SMEs in 2021: Navigating the storm

1. DIGITAL

If your digital footprint is still small, then step on the gas! With suppliers, customers, business opportunities, potential contracts, with all of us staring at a screen during the day (and sometimes at night), we should find your company/brand much more and much better in cyberspace. On the net and on the most varied social networks!

2. AGILITY

SMEs have always managed to move faster than large companies. It's time to step on the accelerator! Now is the time to show great adaptability, because the constraints you experienced in 2020 will not disappear so quickly. Whether in logistics, marketing, production or team management, break away from the orthodoxies of your industry and/or your company and return to your childhood condition of "Is it like this? Why? Why can't it be any other way? Destroy TINA (There Is No Alternative)!

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3. TALENT SHORTAGE

The need to keep the talent you already have and to acquire new talent will continue to be a constant challenge! Don't forget that the biggest pool of talent in our country is the universities - challenge them to cooperate with you for training, recruitment and project development.

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4. SCARCITY OF €€€€€€

The financial difficulties have not gone away! The €€€€ bazooka hasn't arrived yet. Be creative in your search for sources of funding! Be careful not to get to the end of the year more in debt than how you started in 2021. Better 80% of something than 100% of nothing! Factoring, Cash-Advance, are fallback solutions, but they bring fresh cash to the till! More structurally, finding a partner who believes in your company's project and brings money is certainly a solution that cannot be left aside.

5. E-COMMERCE

It's here to stay! Not just in the younger generations, but for all generations. It's relevant for 2021 and the years ahead. Whether B2C or B2B, rethink your business model, because even if we are talking about only 20% of turnover, no one can afford to lose them! There are not many businesses that, losing 20% of their turnover, manage to compensate for the margin they lose with efficiency gains.

6. FOCUS ON CUSTOMERS

They are the only ones who really pay the company's bills! As they have more and more choices, they need to be nurtured and committed to your company, your products and services and your values. Increase proximity with customers, bring them into your company to help you develop the products/services that they really value and to identify and correct the mistakes we all make in business.

7. LOCAL COMMUNITY

Many SMEs have a significant market on their doorstep! Involvement with the local community is not only an act of social responsibility, but also a way of creating reputation that widens, through word of mouth, the potential market, generating sales with interesting margins.

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Cloudy seas? YES... however, some of the trends that I leave you with, if they are well "surfed", may allow us to say that "there is life beyond 2021"! All that is needed is Humility to learn again, Ambition to win, Rigour in what each one of us is willing to do, and Transparency in the way we deal with those around us and, of course, Emotion in the way we do it. …

Good Business!