How I Used The Pandemic to Pivot My Business
By: Jess Shanahan
Tags: Business, Automotive, Content Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Freelance

Photo by Randy Tarampi on Unsplash

In early 2020, I was still relying on my motorsport side hustle to keep me afloat but when all sport stopped dead thanks to COVID-19, I knew I needed to do something drastic.

In 2012, I started the agency Jet Social. I wanted it to be a high-level full-service agency that, eventually, would have staff and offices. In the beginning, it was just me, acting like a London agency — thinking it would help me land big-ticket clients. It did OK but I was only churning out small bits of work or had very small retainers. It wasn’t exactly what I’d envisioned.

While I kept the Jet Social name and operated under it as a LTD company, the agency itself fizzled out and I switched to being a journalist and automotive influencer. That worked really well, even more so when I launched the ‘side hustle’ that took over my life. Working in motorsport and writing about cars gave me my dream job.

The global pandemic took that away.

But I never felt lost. In fact, being stuck at home (and briefly in Barcelona) during lockdown gave me the perfect opportunity to look at my business and what was next. I had a drop in income and, even more frustratingly, I lost two big clients before their projects had even started.

My motorsport income dwindled to almost £0 so I set about spending a month redeveloping the Jet Social website from scratch and positioning it as a content marketing agency.

I created content, made connections, and started posting on LinkedIn. I also spent time nurturing my motorsport audience to make sure they were supported during this tough time.

I put in a lot of hard work to make sure I was in a good position to move forward once lockdown was lifted.

Things moved quickly because I worked tirelessly to build myself as The Expert; the go-to person in the automotive industry for content strategy. I knew it was time to go big or go home so I employed someone — my first ever employee — in the middle of the pandemic.

All this was supposed to happen back in May but we delayed things because I was scared about the future. I had no idea what was going to happen. But in September, I knew I had to be the one to take control. I took on a project manager to drive the business forward while I concentrated on the content and strategy work for clients.

What we’ve built in two months is incredible.

The pandemic gives us a lot of uncertainty but the growth of my business just goes to show what you can do when you really put your mind to something and surround yourself with the right people.

I took my business from content writing services and a motorsport side hustle to a content marketing agency with a healthy client list in six months — during a pandemic. Was it easy? No. Was it stressful? At times. But seeing that growth and knowing I’m going on to bigger and better things is so rewarding.

What can you learn from this?

It’s fine to be nervous about the global situation but don’t let it hold you back.

Surround yourself with people who lift you up.

Act like the thing you want to be and people will notice.

Use downtime to build something.

Don’t give up.

If you’d like to follow what I’m doing, I’ve very open about the ups and downs of business in my newsletter Jess of All Trades. Hopefully you’ll find further inspiration there.