Keeping your business afloat

Keeping a business afloat is the hardest thing to do in this difficult time. Lots of companies had to shut down, millions of people lost their jobs and the global economy is in a very bad position. We are fighting two wars here, the war against COVID-19 and the war to keep the global economy afloat.

Creativity leads to change

If anything, COVID-19 is making people think outside the box and being creative. It is obvious this will not work for all businesses, but it is doing so for some. When they can’t do business the way they regularly do, they think of other ways they could still operate, make money and keep their staff employed. For example, here in Australia, we’ve seen small brewers changing their production lines from beer to hand sanitisers because these are in very high demand.  Restaurants and coffee shops started working on a “take away only” basis.  Bakeries and other small businesses started selling a few groceries like flour or rice since these are not in full supply in supermarkets.

Some clothing and footwear shops are redirecting their clients through their online shops, so they can still make business, even when shopping centres are empty. Some big manufacturing companies are changing their production lines to produce ventilators, masks and other medical equipment. Most businesses are in survival mode and their owners do whatever they can to keep their business afloat.

The translation industry

Translators are not immune to this crisis. For some, it may be business as usual, but for others, it may be very difficult to keep their business afloat. A medical translator, for example, may have a lot of work translating COVID-19 related material. A translator who does website translation may also have an increase in work since a lot of companies are now turning their business online.

For others, it may be difficult and we too need to be creative to keep our business afloat. It is time to use all our tools and start working. If we are capable of building websites, we can also offer that service together with the translation. Some may offer content creation and work for small agencies producing news articles or press releases, we can also offer to translate them as well.  We can offer language courses online, or any other form of course. Most of all, we should always think outside the box, go out of our comfort zone and analyse the current situation. When we find a way we can help others navigate through this very difficult situation, then we have our market and we found our solution to keep our business afloat.

Stay safe. Stay home.