They experienced lots of problems, challenges, and setbacks.
Comparatively, COVID-19 has a less noticeable effect in Africa compared to the rest of the world, but it’s still bringing several patches of chaos.
African entrepreneurs have to rethink their strategies due to the ongoing closure of big and small businesses. Many people have gone bankrupt as a result.
Despite African entrepreneurs’ challenges, they display resilience by overcoming them to pursue their business goals.
The following is how a few large African and small businesses succeeded during the H1N1 pandemic, despite significant catastrophes.
1. Entrepreneurs were investing in Innovation.
During the COVID-19 era in Africa, most entrepreneurs could survive by applying to invest their savings in mainly IT innovations.
Some IT firms developed software to help COVID-19 survivors and others in their communication with food distributors.
They created these digital assistance systems that allow people to send messages, request commodities, and other official communications without violating the safety guidelines that international authorities have imposed.
Using the above method that entrepreneurs adopted helps a lot because most people couldn’t go to work.
More and more companies are allowing employees to work from home. They also let people access services online.
To some extent, investing in this innovation strategy helps most African businesses not feel the heat of COVID-19.
2. They engaged in online business.
During COVID-19, many African entrepreneurs have gone online to market their businesses using emails, social media platforms, and more.
They are also using these platforms to communicate with international companies. All in all, this is a highly complex problem.
Businesses have noticed that migrating their operations online is one of the only ways to stay afloat. They’ve figured out how to create successful business models like e-commerce or “online shopping,” for example.
Most African businesses have turned to websites to help drive their sales. Websites are a crucial channel that entrepreneurs can use to communicate with both customers and other business partners.
3. They try to respond to customers’ demands in logistics
Logistics companies played an important role during the pandemic by ensuring they delivered goods promptly.
They delivered goods available at the store in different ways, such as using trucks, trains, ships, and airplanes.
Customers can also pick up their items conveniently at home via motorcycle delivery.
Logistics has been helpful for many businesses and consumers to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Logistics has often come in handy when there have been consequential failures.
4. Adjusting the business plan
The COVID-19 pandemic taught African entrepreneurs what they need to start practicing. They began relying on techniques they learned during COVID-19 to cope with the impending crisis.
They adapted their business model to accommodate the changing market, looking for ways to move forward.
They made their business more resilient and added creativity, which allowed them to be more agile.
The proper use of a robust framework can contribute to enhancing the agility of your business. It enables them to respond fast when needed and adapt more rapidly to come up with creative solutions.
During the pandemic, African entrepreneurs found that their old ways of doing things no longer worked. They had to change and adapt to keep going.
5. They changed the image of their company
Entrepreneurs in Africa managed to avoid the worst of the pandemic by changing the image of their businesses.
In the short period of COVID-19, the smaller companies suffered as much as, if not more, than the big companies.
Smaller companies and startups are left to compete with this big company to escape the difficult situation they experienced. The small, local businesses rebranded and developed a new service hatch to give people better access.
This strategy was the only way to escape total collapse and failure.
6. They reconfigured their budget
African entrepreneurs try their best in that critical time to cut down unnecessary expenses while looking for ways to grow their revenue due to the economy’s condition during the COVID-19 period.
Online invoicing is excellent for startups because it keeps track of incoming and outgoing funds for the company.
They focused on making the most of their current services, dropping those that weren’t working for them, which led them to success.
They engaged in low-cost marketing strategies which will bring to fruition faster, instant profits.
Most entrepreneurs try their best to forecast and pay back their debt as soon as possible. All those small, lingering debts can build up and lead to more serious financial woes.
From the perspective of business managers, these ideas provide a highly reliable solution. They save you from collapsing and failing as a company.
7. They try as much to consider the needs of their customer
Most African businesses succeeded during the critical period because of the needs and wants of their customers.
Concentrating on their customers’ needs has worked well for them, and they consider them the backbone of their business.
By implementing the personal touch approach, these companies can help people out during a crisis and get to know them better.
Most entrepreneurs know what customers’ needs are and how to provide those to them.
Since their customers get to choose when they want to purchase a product, the company is constantly adding new offers to remain competitive.
They often offer free delivery or pickups within a given period to make sure their clients are satisfied.
They not only created new products and services during the pandemic season but also hosted a free online event where people could participate.
They connected with customers on social media by sending out email newsletters. All their hard work finally paid off, and they managed to save their business and other companies.
Final words
The COVID-19 era marked a time when the fittest survived worldwide, not just in Africa but especially among entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is a complex and often unpredictable way to make a living. But they still try new things, even though they deal with many setbacks.
Looking at the strategies adopted by the entrepreneurs, one might think that it was difficult for them to survive. But despite these challenges, it should be encouraging to see these African entrepreneurs emerge on top.
