Yemani Mason is a financial advisor and founder of a series of business enterprises. Though esteemed for providing consultancy services on matters related to wealth creation and wealth-building, he takes a step aside to share some critical suggestions for entrepreneurs to ensure that their ventures survive beyond the pandemic.

Though we are yet to witness a permanent solution to pandemic COVID-19, there have been several innovators who have stood firm to create unique solutions in these times. There have been several COVID-19 innovation competitions that have seen a wave of enterprising minds and their well-positioned solutions combining social impact alongside financial viability.

This ongoing pandemic has worked as a litmus test for most businesses to prove whether they are sustainable and future-proofed or not. Serial entrepreneur Yemani Mason offers insights on some of the best practices that entrepreneurs could follow to navigate the ongoing economic crisis.

Foolproof your business

It is essential to analyze whether or not your business can provide long-term solutions. The pandemic has proved to be a fertile ground for telehealth business practitioners, online education service providers, and collaboration tools companies. To determine whether a new product or service addresses a long- or short-term problem, entrepreneurs need to start by looking to the past.

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It is advisable to construct a market-opportunity analysis using data from 2019 and earlier. Was the problem that you are addressing now, a problem then? If yes, how big was it? Next, they can list the changes that occurred with the emergence of COVID-19 that created or amplified this problem and the need for innovation.

Next comes the stage of future analysis. Here, entrepreneurs need to gauge if their products or services will have a significant demand in the post-COVID world. The key to building a lasting business is having a deep understanding of who your customers are and how your product or service fits into their world. An entrepreneur has two crucial questions at this point. Do your customers need your product or service? Will they be equally in need of your product/service once the pandemic is solved?

If research shows no substantial demand in your market shortly, it is best to consider pivoting your business strategically and proactively. Once again, founders of innovative solutions should look to the past for inspiration and educate themselves to understand how crisis-inspired solution providers moved ahead with a profitable financial model to serve generations of the future.

During the Great Recession of 2008, for example, Mark Johnson, Clayton Christensen, and Henning Kagermann presented a framework for reinventing the business model that is as relevant today as it was then. Today’s entrepreneurs use this framework to define their company’s customer value proposition (CVP), profit formula, and the key resources and processes needed to deliver the offering as they navigate a future that is likely to demand novel solutions for some time to come.

It is equally important to chart a business model so that entrepreneurs, surviving on the ‘Buy One Get One Free’ model during the pandemic, can rely on a robust revenue model afterward.

Testing times ahead

Crisis breeds innovation; the ongoing pandemic has proved to be no different. We are yet to see which of these businesses stand a chance to sustain in the long run and create a positive impact on peoples’ lives. Yemani Mason is helping people achieve not only financial success and freedom but also genuinely trying to help change peoples’ lives for the better with his advice, books, and posts.

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