On Friday 3 April 2020 I attended my usual BNI meeting which, because of the lockdown, was held over Zoom. BNI stands for Business Network International and I have been a member for about a year. We meet once a week over breakfast to network, share a 1 minute elevator pitch about our business and support each other and our businesses. I love our meetings on Friday mornings; it is a great way to finish a week.
However this week's meeting was different. A lot of our members are tradesmen and/or sole traders. As we went around the “room” for our one minute pitches, there was not the usual laughter or good natured banter. Out of the 25 of us on the call more than three quarters were unable to work from home and were wondering what to do now. Some were facing the uncertainty if their businesses would recover once the lockdown was over and life returned to some semblance of normality. More positively, some were looking at a way to pivot their services and others were using the time to catch up on paperwork and develop new processes to streamline their workflow.
As I sat there and listened and waited to share my elevator pitch, I reflected on the fact that I was in a fairly fortunate position. Although I had lost about 70% of my secretarial work, I still had a some clients I could continue working for from my home office. Also there is the opportunity for more ad-hoc work to come in for me.
In the meantime like some of my BNI colleagues, I also fill my time with paperwork, updating my website, upskilling with a proofreading and editing course, trying to get to grips with the mystery that is Google rankings and SEO more generally and wait for the lockdown to finish so we can get back to work.
Posted: Sat 04 Apr 2020