The new reality

We own a small business. It is the usual retail store model with a small cafe, a model most restaurants or specialty stores have adopted since the early 2000s.

But when COVID hit, my partners and I decided to throw in the towel on brick-and-mortar and close all retail storefront locations. We had a feeling this will be a long drawn out and losing battle. And we shifted all our efforts to serving customers online.

What about our suppliers? Small community enterprises who depend on a shorter supply chain or what everyone calls “farm to table” now realize they, too, need to adjust. Plant less, process less and adjust rolling inventory levels.

Our employees, due to the many lockdowns, started to find home businesses they could start, found temporary jobs within walking distance from their homes or started new careers in art or services.

Our bigger suppliers also adjusted their inventory levels due to a reduced workforce. To adapt, we had to find additional new purveyors who were willing to consign their goods rather than us paying outright. And life goes on.

With everyone running businesses on reduced risk, reduced manpower and reduced physical spaces, what does an entrepreneur need to decide on?

• Close the storefronts and go online. This is what most everyone did. But if you will just start your online infrastructure now, you will have lost a few months or a year to keep up with those who started way before you did. So you may remain closed.

• Join the online race and buy ads to be “top of mind.” I talked to an entrepreneur who did this, increased her sales threefold but still is in the red due to high advertising costs.

• Take the loss and move to another format. This may well be how 10 percent of the MSME businesses went. Close the business, pay your debts and move on. Or declare chapter 11.

So what are these business closures making us realize? There is a new world order, a new reality.

• People realized that cooking at home is so much cheaper than eating out. So there goes the restaurants of yore.

• Even coffee shops are feeling the pinch because people are brewing coffee at home.

• Convenience stores and supermarkets also felt the reduction in consumption as more people stayed home and controlled their spending.

Now, MSMEs must join the clutter on the big online platforms, marketplaces, live selling and also think about why all these changes are happening.

Or maybe everyone should learn a lesson or two as they embrace the new reality.

• Being sustainable means growing your own food. How many people are now buying farms to get the clean fresh air while being able to survive without going to malls?

• Quick service restaurants (QSRs) have been hit as more people eat at home and also because people now have time and do not need “fast food.” After all, there is Food Panda and Grab to cater to every budget and taste 24/7.

• Employees find that staying at home is better so they can supervise their kids’ modules while they look for other ways to earn a living.

The big shift to online learning for kids, staying home for parents and businesses throwing in the towel is our new reality. If this will be the case for another year or more, we need new policies to help the economic sector rise up, albeit in another form.

Business closures will continue and employees will just wait for severance pay packages as employers struggle to pay debts and other expenses.

I do not wish to be a wet rag for many people’s dreams of returning to normal. But if we do not learn the lessons, Nature and the Universe will just continue repeating the lessons – through more variants, more surges and more disappointments.

It’s time to face reality, the new one. And live like there is a new tomorrow. After all, the only thing permanent is change. And unless we recognize that, we may just be another statistic.

“Another business closes. Closures go up to 20 percent and growing…” may just be the headlines for the coming months or years if we do not learn our lessons now. Until we accept the new reality and know when to close or change gears, we may just be delaying death and not prolonging life.

The new reality is asking us to move out of the wasteful past society of fast fashion, fast food and fast everything. It is making us move away from traditional business models of scale to a more sustainable business model. The new reality is making us rethink business missions and objectives from mere profit to improving the world and society.

The new reality is making all of us find a higher purpose. The new reality is making us change ourselves, so we can change society and, hopefully, the whole world.

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Chit Juan is a trustee of the Philippine Women’s Economic Network (PHILwen).