By Stevi Lowmass, Founder and CEO, The Camel Soap Factory LLC
Google the secrets of great entrepreneurship and you’ll get tips like:
Think success. Be passionate with what you do. Focus on your strengths. Never consider the possibility of failure. Plan accordingly. Work hard! Constantly Look for Ways to Network. Be willing to Learn.
But the crisis caused by the pandemic has taught me that successful entrepreneurs need to learn to weather the lows! Before COVID hit last year we had a successful and growing business. We had ambitious plans for 2020 and were primed for the year.
Then COVID hit.
Our revenues plummeted and I was forced to face an uncomfortable reality: the business I‘d worked so hard to build might fail. Looking back over the past 18 months I realize that because of what has happened, I have a whole new set of skills. This is how I weathered the lows.
Focus on myself, my mental and physical health is crucial to making it through the worst times.
I had one sleepless night early during the first lockdown when I could feel the panic bubbling through me and the stress building in my body. I made a commitment to myself to focus on the skills I’d need to get through the crisis, with my sanity, health, marriage and business intact.
A friend reached out. His company had gone through rough times during the global financial crisis 10 years previously. He shared his coping mechanisms. He’d started journaling, found time to meditate daily, and stressed the key to his mental survival had been sticking to a strict routine.
I focused on building a routine that incorporated physical fitness, working out from home religiously whilst gyms were shut. I learned to meditate for short periods during the day, and found time for small pleasures during the day, whether it was a quick Sudoku game or a walk around the lake. Routines that have become so ingrained I continue them today because the benefits were so huge.
Communicating my vulnerability
The single thing most important thing I learned from my friend however was his “phone just one person you don’t need to speak to” rule. He phoned one person every day, a supplier, a customer, or a friend, just to stay in touch. I made a list of people to contact. People I hadn’t spoken to in years offered sage advice, companies with spare capacity because of Covid did work for us for free and suppliers were supportive when we couldn’t pay. Communicating the fact that we were facing problems was uncomfortable at first, I felt the need to pretend that we were fine and that business would pick up soon. But I made the decision early to remain honest and truthful, but realistic and positive at the same time.
Many of us are inclined not to share the bad times fearing they reflect badly on us as entrepreneurs, But I have learned that vulnerability and openness reap astonishing rewards.
Defining my fears
My favorite TED talk is by Tim Ferris called ‘Stoicism: why you should define your fears instead of your goals’. The basic premise is that when facing major uncertainty, looking at your worst-case scenarios and having a plan for each one of these, is far more powerful than pretending that failure is not an option.
The notion that failure is not an option is ingrained in all entrepreneurs. It’s a great principle but does not mean closing our eyes to reality. What did and does keep me awake at night is not appreciating the possibility of failure, and failing to plan to prevent failure.
I started planning for every conceivable outcome. Running out of money, not paying suppliers, staff falling sick on the production line. The list was long.
But there was a subtler benefit to this planning. I slept better. Having a plan means being prepared and it removes uncertainty.
Sticking to our values
When times are good it’s easy to talk about values fairly glibly. Ours are pasted on every wall at the factory.
In bad times it’s easy to forget these values, but we focused on pulling through together. Painful as it was, we reduced payroll early to ensure our money lasted. The temptation is to cut very deeply, but we bore in mind that at the end of all of this we would need these key staff when the business recovered. Staff supported the company by taking massive pay cuts. We decided to keep our value of ‘Family’ and we worked to save the most jobs, rather than maintaining salaries for just a few.
Seeking help from others
I’ve always been reluctant to ask for help, to take time from other people’s busy schedules when I know they have their own problems and pressures. I realized that this was short-sighted. Learning to ask for help was perhaps the single biggest challenge for me and where I grew the most personally. Not asking means you don’t get what you need. Asking for the outrageous in your own eyes, might not be so outrageous in the eyes of the person you are seeking help/advice/support from.
And if I had to give a single piece of advice on weathering the lows, it would be – don’t do this alone. Seek help. Pay for help if required. There are skilled coaches and mentors in the market. I was surprised by how much help and support there was to be had from people around me, many of whom I’d been afraid or embarrassed to approach in the past.
I belong to an amazing network called Entrepreneurs Organization (EO). The collective experience that can be tapped into when you call for help from these remarkable entrepreneurs is astonishing. But most importantly having a support network like this means business problems can be viewed collectively. We brainstormed my problems, many times coming up with solutions I would never have considered with my limited perspective.
Comparisons are dangerous
Early on in the pandemic, EO organized a zoom webinar with Marshall Goldsmith, arguably one of the greatest coaches and mentors in the business world. One thing he said resonated deeply within me and totally changed my perspective. He said simply ‘Forgive yourself!’.
I realized that I’d been blaming myself for the situation we’d found ourselves in. I hadn’t put aside enough cash, I hadn’t planned to expand our product lines, I hadn’t done X, Y and Z. More damagingly, I perceived those around me who were thriving during Covid, as being somehow better business leaders than myself.
Forgiving myself allowed me to let go of the notion that everything was a result of my poor leadership. Sure there were things I could have done or planned for better, but dwelling on these issues was holding me back from focusing on survival. Once I let go of the comparisons, and stopped blaming myself, I felt liberated and free to plan our way out.
Some final thoughts
Early on the crisis I predicted that if we survived the crisis, we would come out a very different company, much stronger and more resilient. I knew that if we could weather this low successfully, it would define what sort of company we would become. I’m proud to say that in the midst of this crisis we found investors who saw the promise of what we were doing and were willing to invest to build, diversify and grow, I don’t think this would have happened without the low.
As a company we are leaner, healthier and more diverse. As a leader I am fitter, stronger and more resilient.
About the author
Stevi Lowmass joined the EO UAE Chapter in 2018. Passionate about sustainability in the world of beauty, she is the Founder of The Camel Soap Factory. The company manufactures handcrafted and milled natural soaps as well as a range of natural creams and balms.