Business lessons learnt from the coronavirus pandemic

Hands up who predicted a global pandemic would come and tornado its way across the planet this year? Our guess is not many, and certainly none of us at Cognitive Law appreciated quite how significant the impact was to become of it.

Having lived through 6 months of business uncertainty, and with still much uncertainty ahead of us we wanted to share some of the lessons we have learnt along the way and offer some tips and support to our fellow Brighton businesses. 

As a legal consultancy with solicitors working remotely and flexibility even before the pandemic, we were lucky enough not to have to deal with the logistics of changing the way we work. The initial struggle for many businesses was getting everyone working remotely whilst accepting flexibility would be required to allow staff who were also managing home life and home schooling to do their job in a new way.

Flexibility was (and still is) vital to a business’s operational success. Those who embraced it whole-heartedly will now be reaping the rewards. Trusting employees to do their job to the highest quality whether it be at 6am in the morning or 10pm at night will have empowered their employees no end, ultimately creating loyal, trusting, and productive workers. 

With the curve ball we have been thrown, our businesses agility has been tested to the max. Having to adapt and respond to change has certainly made us realise that being comfortable and willing to adjust in a short space of time is critical in business. There are now several considerations business owners need to focus on in order to move their business forward as we emerge into a new normal. Our Commercial Solicitor Karen Blakesley has put together some useful pointers to help get your business back on track. 

It goes without saying that we’ve all struggled at times during the last 6 months for a whole range of reasons. Looking after staff has always been essential, but engaging and communicating with your team is now vital. Some employees will be understandably worried about their job security and regular communication will be needed. HR Consultant Claire Carson recently wrote an article on mental health considerations for returning to work which you may like to read if you are in the process of or looking ahead to bringing employees back to the office or off of furlough. 

Love it or loathe it, our reliance on technology to keep our businesses running has been paramount in helping us get through this virus. Having not heard of Zoom before March we can all now consider ourselves experts in video conferencing. Many companies, like ourselves have ended up using technology that was already available to them. Our team now regularly catch up on Microsoft Teams, either by video or chit chats through the day, something we never did before, and actually we can honestly say we truly feel more connected than we ever have before. 

So with all that in mind, although there were bumps along the way and still an unpredictable future ahead there have been some business lessons learned and positives to come from this.

We work closely with our clients to ensure their business is always in the best legal health it can be. We provide legal support to businesses from start up to growth and beyond so you can be sure our legal services can support you whenever life throughs a pandemic. 

Lucy Tarrant, Managing Director and Solicitor at Cognitive Law

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk