Steve:   0:00
My name's Steve Marvell and this is Crucial Survival.  

Steve:   0:03
Today I'm gonna talk about small business survival.  

Steve:   0:09
Small businesses are in trouble throughout this crisis. I sympathise, and I empathise with that fact. It's very, very difficult to be a small business owner, especially a start-up.  

Steve:   0:24
You are in a survival situation and should be treating it as such. Take stock of your assets, decide how they can be utilised and make a plan of action. Your primary asset is you. Your skills and knowledge haven't changed; your experience, the tools of your trade, your customer base and your drive. That hasn't changed since you started as an entrepreneur. You still are an entrepreneur. You've still got that drive and you still have that memory and the experience of starting a business.  

Steve:   1:06
But here is the mindset change you need to make right now. Just because you can't run a business like you used to, doesn't mean you can't run a business with what you have.  

Steve:   1:21
It might be that your customer base changes, the nature of your services may change or the delivery of your services may change. The musician becomes the composer, the Pilates teacher, who would normally operate out of a studio or a gym, is now operating online, and the farmer that would normally deal with a restaurant directly is now distributing their wares to members of the public or trying to find a way into supermarkets.  

Steve:   1:57
That's innovation. That's what you need. It's that drive. Not giving up. You mustn't give up in a survival situation, you shouldn't give up. Just keep trying and trying and trying.

Steve:   2:12
Here's an example. I was on my walk the other day and there was a delivery van, I think it was an electrical goods delivery van and he was delivering groceries and that's just innovation. He knows the equipment he's got, a van and his skills, he car drive. And he can now change his customer base and the nature of the business that he's running and still turn a profit.  

Steve:   2:43
It's that innovation, that rethinking, that utilisation of the assets that you've got, which is going to drive your business into the future and through and out the other side of this crisis. It's going to need hard work, but you know what hard work's all about because you started that business years ago. You're gonna need the hard work and you've got to keep going.  

Steve:   3:10
You're in survival mode. You cannot give up. Make a mistake. Pick yourself up. Carry on. Something doesn't work. Carry on. Innovate. Carry on hard work. Carry on. Stay in that survival mode.

Steve:   3:26
Hope isn't a solution.  

Steve:   3:28
Think about what you've got to think about, what you can use it for. Find some customers to sell to.  

Steve:   3:35
It's really, really important to me. If you like this, it shows that it's relevant. The more likes on this particular subject. It encourages me to do another on the same subject. Commenting obviously shows me the relevance.  

Steve:   3:53
So that's the episode one all finished. I'll crack on with the next one and in the meantime...  

Steve:   4:00
Keep well, staying indoors, and save lives.