Chart your own Path
April 2020 is when I started to explore conducting webinars online to reach out to potential customers.
Singapore went into a “Circuit Breaker”, also known as a Lockdown, due to the outbreak of COVID-19. This limit the ability I can go around to meet up with people. Also, we need to reach out to more people to introduce what we can do for those, especially for those who like to get on Digital Transformation.
It started with me subscribing to a Zoom account, figuring around what I can do with that. Eventually, I decided to jump onto a paid version that comes with a Webinar function. I told myself that since I am paying for it, I must make it worthwhile. So, I started to prepare myself for a webinar that advocates Digital Transformation goes beyond Technology. After deliberating with few different titles, I have decided on “The Human Perspective of Innovation”. The purpose of this webinar is to share with people my team’s experiences on adopting technologies and how we manage to help a traditional business transformed.
After getting the material and the story done up, I need the audience. Unfortunately, I do not have a very proactive network. Thus I decided to put up ads on Facebook to reach out. I am getting close to 20 people who sign up for the first run and quite a reasonable turn-up rate. Around 15 people turned up, and it was impressive. Usually, a free webinar faced up to a 90% attrition rate. I continued to do this for two more runs and decided to create another content to follow up. This time around, I have decided on the title “The Search for Innovation”. However, I decided to give up on that as I stumbled upon two engagements. This time, I got paid for the job.
I have the opportunity to conduct few runs of “E-Commerce for Entrepreneurs & Businesses” with my business partner, FT Consulting. So, besides getting paid, I got the chance to share my company’s capabilities and what we can do for companies. Then Alan Puan, Group CEO of EPM International, told me that he saw that I could teach. So, he offered me an opportunity to conduct training for his company, training a Project Management Software to develop Work Breakdown Structure. Currently, I am running a facilitation workshop on Project Management Fundamental for his company.
Why am I sharing this story? All these events led me to take up Advanced Certificate in Learning and Performance (ACLP), a Train-The-Trainer programme. ACLP opens up another door for me to conduct training, generate income for my company, and potentially reach out to people and share my company’s product with them. I am still taking the course, and it ends in November 2021.
Back in April 2020, I was very stressed and down. The business was down, and making things worse, COVID-19 hit us. Instead of giving up and surrendering, I need to find a way to continue moving and continue fighting. I did not chart this path, but I found this path when I want to move ahead.
We might not see the way ahead when it’s all fogging, and we tend to have a reservation to move forward. But, remember, we are not alone, and many are facing the same situation. The difference that we can make is to find a way to continue moving forward, slowly widen that gap between our competitors and us. The speed could be slow with a strong headwind, but it will get better, and we will get stronger. This small gap helps to create an edge.
I am still fighting to create awareness for the product that we developed. We are not out of the woods yet, and we are facing significant challenges. But we are not giving up, not yet, without a fight.
