Many self-employed and small business owners approached other entrepreneurs during this difficult period to find some comfort in the midst of uncertainty and ambiguity. The relationships we create today are changing the future of the whole community. Shared experience seems to promote pride and solidarity among small business owners and can also change the dynamics of how we work (and how we compete) once we emerge from this crisis.
Sense of solidarity
An economic event seldom affects every society. Usually, attenuations occur regionally or by industry. However, almost no field has been immune to this pandemic, which has affected everyone somehow. This has created a sense of "all in it together", which brings companies closer. Under normal circumstances we would perceive our competitors as a certain threat factor; now, however, more and more new sub-partnerships are being formed, which forces us to trust one another more and share resources in order to stabilise the situation.
Although numerous conversations take place on private channels, many also appear publicly on networks such as LinkedIn. Small business executives and entrepreneurs seek and provide more open information and experience to get a clearer picture of the scale of the crisis across their industry and among other competitors in the market. From the comments, it is possible to observe what support individuals provide to one another. There are also more and more counter-services in various forms, reducing essential costs of both parties for marketing, and so on.
Although the pandemic affected every small business, winners and losers remained. While some restaurants have had to close, some IT companies cannot even keep pace with orders. There have also been many personnel changes.
Sooner or later the pandemic will end. The question remains whether the spirit of sharing that has emerged in the small business community will persist.
Entrepreneurs are "notorious competitors" but, according to current signals, it seems many of them have learned from the pandemic that cooperation and sharing may not be useless. Just as traditional business relationships are not built in a day, they probably won't disappear in a day either. If entrepreneurs get used to helping each other to whatever extent, the small business community will continue to grow stronger in the future.
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