2021 could be a great year — if your business survives
For Ashlie Ordonez, owner of the Bare Bar Studio, a spa in Denver, vaccinations for the coronavirus can’t come soon enough. While she anticipates better days later this year, surviving until then will be a struggle, and she knows the next few months will be lean ones.
“I sold my wedding ring so we could pay the bills and keep the doors open,” she said. “I’m sacrificing everything to make it through this pandemic.”
Vinay Patel, who manages a chain of nine hotels in Maryland and Virginia, is looking even further out for a recovery. “2022 is when we’ll see the real true potential of the vaccine,” he said. Patel added that his biggest hope for the coming year is a measure of stability, if not prosperity.
As 2021 begins, business owners big and small confront a rapidly shifting landscape. An end to the pandemic is in sight as inoculations begin, but the slow pace of vaccinations has delayed the turnaround they were counting on. Hanging on is the chief goal for many, even as others look ahead to what they consider to be an inevitable rebound.
This year “is not going to be a walk through the park, but I’m optimistic,” said Jimmy Etheredge, chief executive for North America at Accenture, the strategy and consulting company. “The eggs are in the vaccine basket.”
Even as he anticipates a turnaround, Etheredge emphasized that many of the changes wrought by the pandemic, such as working remotely and a shift to cloud technology by companies, are here to stay.
“Ten months of pandemic has accelerated technological change by 10 years,” he said. “We’re never going to go back to the way things were before.”
In the meantime, it is clear that there will be winners and losers this year. Restaurateurs, leisure and hospitality businesses and the travel industry will continue to struggle as a surge in COVID-19 cases prompts renewed lockdowns in many parts of the country.
The biggest companies, on the other hand, are positioning themselves for what could be a surge in consumption when the pandemic recedes. Technology, manufacturing, health care and some other industries are booming.
President-elect Joe Biden signaled Friday that trillions of dollars’ worth of fresh stimulus could be on the way, and the imminent Democratic control of the Senate makes that much more likely. Even so, these remain times of limbo for many executives and business owners.
“The days of having a permanent budget or a permanent plan are gone for a while,” said Mercedes Abramo, chief executive for North America at the luxury-goods purveyor Cartier. “You’ve got to manage through this ambiguity.”
Adaptation is a strategy that Ivan Kane, owner of a cafe and nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, knows by heart. To comply with social-distancing requirements, he reduced capacity from 320 to 117, filling what was formerly a dance floor with tables to provide adequate space between guests. To attract customers, he bought 15 hospital-grade ultraviolet disinfecting lamps, and he recently acquired an igloo to allow guests to dine outside while protected from the elements.
In the coming months, Kane hopes he will be able to break even, but he predicts that it will be a year before he is able to usher in the crowds necessary to make his business profitable. “The margins are razor-thin,” he said. “It’s just about keeping the lights on.”