A week from an Entrepreneur’s Diary-Post COVID 19 [Part I]
Monday | 19th April 2021
I woke up with the sound of that loud bird, which, from the past six months, sits on my windowsill and wakes me up. Sharp at 5.00 AM every day. In my previous life Pre COVID 19 era, I never heard of birds in the morning. But nowadays apart from my friend who wakes me up, numerous birds chirp around, and I enjoy it dearly. I got up from my bed in my sleep time pyjamas. You are wondering, why would I say sleep time pyjamas? Because there are many versions of it now. Sleep time, exercising pyjamas, party time pyjamas, work time pyjamas, etc. and yes, you read it right, work time Pyjamas. During the long lockdown which followed post virus breakout, I got in love with those. Besides, they were easy to buy in the name of essentials vs. a pair of trousers or slacks.
I kissed my two-year daughter and five-year son, who were still asleep. Their lives too changed dramatically post the pandemic. Natasha, my two-year-old, didn’t get as much of nature and playtime in the open parks as her elder one got, or every one of us had enjoyed. We were all locked down, and her most joyful memories would be of my wife and me singing her lullabies or hearing them on my Ipad. Sasha, my elder one, was a bit lucky who could play in the open with his age mates, but it was time for him to go to school. During the self-quarantine and lockdown period, schools were all closed. Now they say there are a few in the city which are operating but call me a coward or very protective, I didn’t want my kid to be there out in the open with hundreds of other kids, who god knows, and god forbid might be bearing the disease. I simply can’t take the chance. Sasha now studies through online learning platforms like Khan Academy and Scholastic.
My wife Liz was already up exercising guided by Fitbit Coach videos. She was always a morning person and still is. Earlier I could understand why she would wake up early. She was a real estate agent and investor, buying and selling commercial properties. But as I said the virus did take a toll on our lives. It not only shook lives, but it also hurt the economy as deep as possible. Real estate was and is one of the most impacted industries. During the pandemic, no one would buy or sell properties, especially commercial ones. Now post that period also, it’s a tight market out there. Giants like Facebook and Microsoft have given liberty to their teams to decide whether they want to come to the office or work from home. For most like me, it is a natural choice. So more prominent companies are not expanding their infrastructure, and MSMEs are not able to even rent one. Elizabeth has excellent business acumen, and instead of cursing the fate, she planned. She is now a proud owner of organic farmlands, producing fruits and veggies. These go to local stores, and apart from that, Liz and I jointly run manufacturing units as well, which further processes these produce to sell. She was quick enough to pick that businesses that are selling essentials can survive anything. I smiled, looking at her, and she smiled back.
I am not in to exercise and all, but I do meditate and breathing techniques. I follow Do Yoga With Me to learn, but mostly I am on my own. Half an hour at most is what I spend, and trust me, that’s enough.
I sat in the balcony with my turmeric tea and it was time for a quick WhatsApp call to my parents. During the lockdowns, I was too worried about them. They were above 60 and on their own. Thanks to the online Walmart Grocery Store and Amazon Pantry, they fulfilled all their essential needs during those times. But when you don’t see someone you care; you worry about them. Dad loves to walk, and Mom is very social, but the lockdown changed them, or I should say their habits. Dad found his new love in gardening and Mom started a cookery show on YouTube. She has thousands of followers now and she proudly boasts that. Mom picked up the call and shouted to call dad as well. They were happy to see me; their genuine smile tells me that. Liz also joined me and for ten minutes we shared what we ate last night, what are we going to eat in breakfast. How kids are becoming so naughty and how we are unable to engage them properly at home. Mom gave us some tips and guidance on how we should spend time with the kids, and how to understand them better. Dad told us about the red chillies he had grown and with a childlike twinkle in his eyes he says those are the world’s spiciest chillies. On the ending note, I informed them that I intend to bring them here with us next week. B it will have to be a car drive vs. a train or a bus. I have grown a phobia with anything which includes lots of people and gathering. I have not taken public transport since March 2020. I do my work meetings online and avoid and work-related travelling.
After I had my morning tea, I headed straight to my office, which is in the next room. It used to be my study but now it is more of an office. I work from home mostly and go to the office only when needed.
Post-COVID 19 I realized that work can be done and managed virtually. I need not to spend a lot on infrastructure. I also found that I get way more time to do things when I am not in the office and still managing the work very effectively.
Like every morning I conversed with my managers through Microsoft Teams. I find it secure and very effective in having group meetings. Over these calls, everyone gives me an update on what their day looks like and most importantly if they need my opinion on any pressing matter.
My next call was with my outsourcing vendor and it was on Zoom.US. They prefer it over Teams and do not ask why, because I asked, and they could not answer. Like our habits and routine, we also form a tech addiction or we get rigid toward what technology we like and what we do not. If you ask me, mostly we do not like what we have not used. But I have learned or maybe we all have learned it the hard way to adapt to changes. Anyway, I have an outsourcing vendor and it is also one of the welcome changes I made to how we operate post-COVID 19.
Having an outsourcing partner gives me the flexibility to scale my team, without investing in the infrastructure. Also, now I have learned that keeping all eggs in one basket is not a wise idea after all. I have an outsourcing partner for my administrative activities and for my tech needs. They have built a great platform for me to sell my goods online and their team takes care of maintaining that platform along with answering customer inquiries. I get a daily, weekly, and monthly report of their performance and I also keep a tab through TimeDoctor. I have another store which is one Shopify and I manage it along with 3 of my outsourced virtual staff. Through the custom platform, I sell apparel and luxury items. On Shopify, I sell goods that are processed by our manufacturing unit. We also sell on Amazon Marketplace and an amazing consultant helps me with the digital marketing campaigns.
I spend my first two hours talking to my team, answering emails, and getting back to my vendors. Earlier all my vendors were in China, but like my team, I have spread out my options and now my vendors are in India, Vietnam, Singapore, China, and Bangladesh. It gives me the opportunity to choose the best product at the desired price.
The rest of my time is always spent on getting and targeting new business lines or expanding the current one. I work with my marketing team on this and on Mondays we do our brainstorming sessions. Instead let us call it brainwriting, as we realized that when we do the brainstorming it is mostly I or my senior guys that speak. Brainwriting is a concept where everyone comes prepared with their ideas and it is a mandate for everyone to share it. We form a strategy with the best ideas and execute them. To keep a track of the progress we use Microsoft teams and Office 365 spreadsheets. To keep a track of our sales figures we use ZOHO Analytics, which gives everyone in the team a graphical presentation of the facts and numbers. I personally like Power BI and Klipfolio but I was more inclined toward ZOHO. A leader goes where the team leads when it is a win-win 😉.
In the evening, I had a brief call with my team, making sure everyone was inline the daily targets. It all gets recorded on Microsoft teams so that we can go back and refer if needed.
Now at 7.00 pm I am writing this and will get back to my family and later reading on my Amazon Kindle. By the way during the quarantine and lockdown, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video were my prime friends. I super binge-watched. Not sure if this is a term or not but I was binge-watching until I fell asleep or until my kids or wife yelled at me to stand up. So, these days I only read and not binge-watch, and I am loving ❤ it.
Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Author:
Kuldeep Bhatnagar (KB)
B is Chief-Marketing & Sales at FBSPL and loves assisting businesses to identify, plan, and implement remote staffing solutions. He has spent majority of his career in business process outsourcing and management, gaining experiences in areas such as operations, client delivery, account management, client success, sales, and marketing. While spearheading sales and marketing initiatives by day is his job function, KB also is a professional bathroom singer, a proud father of a beautiful daughter and an avid reader.
