What can we ditch as we build towards a better future?

When Covid first hit the U.S., did you imagine lockdown lasting until October? Now, as you look forward, are you hoping we’ll be “done with Covid” in January? Are you more pessimistically — or realistically, depending on who you ask — thinking that this pandemic might last through 2021? One thing that’s become obvious in 2020 is that life — and business — are precarious endeavors, and there is always room for improvement.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the realities Covid has laid bare: massive educational inequalities, extensive health care deficiencies and more inequality, disparities in who gets government funding to keep businesses open, and so many, many more — you guessed it — inequalities. And so… what? Do we go back to business as usual when this is all over? My hope is that we can truly learn some lessons from this awful time, and change the way we do business in our communities.

Campfire Coffee, a new small business in Tacoma, WA, successfully connects with customers via Instagram.

What can we learn from a pandemic?

One of the first lessons many businesses learned during Covid is that your support system matters. And one major — free, accessible to almost everyone — way of building your support system is social media. While there are many, many reasons to be wary of social media’s influence and reach in our society, it has undeniably changed the playing field for business — often making it possible for small businesses to flourish in niches that would not have existed 10 years ago. Most businesses see social media as a quick way to increase revenue. But the most sustainable, worthwhile approach to social media is to use it as a point of community connection — a place to build relationships, create connections, and find collaborators.

Business that are more tapped into their local communities survive downturns better than businesses that are less community focused. Similarly, businesses that give back to their community tend to survive longer than businesses that are focused inward. The pandemic is a spot-on case study for what happens when things go sideways — Can your business stay afloat when pivots are necessary? Do you have a relationship with your customers that allows you to ask for help? If you don’t communicate with your customers, it’s hard to ask for help. And if most of your customers are far away, they may shift to buying local when their budget gets smaller. This is the perfect time to examine your customer relationships, where you’re putting your marketing dollars and efforts, and whether a more local focus can help you thrive.

One of the key lessons I’ve learned during the pandemic is that I have to be flexible when planning product launches or workshops. I assumed at the beginning of the pandemic that people would want to take lots of virtual workshops. But, everyone had the same idea, and there is an oversupply of workshops, making it hard to compete for attention. Add in the challenges of promoting events organically when Facebook keeps messing with its business page tools and the algorithm — Irealized that I could try to make my workshops “fit” into the current environment and hustle hard for sign ups, or I could pivot to where people actually where. In my case, clients wanted virtual one on one sessions where we could talk deeply about what’s going on in the world, how it impacts our businesses, and what changes we can make to ensure longevity. Having these paying customers has also allowed me to volunteer my time to help out struggling businesses with their social media marketing strategies, as well as spend time helping out with Food is Free in my community. If I had pushed-pushed-pushed workshops, I would have missed out on the revenue and the capacity to give back.

Many businesses are finding that it is tough to market and promote your business if you’re not settled on, comfortable with, and capable of speaking about your purpose and mission. Since we’re all on Covid time — getting less sleep, juggling a million things, handling remote school and/or remote work, missing our families — the motivation to be online and sharing with your customers can be really low. I’ve seen again and again that if you take the time to reconnect and clarify your purpose, and identify how that purpose can help people specifically during this challenging time, you will have more energy and less friction to get online and share. Not every post has to be some amazing picture and caption — you can just share about your business, your life, your purpose, your product. Use posts to allow customers to get to know you — this is how social media builds trust.

Most small businesses can’t meaningfully impact the inequitable state of health care, education, or the economy as whole. However, each business can make a small difference — in elevating and supporting businesses owned by people of color, in keeping pressure on suppliers and large companies to transparently diversify and tackle internal bias, and in helping keep social, economic and environmental justice in the news and being discussed, in hiring and nurturing employees of color. This can’t be a one time effort, though. Consistent and consensual support is essential — some small, black-owned businesses that saw a surge of purchases earlier this year ended up with refund requests and harassment when they couldn’t fill orders immediately. Supporting POC-owned businesses can’t be “one and done” — if we want to elevate businesses in our community, we should confirm that they want the publicity, and we should aim to support them in an ongoing way (Patreon, subscriptions, purchasing quarterly supplies, setting up recurring payments for contracts, etc.)

I’m going to be disappointed if , when the pandemic is over, we return to “normal.” Normal wasn’t working for most people. Normal was — is — inequitable, unsustainable, and exhausting. I am cautiously hopeful that we can set aside time right now to consider what needs to change, and what we actually want to bring with us into our “new normal.” Can we truly change the way capitalism works, and make it more equitable, within the margins of small business? Maybe not — but we’ll only know if we try. And these shifts aren’t hard, but they do require purposeful action, and a shift in priorities.

This article was previously published on Medium.com in October 2020.