The worst thing about the COVID-19 pandemic is that it took us all by surprise. No one was really prepared for a global crisis like this. While big enterprises have managed to sustain their operations during the pandemic, it is the small businesses that have suffered the most. If you run a small business and want to keep your business afloat during this difficult time.
You need to adopt these following measures immediately.
1. Assess your current burn-rate
Now that things are not going as you may have planned at the beginning of this year, you need to take note of where your business is spending its money right now. John William, a business development manager at My assignment help states that “if you have been monitoring the expenses, you may have noticed that some of those expenses are avoidable. You should cut down on such unnecessary expenses as long as they don’t affect the efficiency of your business.”
While analysing your burn-rate, it is important to ensure your business remains efficient even during this crisis. Efficiency can help your business compete the rivals. You need to identify the areas where you can reduce the expenditure and make up for that by boosting your own effort levels. Whatever decision you make, you need to think it through.
2. Adapt to the current marketing trends
The pandemic has forced most businesses to change their marketing strategies, and that has lead to the emergence of new marketing trends. While some of those trends may be difficult for you to understand and predict, some of them can actually work in your favor. It is important to identify the recent marketing trends as quickly as possible so that you can reoptimise the positioning of your business.
It is possible that your business is more suited for providing the services or products remotely to the customers than you thought. Perhaps, a brand repositioning is what your business needs right now. If you are able to adopt the new trends, you are most likely to be having an entirely new revenue stream once this is over. As you may have noticed, schools and colleges have now adopted online learning and are likely to continue it. Needless to say, it will impact the assignment help related businesses significantly.
3. Utilise your time in the best way possible
The pandemic is a great opportunity for introspection. Look at your business and evaluate how much time you are investing in your business and how much revenue you are generating. A lot of businesses do not want to acknowledge whether their business pursuit is worth it or not. But you cannot afford to do that, not at this time. Ask yourself whether this business is worth investing your time or not.
It may not make sense to continue putting all your effort and time into your business when it is not producing enough results. If you choose to reduce your burn-rate to zero temporarily, it may make more sense, given the situation. In the meantime, you can put your effort into other areas to make money and get back to working on your business when the time is right.
4. Observe and learn from your competitors
There’s no shame in learning from your competitors if they are doing great amidst this crisis. If you cannot figure out how to operate in this pandemic, you can observe the rivals who are making it through the pandemic and see what unique approaches they have adopted. It is recommended to observe both direct and indirect completion to have a better understanding of which of their strategies are most effective.
Some of the strategies of your rivals may not be relevant to your business. However, you can always modify a few of those strategies to fit the specific needs of your business. You can use this time of pandemic to adjust the macro strategy and positioning of your business to stay in the competition. In fact, you can observe how your competitors have positioned their businesses during the pandemic, you can also take inspiration from it.
5. Cross-train your staff
Desperate time calls for desperate measures. You may not have thought about burdening your employees with additional responsibilities, but this is no ordinary circumstances. You may need to consider cross-training your staff so that they are able to perform multiple roles in the business. Also, you need to invest in technology that will let your employees work remotely.
You may need to consult with your staff while planning your next steps. Communication plays a crucial role in building the relationship between you and your staff. Be it about the company’s response to the virus or about opting for reduced hours of work – run it through your employees. It may be a good time to think of some job retention scheme. As you may have realised, your employees are your best bet to getting your business on track during this crisis. So, you have to ensure you utilise such resources in the most effective ways possible.
6. Be quick to respond
Since COVID-19 has pushed a lot of businesses to go digital, it has become more important than ever to have an online presence on social media and other digital platforms. If you have not considered investing in social media marketing, this is high time you do it. Also, just being there is not going to be enough. You need to engage with the audience more frequently than before and respond quickly to their feedback and queries.
You may need to constantly provide your clients with the latest updates about your products and services amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. If your employees are working remotely, you also need to set up a remote workplace system that allows you to seamlessly connect with your employees and monitor their work. It may take some time to get used to this new way of running a business, but the sooner you adopt this approach, the better.
7. Keep an open mind
As mentioned at the beginning of this blog – none of us were prepared for this kind of crisis. Yet the whole world is slowly getting back to normal by taking one day at a time. Eventually, things will get better, and everything will return to normal. And even if some things do change permanently, you need to prepare yourself to adapt to such changes.
Running a business in a competitive market has always been challenging. The pandemic may be too big of a challenge, but you are not the only one facing it. So, you need to keep an open mind and stay positive. Things may not always go in your way, but you need to keep on trying and make new amendments to keep your business afloat. Your attitude can make a lot of difference.
We have already lived through a major part of the year through the pandemic. And even if you have not achieved anything special during this pandemic, at least you have learned how to pivot your way through such a challenging situation. A majority of the aforementioned measures are already being employed by a lot of businesses. And if you do not want to fall behind your competitors, you need to buckle up and take the necessary steps to bring your business back in the game.
