每日英語跟讀 Ep.882: Is a Pandemic the Right Time to Start a Business？ It Just Might Be 危機即轉機 疫情催生創業潮

In March, as small businesses across the country were shutting down amid the spreading coronavirus pandemic, Shanel Fields was about to open one up.

今年三月新冠肺炎開始大流行，全美各地小型企業紛紛歇業，而夏奈兒‧費爾茲卻準備開一家新公司。

For Fields, the timing couldn't have been better. Her company, MD Ally, allows 911 dispatchers and other responders to route nonemergency calls and patients to virtual doctors, to help local governments improve their emergency response systems.

對費爾茲來說，時機可再好不過了。她的公司名叫MD Ally，能協助911緊急求救電話的調度員和其他救難人員，將非緊急電話和病人轉給虛擬醫生，從而幫助地方政府改善他們的緊急救難反應系統。

She's not alone: New businesses are forming despite the pandemic.

她並不孤單，因為儘管疫情大流行，新公司仍不斷設立。

Past downturns produced some high-profile U.S. companies: Airbnb, Disney, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Slack, Uber and Venmo, to name a few.

過去的經濟低迷時期造就了一些引人注目的美國企業，像是Airbnb，迪士尼、通用汽車、惠普、微軟、Slack、Uber和Venmo。

“Downturns or challenging times are seen as good times to start a business for two reasons,” said Rashmi Menon, entrepreneur in residence at the University of Michigan's Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. “One is, there is less competition for resources. The second reason is that whatever changes we face, positive or negative, bring up new customer needs. And customer needs are at the core of any business.”

密西根大學澤爾路利創業研究所常駐企業家拉希米‧梅農說：「經濟低迷或充滿挑戰的時期被視為創業的好時機，這有兩個原因，第一個是爭奪資源者減少。第二個原因則是，無論我們面對的是正面還是負面的改變，都會帶來新的客戶需求。而客戶需求是一切業務的核心。」

For Fields, opening now meant greater access to top talent. She hired her fourth employee and said more than 200 qualified applicants had submitted resumes. And being in the health care sector during a pandemic has raised her profile with funders and governments: MD Ally, which is based in Philadelphia, recently signed its first customer and closed its first round of investment worth $1 million.

對費爾茲而言，現在創業意味著更容易接觸到頂尖人才。她雇用了第四位員工，並表示有200多名符合資格的申請者提交履歷。在疫病大流行期間投入醫療領域，提高了她在投資金主與政府眼中的分量。總部位於費城的MD Ally最近簽下了第一個客戶，並已完成第一輪價值100萬美元的募資。

For others, the timing can mean low interest rates for borrowing startup capital, cheaper equipment as businesses sell off inventory or lower lease rates as landlords scramble to fill empty spaces.

對另一些人來說，這個時機意味著能用低利率借到創業資本，取得因企業出脫庫存而更便宜的設備，租金也因房東爭相出租閒置空間而調降。

“There are going to be industries that are winners, and others that are going to be losers,” said David Brown, who co-founded the startup accelerator Techstars during the 2008 recession. “I probably wouldn’t want to be in a business right now that caters to business travelers, but I’d love to be in a business that helps enable telemedicine.”

2008年經濟衰退期間跟他人共同創辦新創加速器Techstars的大衛‧布朗說：「有些行業會成為贏家，有些則會成為輸家。此刻我大概不會想從事為商務旅行者提供服務的行業，但我會樂於投入有助於實現遠距醫療的行業。」

Determining what customers need now, rather than before the pandemic, is crucial. Menon and Brown see opportunity in offering solutions to the challenges that people now face: educating their children, working from home, managing supply chains, getting a haircut or the house cleaned, seeing doctors and therapists, entertaining themselves. Even new restaurants might be successful if they consider the future of customer service rather than recreate old systems.

確定客戶現在的需求，而非疫情流行前的需求，至關重要。梅農和布朗看到了為人們當前所面臨挑戰提供解決方法的機會，像是教育孩子、在家工作、管理供應鏈、理髮或打掃房子、看醫生與治療師與自我娛樂。即便是新餐館也有可能成功，只要他們考慮到顧客服務的未來，而非重建舊系統。

“If you can find innovative ways for people to feed themselves right now, that might make sense,” Menon said. “You just have to address a need.”

梅農說：「只要你能找到創新的方法來幫助人們解決吃的問題，那就可能行得通。總之你必須能滿足某種需求。」

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/354160/web/