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How will the pandemic and the government's actions impact our livelihoods in 2021?

January 01, 2021
people walking on grey concrete floor during daytime
Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash
Indy100-Conversations
and
Rita _Grootendorst

Viruses are nothing new.

Even though governments were warned that animal or human-made epidemics were possible, nobody seemed to be prepared or willing to face the facts when it did happen. I believe that politicians have defiled democratic processes, with the silent majority's tacit complicity and not so silent right-wing media.

Not only does greed appear to become "good," but lie after lie piled on top of rhetoric and bureaucratic claptrap has overwhelmed common sense and clarity. In order to become a commercial success in an overheated market place, it seems that it takes not just the niche market but hard-headed ruthlessness to exploit and take advantage of an opportunity, consumers, customers, and workforces. With that, Brexit fatigue and compassion fatigue for those outside the European Union and the United States became evident since the pandemic.

Inevitably the vulnerable elements of society, especially overcrowded multi-generational homes, poorly paid ethnic minorities, family carers, and domestic workers in care homes, all faced challenges and dangers that well-off folk won't encounter. The saccharin hype about the NHS and tales of nurses going to food banks while geriatrics were bundled back to unprepared care homes without being well enough or even tested to know if they were positive or not is unsettling. How easy is it to wring your hands of this after infection was transmitted and spread?

A recent case that sheds light on this is in the US . Dr Susan Moore recorded herself after a doctor at a university hospital refused to give her "any more drugs" and told her to go home. She went to another hospital, but within three weeks, she passed away. Dr Moore was not the only medic to be denied the same care that white patients had. The same entrenched, insidious, and institutionalised prejudice, bigotry, and race hatred for non-whites are still prevalent.

READ: How countries can prepare for pandemics with essential supplies

How countries can prepare for pandemics with essential suppliesconversations.indy100.com

It's time to re-think how we stock essential supplies for the future.

At the beginning of the Jim Crow era, Jack (John) Johnson, the Black heavyweight champion, faced prejudice in his time due to the alleged violation of the Mann Act. Johnson's experience was portrayed in a play that Mohammed Ali went to see years later. Ali identified with Johnson, who was vilified and stigmatised after he lost his title.

The lies peddled to the public start to wear thin when critical thinking kicks in. It was the beginning of the end of financial integrity, free school milk, the adulteration of our food and farming, double standards, cronyism, nepotism, and the network of not what you know but who you know.

The alleged readiness of the lower orders to jump on the bandwagon, betray their fellow citizens, and elect cheats, frauds, and liars had become the perfect storm for politicians to lead people astray. Those who collect public funds then abandoned their responsibilities and duties to charities and arms-length allies with predictable disastrous chaos that I feel is criminal negligence. Ergot lessons never learned by the indifferent and complacent, busy dodging accountability and scrutiny. Charities ought never to have been made responsible for whatever politicians and local government could shrug off.

Moreover, I believe that we are not safe or secure without self-sufficiency, without limits to self-indulge and obedience to authoritarian, self-important, disorganised renegades who make laws that they do not obey.

How many of us will remain unscathed when the bubble bursts and the economy crashes?

I think those that support and fall into the category of power will be safe from what befalls them. For someone like me who is considered the "others," the road ahead for 2021 could be rocky.

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.