insiderblmFor many of us, this has been the most unpredictable and difficult year of our lives. Only 11 months ago, we rang in the new year and new decade in a world that looked and felt far different and far more certain than the world we’ve experienced since — and it was hard to imagine at that time how vastly our lives would collectively change in just a short period of time.
Now though, as we look back on 2020 and our personal and collective experiences living through the COVID-19 pandemic, we have the ability to reflect on takeaways and better prepare ourselves mentally, personally and professionally for the challenges that may lie ahead. For as much as 2020 has taken from us — loved ones, social contact, daily routine and basic freedoms — it has also left us with invaluable lessons.
Here are my top entrepreneurial takeaways from my experience navigating the startup landscape this past year:
Plan for the unexpected
When we launched Punch List back in January, we were living in completely different circumstances — and while COVID-19 was clearly becoming widespread in parts of the world, it was almost unfathomable at the time to think that it would become a global pandemic that would halt life as we know it. But it did, and quickly. In the first week of February, I personally spoke to over 120 contractors interested in using Punch List on remodel projects. By the second week, demand was cut in half. And by the time 80% of the country was under some sort of stay at home order a week later, our adoption rate mirrored that grim reality. This is a pandemic unlike any that we’ve seen in our lifetimes, of a magnitude that we’d only seen (up until this year) on the silver screen.
