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2020 was a year of growth for many business owners, but not in a way you’d expect.

Business owners had to learn many things fairly quickly as businesses were shut down or transitioned from brick-and-mortar stores to online. Some had to learn multiple lessons at once, and some failed to learn them at all.

I still felt like I could grow my small business throughout 2020, but that didn’t involve increased sales or expansion in many ways. I had to learn many things to keep my business afloat and adapt to new circumstances that weren’t in my business plans.

Despite the unexpected, I found that I could grow my business, especially when it came to my marketing strategy and how to engage with other business owners and professionals.

No matter how I hope you were able to grow your small business during 2020. Here are a few of the lessons I learned throughout the year and how it expanded my business.

Lesson Learned #1: Be flexible

There are so many things that went on this year that made us think on our toes. We weren’t prepared, but we had to learn to go with the flow of things. 

Being flexible was a lesson I learned as a journalist and then applied it to my own business. We were bombarded with new information constantly and needed to have a few backup plans regardless of how set-in-stone we wanted to be. 

This might mean having about 3 plans when you originally only had 1. Make more plans than needed and being flexible will be a lesson more comfortable to learn.

Lesson Learned #2: Learn to adapt

To some, being flexible might be a close lesson to learn in comparison to learning to adapt. For me, being flexible is about planning, and adapting is about doing. 

With a constant stream of information and new circumstances, we had to think quickly to make the magic happen when it might not have been steady or consistent. Finding new avenues and ways of making business lucrative was a challenge, and business owners had to adapt to their environments.

So, when in doubt, learn to be flexible with your plans and adapt accordingly.

Lesson Learned #3: Be patient

I think one of the biggest lessons we learned during 2020 was to be patient. In some cases, we couldn’t, especially when paying our bills or our health was considered. Regardless, we knew it would take time for many aspects of our reality to return to normal.

Many people will know, I am not patient. This year has tried many of my buttons and made me question many aspects of my business. My best advice from learning this lesson is to focus on what you can do something about while letting go of many of the things you can’t control.

I knew it would take time for clients to come back and invest in themselves. It can be vexing, but it will make it that much more worth it when clients come back.

Lesson Learned #4: Get Creative

As a graphic designer, you’d think I’d already have learned my lesson to be creative. That was not the case when it came to running my small business, and it was a gigantic wake-up call.

I learned how to be creative in my marketing most of all. I would not consider myself a social media savvy person, so I’ve been learning how to market my business in new ways. In the future, I might need to invest more time to grow my small business.

You might have to learn your lesson of getting creative through other means or areas of your small business. It might mean a tweak or a complete overhaul, but it’s fun to play when you have no limits.

Lesson Learned #5: Set ‘your’ pace

Everyone has a pace that they can maintain over a while. Still, it’s essential to learn what ‘your’ speed is compared to keeping up with your competition. 

You might need to slow down or be in a spot to speed up with your small business. Either opportunity is excellent for you, but I needed to learn this lesson. I needed to find how to grow my business at my pace and be okay with that throughout 2020.

While I saw many people grow more exponentially, I stepped back and learned how fast and how long it took me to create a quality product for my customers.

Lesson Learned #6: Don’t rely on business plans

I had so many plans for my small business this year. Some of them, I was able to work and complete; others I wasn’t so successful.

Learning the lesson of the best-laid intentions was difficult. I like structure and order, but when I wasn’t able to execute aspects to my satisfaction, it was disappointing. Don’t let your business be ruled by business plans that might not happen.

Don’t get me wrong, still make plans, but you should know when to throw out the agenda too.

Lesson Learned #7: Build a firm foundation

I firmly believe this is one of the most important lessons I learned in 2020. I had to go back to the drawing board a few times to build a firmer foundation for my small business.

I had help once I started networking and learning how and what I should focus my small business on. This caused my business to grow, but broader, not taller. I strengthened my company with marketing and packaging help while slowly increasing my business’s clients and sales.

Over the year, I was more concerned about strengthening my business instead of increasing profits. 

Lesson Learned #8: Network

During 2020, I thought it was impossible to network more for my business. So many opportunities were canceled or changed throughout the year.

I was pleasantly surprised about how I managed to find connections throughout the year. I still felt like I missed some opportunities, but I also found new ones that didn’t include a zoom call! Learning this lesson was a harder pill to swallow in some cases, mostly because I’m not a very social person, to begin with.

Being able to make loose connections made me more sure about helping businesses throughout their own growth processes.

Lesson Learned #9: Be generous

I found that this year, it was more important than ever to learn a lesson of generosity. That meant being generous of your services and learning how to be generous with your time, knowledge, and experience. 

It takes little time and effort to give your feedback on someone’s work and help them improve. You might see other business owners as competition or a rival or several different things. Still, it can make a huge difference and impact another business owner more in the process.

Being generous will help you not only network with like-minded business owners, but it will help establish your expertise. It doesn’t take much to make a positive impact on someone’s success.

Lesson Learned #10: Expect the unexpected

2020 has undoubtedly been the year of the unexpected.

I see this happen in my life all the time, and it was imperative I learned this lesson in regards to my small business. You will see many instances that will make you scratch your head and wonder why you didn’t prepare more for this instance. 

We can’t always live in fear of the unexpected, but we can have a plan in place for how we respond to our circumstances.

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