Growing a Business in the ’20s: What Has Changed and What Has Stayed the Same

So far, nothing that has happened in the 2020s has gone as expected. Yet while unprecedented times can be difficult to navigate, wherever there is change there is also opportunity.

What’s Changed: Your Office Hours

While working from home has been possible for some time, the pandemic that began in 2020 forced every industry to consider what work could be done remotely, packaged for pick-up, and delivered online. Businesses had to reinvent the way they conducted meetings, communicated with customers, and collaborated on projects.

Eyal Gutentag, a leader in performance marketing who has built a career helping companies to grow through challenging times, believes that many employees and companies have adapted to this new way of working and can see the benefits of less time working in a traditional office. Some workers find they can be more productive and have more work-life balance, while some companies find they can be more profitable without needing to maintain a physical office space.

What Hasn’t Changed: The Importance of Team Communication

With teleconferencing, you now bring colleagues, who used to see you only in a professional setting, right into your home. In the background of meetings, it is not uncommon to see someone’s spouse, their kids, or their pets woven into the fabric of their daily routines. It can feel vulnerable, having so little separation between personal and professional lives. Yet it also presents an opportunity to support your team in more meaningful ways.

You might make a practice of starting meetings with a brief check-in, to replace the informal, “How are you doing?” chats you once had in your physical office. These communication methods, combined with the trends blurring personal and professional relationships, have led to some innovative approaches to employee benefits, such as programs to support employees’ mental well-being, or providing free financial planning to reduce employees’ stress about their financial futures.

What’s Changed: Your Customers’ Priorities

A dramatic upheaval in people’s lifestyles is still rippling through society. Your customers may no longer want the same things they wanted in 2019 – or even in early 2020. They may have made changes to their children’s schooling arrangements or their family’s living arrangements. They may have taken a voluntary or involuntary pay reduction. And they may have moved to another state. They almost certainly have taken time to reconsider priorities like health, their finances, and spending time with family.

What Hasn’t Changed: Solving Problems Leads to Profit

Talk to a growth marketing leader and you’ll learn this simple truth: If can solve someone’s problem, and do it consistently over time, you can grow a business. Maybe the problems have changed, but this principle has not changed. The key to growing a business in the 2020s is to recognize what problems your customers have been unable to solve on their own, and to fulfill that need.

If your business has lost growth during the radical changes experienced so far this decade, then something is no longer working about the way you solve problems. Maybe the problem has shifted, or maybe the way you deliver your solution needs to change. When you find the right fit, you can build a profitable business even in challenging times.