5 Things Your Small Business Can Do to Survive COVID-19
COVID-19 and the associated shutdowns are hitting businesses hard, and for longer than many expected. However, there are things you can do to help your business survive COVID-19.
In late March, 40% more U.S. businesses were closed than in January, and though the rise in closings has slowed, the sustained crisis still puts many businesses at risk for months to come. Over three-quarters of small businesses say they have been negatively impacted.
We’ve seen many blogs, articles, and postings about tips, so we decided to consolidate all the data we’ve seen and give you the most important 5 things you can do for your business during these trying times.
Care for Your Workers & Communicate
Make sure you have frequent and strong communication with your employees and listen to how they are being affected personally by this crisis. Before all else, you have to take care of our workers, because regardless of what industry you are in, your team makes your business run.
Make a Plan & Communicate It
Through your communication, you can create a modified system for decision-making that focuses on data rather than emotions. This decision making plan should focus on: the immediate (people and day-to-day business), the medium (cash conservation, lowered hours or potential lay-offs), and the long-term (plans for major economic impact and how you can adapt your business).
Communicate With Your Clients & Customers
Push external communication too, not just within your business or organization.
Take the time to write a pop-up message that will appear on your home page when people visit, or a banner that lets them know what you are doing, or where they can get more information. Better yet, send out an email to reassure all customers, stakeholders, and the general public that you are taking the appropriate measures and caution.
Social media can be a great platform for this as well, as well as a means of sourcing ideas from customers and seeing what others in your industry are doing.
Use This Lull Productively
Use this business downtime productively by making the most of any spare time to think about developing new services or procedures. Everyone has a list of things they wanted to get done but never had the time for – well, now we all have the time.
Businesses may need to deal with cash flow, supply chain, and liquidity issues, so keep up to date on PPP loans, grants, and other aids that are available so small businesses, and reach out to your communities and financial businesses as well as vendors and your supply chain to be sure you have a full picture of your options.
After you’ve done this, the next step is to think about possible improvement areas, like modernizing, or moving to a more online presence. SEO, digital marketing, web design and more are areas you could look into if you have the capital or if your company has not been greatly affected.
Adapt & Move to Remote Work or Online Services
Regardless of what your business is, there are ways it can move online or to remote work. Yoga studios are holding online classes or putting out blogs and content. Products can be sold online and delivered or picked up. Even hairstylists and other personal care businesses are finding ways to use their time and their talents online.
If you are in an office setting, then work at moving remote. If you are in the service industry, then work at moving online. Either way, there are ways we can all be ready for the changing workforce and world.
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