How Geeksvillage survived covid-19

Today March 15th 2022 marks exactly 2 years since the world shut down because of covid-19.

2 years after, our company has grown and thrived more than it has any right to.

Here is what we did to survive covid-19 and how you can use the template for your business.

1. We were already an online business:

We used to joke that our office is just there for show. Everyone of us was comfortable working remotely. In fact, we tailored our job to work from anywhere. From your kitchen, inside the bush. Once you have an active internet, you can get straight to work. This made it easy for us to adapt to working from home fast.

2. We gave extension on expiring web hosting:

The lockdown meant that small businesses hosting their websites with us could not have access to cash. They too have to prioritize food and toilet papers ahead of paying their website hosting bills.

Hence, we gave free hosting to all businesses that had their website expired during this period. We kept businesses online, and this translated into loyalty for us. Clients were grateful that we kept them online and started referring us to their friends.

3. We gave free online streaming to churches:

Religion is a major part of many people’s lives. During trying times, people will look for where to anchor their hopes. Having them not go to church was an enormous blow to them. This made us decide to give free online service platform to churches.

We built their website, integrated the streaming network to it and added a way for them to collect their offerings, all for no cost. This meant free domain, SSL Certificate, Website Hosting and Website Designing. This resonated well, and we reached some demography that we have not covered before.

4. We doubled down on marketing:

Because there was a pandemic, we stopped running advert asking people to buy stuffs from us. Instead, we started talking about how great our company is. How we are the best in Nigeria in what we do. Guess what, people started listening. They begin testing the theory. Are these guys the best kept secret? And we dazzled them. Turning them into repeat customers.

5. We kept hope alive:

All this wouldn’t have been possible if we did not keep the hope alive. We were constantly chatting and talking. Sharing memes and videos. Discussing ideas we will implement once we are back fully.

Immediately, the government lifted the lockdown; we moved to a new office closer to the road and started targeting more customers.

In summary, I know it is wrong to say that you made profits during the worst pandemic in human history, but a lot of companies did. And we may or may not have been one of those companies.

What lessons did we learn? No matter where you find yourself, you can always rise. You just need to come up with ideas on how to transcend that and move to the next level.