Every personal situation and business situation are different and the daily news has shown that if anything is certain when a “normal” life will return remains uncertain. 

With that said, now (during the COVID shutdown) is an opportunity to double down on investing in yourself and your business. It is time for a calculated risk.

Timing is everything

If you wait until the economy is in full recovery mode to take action, you will be at mercy of those that were better-prepared. Timing is everything and in times like this, you need to move your product into the “essentials” or “justifiable treats” categories. 

Essentials are necessary for survival or perceived as central to well-being. Treats are indulgences whose immediate purchase is considered justifiable.

Purchases depend on consumers’ having disposable income, feeling confident about their future, trusting in business and the economy, and embracing lifestyles and values that encourage consumption. (HRB article -How to Market in a Downturn)

If you can’t transform your products into one of these categories, you have to at least change up your marketing to appeal to those upmarket to those that have the income, confidence, or trust to afford your product(s) now or shortly into the recovery. 

Why is it time to make a calculated investment? 

Personal

1. Learn a new skill. Find a new skill that is in demand and on-demand. Training for hard and soft skills has never been more available and thanks to on-demand learning platforms like Coursera, you can do it on your own schedule.

2. Get a hobby. Pre-COVID lockdown you may have been stuck with a hectic schedule. Running from event to event. Personal to work, work to personal. Do something that makes you feel good and proud. Studies have shown hobbies are good for mental well-being.

Business

1. Pent up demand. Yes, some have been impacted by lost jobs or are working decreased hours but for others the uncertainty has created a period were spending any money felt reckless. They delayed gratification for the security of having a few extra dollars in the bank. Once it feels safe to do so, that delayed gratification will need a release. 

2. CPM is down by ~20%. It has never been cheaper to get your message out there via paid media. Capture awareness during these times when you can purchase eyeballs “on the cheap”. (WSJ - Facebook Ad Rates Fall as Coronavirus Undermines Spending)

How do you capture those eyeballs? 

Cutting through the clutter of content has never been harder. To get the attention of those who matter to you, now is the time to just be valuable without the promise of receiving in return. (Problem Solvers Podcast - Episode 146: "Can I Still Pitch My Services During Coronavirus?)

You have seen it left and right from good-faith actors in the past months. 

• Zoom offering free calls 

• Photographers offering free sessions from the street 

• Nike donates shoes to frontline healthcare workers

These companies, individuals know that at some point doing what they do will pay off but now, at this time of need, they are doing it without any guarantees of a quid-pro-quo.

To capture the attention of those in the market or at some point will be in the market, provide your version free, undefined when you are going to see the benefit, value. You don’t have to “give away the house” but find a way.

Calibrate your brain to optimism. 

A thought-provoking question I took away from Mary Meeker’s coronavirus trends report: What if all this is the event that pushes us to the tipping point to move to a better place as a country, as a world? 

None of what we are going through is comfortable, or fair. And while things will likely get worse before they get better, has America, perhaps, just gotten the wake-up call it needed to get to a better place?

Let’s hope so, and let’s find the best ways to get to the other side as quickly and thoughtfully as possible.

Now is the time to “double down” on yourself to be ready to seize the opportunities when we make it the other side of this.