March
23, 2021
7 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Wow, what a year it has been for entrepreneurship! What in itself is an extreme sport under normal conditions, from the onset of the pandemic has become a discipline “only suitable for the cardiac.”
Enough has been said and written about the effects of the crisis on businesses and entrepreneurs, so I do not intend to delve further into it. However, what does capture my interest is what various entrepreneurs have done to go further and overcome the challenges of the past year.
At the beginning of the crisis, when we all believed this would be something temporary, the key word was ” Resilience “ : the ability to adapt and not give in to pressure . Without a doubt a key feature for anyone who wants to start or have a business in difficult times.
However, seeing that the current crisis continues more and more, – and when the only certainty is that things will not go back to the way they were before (at least not 100% in my opinion) -, being resilient remains short before an ancient characteristic for the survival and prosperity of businesses: it is time to go from Resilience to Reinvention .
I have to say that I have a personal preference bias; I go to those who do not give up, to those who do not sit idly by waiting for someone to come and save them. I like the stories of those people who, in the face of adversity, build their own reality, always pulling “forward.”
This last year I have loved seeing mop people who, faced with the most difficult moments in their business, have decided to opt for radical transformation, even on more than one occasion.
And it is that if I have learned something in the world of entrepreneurship in the eight years that I have been learning, working and undertaking, it is that complete comfort leads to death; clinging to “that was not the way things were before” is one of the main recipes for failure, even more so in a world that changes rapidly.
As always, the best way to learn the basics of something is by observing those who are already doing it and doing it well. That is why I would like to take advantage of the space I have in that column to highlight a couple of companies that, from my point of view, have had incredible reinvention processes in these months of crisis.
PIXZA, reinvent itself to empower the community
Image: Entrepreneur in Spanish
If I ask you which industries have been most affected by COVID-19, no doubt everyone would agree that restaurants have had a very difficult time. When your whole model is put “in check” due to restrictions you have no choice, you reinvent yourself or you die.
That is why what the PIXZA pizzeria with a cause has done is so interesting and valuable, who have not given up and have found new ways to continue with their purpose.
By putting together various problems he faced, Alex Souza, founder of the brand, saw an opportunity to reinvent himself. On the one hand, the inability to receive diners at its branches, on the other, the limitation of reaching other cities with a traditional model (today they only have branches in CDMX), and finally, a huge number of people who have lost their jobs this year.
In this way, PIXZA created its “Impact Multipliers” model, a network that literally allows anyone to join the PIXZA family, helping people who need to generate extra income, while encouraging the company to expand its business model and reach the entire republic.
Learning from other industries, the PIXZA team thought that if diners can’t come to the restaurant, the restaurant has to go to them so now, anyone can join as a distributor and sell the “pixzas” to their family and friends. .
I have to say that among all the efforts that we have seen in the restaurant industry, this is undoubtedly the one that takes the cake for me, empowering your community to carry out your business? Just great.
By the way, if you are looking for entrepreneurship opportunities this year, why not start by joining the PIXZA community of “impact multipliers”? Check here the information here .
PYMO, reinvent yourself based on your skills
Andrea Hernández, Fernanda Silva and Paola Hernández, who started with a blog and eager to help during the CDMX earthquake in 2017, have already gone through several levels of Pokémon evolution since their creation. But it was in the wake of the pandemic that they found their last form, and are now more powerful than ever.
After trying to be an impact project agency and a crowdfunding platform, PYMO decided in 2020 that the best use of its skills is put into practice in the creation of a platform that allows Small and Medium Organizations (PYMO, duh) , receive the financing they need. At the same time, large companies or people who want to help a cause find an ally that simplifies the entire donation, contribution and support process, while obtaining clear and transparent information on the use of their resources.
With this reinvention PYMO allows everyone to focus on what is good: organizations do not break their heads with funds and companies maximize the impact of their work, a formula that has proven to be so effective that they have raised more than 20 million pesos in a year, allowing to directly support hospitals with medical equipment to care for victims of COVID-19, and offering food for vulnerable families who lost their jobs during the crisis, among other causes.
It took Fer, Andi and Paola several years to find where they could maximize the impact of their skills, but keeping clear their purpose to “maximize solidarity” in times of crisis, they finally found the right way.
What are you going to do to reinvent yourself?
I love these two examples, as they teach us that really in the most difficult moments, true entrepreneurs, rather than weaken or go into hiding, should throw all the meat on the grill, even if that includes reinventing the business completely.
There are very few certainties for what is coming with this crisis, but one that is very clear to me is that the only way forward is to find within ourselves and our companies, the way to take advantage of our strengths, and use them as a basis for evolution.
Tell me, what will you do this year to reinvent yourself?