Dribbling Covid-19: Challenges and dilemmas of an entrepreneur

Driblando a Covid-19: Desafios e dilemas de um empreendedor

Bruno Grezolea grezolebruno@gmail.com

Universidade do Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI), Itajaí, SC, Brasil

Giovana Buenob giovanabueno2014@gmail.com

Universidade do Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI), Itajaí, SC, Brasil

Esta obra está bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución 4.0 Internacional.

Many people dream of starting their own business, and Breno was no different. After returning from a trip, he decided the time had come: he pooled his savings; borrowed money from family members; sought all the necessary information about the market in general and, specifically, about the tourism segment; became aware of the process of opening companies; defined who your target audience would be, etc. Thus, the company “Caminha Esse Mundo” began to take the form of a travel agency, focused on inspiring people to discover Patagonia, in the road-trip style. Breno was very excited because he could be, at the same time, a travel agent and a guide, who would accompany his future clients on their adventures.

After the first setbacks, after a year of opening, the business was going well, with a clientele that only grew, thanks, in large part, to word-of-mouth advertising from its customers. However, not everything is roses, and Breno felt firsthand the disappointment and frustration, in 2020, with the arrival of Covid-19 – an unprecedented pandemic that brought the world to a standstill. People were confined at home for days, weeks, months. Travel?! What a great joke! Amidst the turmoil of garbled information, emergency health measures, airport closures, and even the lockdown, trips began to be canceled and Breno's world came crashing down. With that, depression and the feeling of impotence grew exponentially. What could he do, with the multiple reimbursements being requested by customers and the expenses piling up?

So, half in jest and driven by desperation, Breno opened a YouTube channel and vented all his anguish. There he told his story, his dream of being an entrepreneur, the challenges, the interrupted success, and the conflicting emotions. Moreover, isn't it that from a lemon he made lemonade? People identified with him: some were complacent; others, solitary; and many felt in the “same boat”, asking their opinion about the most diverse businesses.

The channel grew so much that the likes and shares became monetization and, thus, Breno reinvented himself! For that, he studied, went after rigging for video recording, and became practically a professional in the business. Called a “business guru” by followers due to his life experience and entrepreneurial profile, as well as his assertive advice, Breno was full of plans for his new career, that of an online consultant. Despite being “a free spirit”, a born traveler, that role had its advantages: working from home, safely, and with flexible hours.

However, with the end of the pandemic and the gradual resumption of business, the travel agency (its dream come true, its apple of the eye), which had temporarily paralyzed its services, began to show signs of returning to activity.

To make Breno's decision even more difficult, he receives a very interesting proposal for a partnership in online consulting, but one that would require his total dedication. With one foot there and the other here, he probes the market in search of direction; seeks advice from family, friends, and business partners; however, it does not reach a consensus.

Although there are numerous advantages, such as flexible working hours and satisfactory remuneration, a career in digital media is uncertain and, for it to be profitable, Breno would require a lot of dedicated time. On the other hand, “Caminha Esse Mundo” was already implemented before the pandemic; however, even if it were successful at that time, the post-pandemic reality would bring new challenges and uncertainties to the business.

Unfortunately, for Breno, it would be impossible to reconcile the two professions. It was time, then, to choose which of the two businesses to undertake. These conflicting thoughts populated his mind and, once again, since the beginning of the pandemic, he found himself at a crossroads. What to do? What is the best decision to make?

Breno has always been a born leader, fearless and visionary. He was never content to be like everyone else. From a very young age, he was a trailblazer of the world and discovered a passion for travel, making it a hobby. His goal was to save money so he could travel as much as he could and, gradually, that became a reality.

At age 20, Breno went to live in Argentina; at 23, he was on a plane to stay for a year in Irish lands. Between comings and goings, at the age of 28, he had already lived in five different countries and known another 20. However, he had never thought of making that hobby his profession. Until now.

After having experienced work in several different environments, such as a bank, restaurant, and foreign trade company, and having lived in other countries for a few years, Breno still did not identify with a specific career, nor with the idea of working 11 months a year, doing the same thing every day.

That’s how, on returning from the 2018 vacation, in conversation with his girlfriend, Breno envisioned the possibility of working with something that would provide him with personal and professional fulfillment. Still on the plane, crossing the Andes Mountains, he asked his companion if she was happy to return home, back to “normal life”.

– Yes, I’m happy, but actually… something seems to be missing.

He felt that excessively, incomplete. Passionate about traveling and getting to know different cultures, Breno could not understand the concept of happiness of a large part of society, which boiled down to having a house, a car, getting married, having children, and a dog. He needed to go further, so he began to list the possibilities of traveling longer, not just on vacation, and had an insight:

– Wait a minute! What if I could work on something that made me, at the same time, earn money and enjoy my dream? It would be a job that would allow me freedom of time and space. Would make me feel alive, motivated.

When you set a goal, fate conspires in your favor. Upon landing at the airport, while Breno was opening the app to call a car to take them home, he came across an ad about entrepreneurship, and an idea began to take shape in his mind. Opening a travel agency focused on inspiring people to get to know Patagonia, a road trip, which would allow him to accompany his future clients on their trips, becoming, in addition to a travel agent, the guide itself. It would be exciting!

Breno knew the difficulties of the path to be followed and the many risks that would arise because his parents were also entrepreneurs, but it was something viable, which was enough to get him very excited.

As the weeks went by, Breno’s desire to undertake grew bigger and bigger. He read and reread many articles on the subject and, after checking all his savings and borrowing money from family members, he decided that the time had come to put his idea into practice and open the company.

Breno started by planning the business, defining what the company would offer to customers, what their values were, and their budget. To do this, he talked to friends, family, and mentors at an incubator at the university where he had studied, receiving guidance that he should, at first, put the idea on paper and determine its purpose, subsequently developing a brand project, based on his life values (Figure 1).

Figure 1
Values of "Walk This World"
Note: Prepared by the authors (2023).

Therefore, the company’s value proposition was defined as inspiring people, through innovative trips, to unconventional destinations. In this way, between Breno’s comings and goings exploring the world, the venture was named Caminha Esse Mundo (Walk This World, our translation).

One of Breno’s professors recommended an online course on entrepreneurship, which was very useful to him. Even more so because the tourism sector is highly competitive, and involves solid companies in the field. Beginners and small entrepreneurs, therefore, to survive in this segment, in Breno’s view, must innovate from the beginning, positioning themselves in different ways in the market.

In a conversation with Chilean friend Paulo Bernal who, in his free time, likes to venture into Patagonia with his motorhome, Breno made a partnership proposal:

– I am creating a tourism company focused on exclusive experiences, aiming at a small scale, that is, to take groups of a few people. Brazilians aged between 25 and 65, who identify with unusual scenarios, snow, mountains, glaciers, desert, contact with nature; appreciate eco-tourism, respecting the region’s natural resources and cultural heritage, but also enjoy adventure tourism, taking a road trip through the Patagonia region, with hiking, mountaineering and climbing options. I will be the guide and accompany the groups on trips, and I would like to count on your partnership to support me in Patagonia. Do you see?

– You can count on me! – said, Paul. I see this as a business opportunity, especially for the Brazilian public, as there is almost no winter tourism related to snow in the country.

After the initial procedures, Breno had everything ready and the company operating. With the help of the incubator, he planned his business, defining that the relationship with customers, at first, would happen through human interaction (his and Paulo’s, back in Patagonia) and no automated messages or CRM software, at least in the beginning.

The channels to attract customers were social networks (Instagram and Pinterest), email, website, Google ADS, telephone, inbound marketing, word-of-mouth advertising, through customer feedback. The idea was to bring the company closer to travelers/customers, treated as friends, through ties similar to that of a family.

Thus, Breno made the deal happen, defining the main activities and doing all the planning for the trip, with the establishment of dates, destinations, hotels, transport, itinerary, and main attractions. In this way, to (a) market the trip, contact was made with future clients; (b) to carry out the trip, it was enough to set foot on the road; (c) optimize and reduce business risks, partnerships were identified and signed in Brazil and Patagonia; (d) airline tickets, hotels, and insurance, tour guides for a particular attraction, parks and trekking, resorting to partnership.

The main resources were also defined: (a) physical – hotel, transport (motorhome, minibus) and computer; (b) intellectual – photographer, guide, and driver; (c) human – three people hired to handle sales, finance, and marketing; (d) financial – initial capital and working capital.

Regarding the financial part, Breno established all the costs involved in operating the business: (a) fixed costs – rent and expenses for a commercial room, development, and maintenance of the website, in addition to management and marketing software; and (b) variable costs – fuel for the trip, hotel, guide, and photographer.

As for the source of revenue, the entry took place through direct sales: e-commerce, with credit card options, transfers/deposits, Pix, and bank slips.

After the first mishaps, a year after opening, Breno’s company was doing well, and he already envisioned an expansion into Chilean lands. Its clientele only grew, thanks in large part to word of mouth from customers. In addition, the power of communication and the ability to form contact networks – networking – have always been Breno’s outstanding personality traits. Everywhere he went, it was normal to make friends and keep these contacts, because, as he confided to his girlfriend.

– You never know which people can be engaged and be part of objectives in future business.

With these partnerships, then, Breno increased the possibilities of expanding his business. He did not count, however on the turnaround in the market, caused by Covid-19 – a pandemic that stopped the world – in 2020.

Breno had just set foot in Patagonia when his world came crashing down: due to the pandemic, the airports were closing, that trip had to be cancelled and the group of travelers needed to return to Brazil as soon as possible. The use of a mask became mandatory, as well as alcohol gel, and everyone would comply with the quarantine, as soon as they landed in Brazil.

It was a nightmare! Breno had to calm the tourists down, even though he was desperate. He refunded the money for that and other groups booked for the next few months.

Airlines were in chaos, airports closing; people had to stay confined at home for days, weeks, and months, respecting the lockdown in cities; there was the constant spread of misinformation and fake news; hundreds and hundreds of people were dying, the hospitals were full; Finally, the crisis set in and fear took hold of everyone.

Traveling, in that period, became a utopia. Breno had to fire his employees and paralyze the company’s activities. The scenario was desperate and the losses only grew.

Breno has seen his dream come true and a few years later, it went downhill. With that came depression and a growing sense of helplessness. Despite being overly distressed, he needed to think of something, as the expenses just piled up. But what could Breno to do?

It was then that, unpretentiously and driven by desperation, Breno opened an online channel to vent. There, he told his story: his dissatisfaction with working with something that did not give him pleasure, the dream of being an entrepreneur, the search for an opportunity in the market, the challenges faced, the temporary success of his business, and, finally, the cruel blow of Covid-19. Surprisingly, isn’t the channel successful? People identified with him, and many felt in the “same boat”, asking his opinion on the most diverse types of business.

Leonel, an owner of a food truck in Vitória, Espírito Santo, was experiencing the same drama: he had to close everything, fire employees, and was looking for a way to start over. Maria, an event organizer, was thinking about being a translator of scientific works, as a job option, until everything goes back to normal, if that would ever happen. Breno received dozens of messages like these. He began to think of ways to help these people reinvent themselves. Therefore, without realizing it, he ended up reinventing himself.

As people were obliged to remain at home for a long period, their customs, desires, and way of life took on other formats and, with that, new needs emerged.

Breno carefully studied the new context; searched for courses online; talked with friends, former teachers, and family; went after rigging for video recording; and started to give basic entrepreneurship tips, dealing with how to transform the old business, the pre-pandemic one, into something new, capable of meeting new demands.

The channel grew so much that Breno spent hours and hours in front of the computer, working like never before. Moreover, his eyes sparkled again! He felt accomplished in doing something that helped people, vibrating with the increasingly frequent achievements reported on his channel.

The likes and shares of Breno’s videos – called a “business guru” by his followers, due to his assertive advice on entrepreneurship, his life experience, and his entrepreneurial profile – turned into monetization, and he found himself, then, with a new profession, called digital influencer.

Full of plans for the new online consulting career, which looked promising financially; working in the home-office modality, in flexible schedules; after months in the red, Breno saw his bank balance turn positive again.

However, an influencer does not only live on likes – the profession demanded a lot of work and constant updating from Breno. With the pandemic, online services have grown exponentially, generating fierce competition. To stay on the “top of the wave”, it was, therefore, necessary to create innovative, useful, and quality content. Breno spent more than 16 hours recording a 40-minute video and spent a lot of time studying and monitoring his networks.

In 2022, a proposal for a partnership with an online course platform and e-book publisher emerged, which would enable Breno to attract a larger number of followers. The demand would probably triple and, to assist in its attendance, it would be necessary to hire other professionals.

Although Breno felt excited about the idea, he needed to consider it calmly before taking the next step. At first, online consulting was just a lifeboat for him; now, it was allowing him to guide his professional future.

At this point, his girlfriend’s advice on what to do was of crucial importance:

– Breno, my love, I know that the profession of online consultant was an excellent “quick fix” for the haziest moments of the pandemic, but now that business is gradually resuming, what about reactivating your company and having a “real profession” again?

For Breno, Caminha Esse Mundo was his dream come true, the apple of his eye! But the company had its services paralyzed since the beginning of the pandemic, and the latest news released did not seem to be promising for the sector (Figure 2), especially concerning the sale of international packages – the flagship of its business –, which suffered the most due to the closure of borders.

Figure 2
News about tourism and Covid-19
Note: Adapted table from Barbosa, G. L. (2020, p. 3).

In the constant search for information about the resumption of operations in the segment, when searching the internet, Breno found an article on the Sebrae website, about the tourism scenario and the behavior of travelers in the post-pandemic (Figure 3), which projected the search for less explored destinations, outdoors, in contact with nature and with greater exclusivity (without crowds).

Figure 3
Traveler behavior
Note: Adapted table from Sebrae (2020a, pp. 3-4).

Breno didn’t know what to do, because: on the one hand, research and articles pointed to the search for differentiated experiences by future travelers, it means, small-scale tourism, which fit the business model of “Caminha Esse Mundo”. On the other hand, the economic figures for this sector were disappointing, as the effects of the pandemic would be present for months in the life of the tourism entrepreneur until everything returned to normal. In addition, even when returning, a new lifestyle was being shaped by the pandemic, with people used to staying at home, which led to a lower tendency to take risks on trips.

All these issues were, in fact, complex, and Breno knew that, if he chose to resume his company’s activities, he would need to put into practice his adaptability and innovation capacity to undertake.

In addition, in the post-pandemic period, with airports reopened and health restrictions lessening, travel demand would begin to grow, and the “return to normal” would generate hitherto suppressed market demand. Would Caminha esse Mundo be structurally prepared to act in this new scenario? Would the original business model, successful before the pandemic, be enough, or should the company reinvent itself, creating an innovative model?

On the other hand, the role of digital influencer provided Breno with a lot of learning, not to mention the “extra money”, which was very welcome! There was, however, the uncertainty of the continuity of the profession in the post-pandemic period and, even if that happened, it would require countless hours of dedication, making it impossible to handle the two jobs.

All these conflicting thoughts populated Breno’s mind and, again, just like at the beginning of the pandemic, he found himself at a crossroads! What to do? What would be the best decision to undertake?

What is the best way to Breno? There is no right answer, but ways to help Breno make his decision in a period of so much uncertainty. To this end, several discussions can be raised, such as those described below.

Entrepreneurship (concepts, motivations, and theoretical approaches)

Before any discussion, it is necessary to understand the concept of entrepreneurship and identify the skills of those who undertake it. Promising ideas are not capable of sustaining a business if the profile of the entrepreneur who will lead it does not support the risks inherent to that decision.

In the case of Breno, the promising start was crossed by the pandemic. Here, it is possible to address the profile and skills needed by an entrepreneur to deal with unfavorable situations, crises, and other unexpected events.

One can also discuss how the pandemic affected Breno’s business and career, which, as others entrepreneurs, had to be redirected to survive the pandemic; and if there were questions about the advantage of resuming the previous business activity, when the context returned to be, in some way, favorable. In this area, it is also worth raising the reasons for the undertaking, discussing the two types of entrepreneurship: by necessity and by opportunity.

Finally, it is worth addressing the relationship between the activity of digital influencers and entrepreneurship, as well as its regulations and characteristics.

To this end, some actions are suggested:

(a) Identify, in the character Breno, the profile and skills necessary to be an entrepreneur. (Table 1).

(b) What are the motivations that lead individuals to undertake? Describe Breno’s motivations before and after the pandemic. What has changed?

(c) What are the different approaches to entrepreneurship? Moreover, what aspects can be analyzed from these approaches?

Table 1
Skills of an entrepreneur
Note: Adapted table from Man and Lau (2000); Zampier and Takahashi (2011).

Article ID: 2442

JEL classification: L26, L10

Editor-in-Chef 1 or Adjunct 2: ¹ Dr. Edmundo Inácio Júnior, Univ. Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP

Associate Editor: Dr. Marcos Hashimoto, Bradley University

Executive 1 or Assistant 2 Editor: 1 M. Eng. Patrícia Trindade de Araújo

Translation / Proofreading: The author

Conflit of interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Related item (isTranslationOf): https://doi.org/10.14211/regepe.esbj.e2304

How to cite: Grezole, B., & Bueno, G. (2023). Dribbling Covid-19: Challenges and dilemmas of an entrepreneur. REGEPE Entrepreneurship and Small Business Journal, 12(3), e2442. https://doi.org/10.14211/regepe.esbj.e2442

Thanks to Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina - FAPESC which, through the project linked to public notice 015/2019 allowed access to the universe of entrepreneurship.