Businesses of all sizes are experiencing unprecedented challenges during 2020. Key decision-makers need to move forward and adapt to the new normal to survive. For many businesses, this means throwing the old playbook out the window and pivoting.
Drastic changes can seem overwhelming, but taking it step-by-step can help. Here are ten tips for pivoting your business to survive in the post-pandemic world.
Take a Deep Dive Into Your Financials
The financial implications of this global situation are perhaps the most daunting for small businesses. However, it’s necessary to take a deep dive into the financials to get a better handle on the road ahead.
First, assess your overall income and how much your cash flow has decreased. Take a strategic look at what expenses you can cut to make up the difference. Fortunately, many businesses also saw a decrease in expenses as a result of the pandemic. Still, many fixed costs have likely remained the same.
Next, take a look at your debts and make a pay-down plan. If you took out loans to help keep your business afloat during the pandemic, prioritize the most urgent. Monitor your credit report and work toward becoming financially stable.
Finally, start to put together a plan to build an emergency fund. Many businesses survived on razor-thin margins before the pandemic; that’s no longer feasible in the new world.
Revisit Your Processes and Programs
The Coronavirus caused a ripple effect throughout businesses, affecting even the smallest, behind-the-scenes processes. There’s no better time than the present to re-evaluate your processes and programs to determine how you can evolve. This exercise ensures your business has what it needs to move forward while helping you streamline processes for efficiency.
Evaluate everything from your hiring process to payroll to customer service. Ask yourself what’s working and what isn’t in the new world. For example, you might determine that you need better small business payroll software to adapt to new employee hours and scheduling protocols. You could identify a need for chatbots to answer FAQs and explain new rules.
By looking at the many processes and programs required to keep your business functioning, you’ll be able to make adaptations to carry you forward in the new normal.
Set Meaningful Goals
If your five-year business plan is no longer relevant, you’re not alone. Many businesses have had to revisit and adapt their goals in the face of the pandemic. Rather than focusing on growth and increasing profits, businesses are shifting to survival and sustainability.
Set small goals to get your business through the coming months. Each action you take should be done with intention and purpose. Your goals could be purely financial or focus on customer acquisition and retention— the key is to start small and scale up.
Prioritize Communication and Transparency
Communication is essential for survival in the post-pandemic world. Everyone is experiencing shipping delays, altered hours, new protocols, and other challenges. Managing expectations and keeping customers engaged is a must for long-term success.
Keep connecting with your customers via social media and outreach efforts. Be sure to update your Google My Business account with your hours of operation and other pertinent information. If there are new protocols surrounding how someone visits your business, make them public and well-known.
Your customers will likely have a lot of questions. Consider making a standard answer cheat sheet for your employees to help them navigate these conversations and answer as quickly as possible.
Reward Customer Loyalty
Customers who have supported your business throughout the pandemic should be rewarded for their loyalty. Offer added value for customers who continue to engage with your business. This reward could be anything from a loyalty program to a discount option to a value-added product.
Keep in mind that customers are also experiencing financial turmoil and often have less disposable income than before. By positioning your business to show appreciation, your customers will be more likely to return when they have money to spare.
Rethink Delivery and Transactions
Rethink how customers acquired your offerings before the pandemic, and don’t be afraid to break the mold. For example, small coffee shops and restaurants shifted their offering to allow doorstep pickup and e-transfers. Meanwhile, other restaurants started making deliveries and doing pre-orders for food.
Be creative in thinking about how you can go to customers if they can’t come to you.
Refine Your Offering
One of the best ways to streamline your processes and cut expenses is to refine your offering. Instead of the usual smorgasbord of goods and services offered by your business, pare it back to the top contenders. Focus on generating income with the offerings your customers engage with the most.
For a restaurant, this could mean cutting the menu back to the top-selling dishes. Coaching businesses might eliminate one-on-one offerings to focus on dynamic group coaching. Distilleries are cutting back on drink production to produce alcohol-based sanitizers.
The key takeaway is to focus on what your customers want and prioritizing quality over quantity.
Prioritize Safety and Wellness
The COVID-19 situation has inspired people to evaluate businesses in a new way. Safety and wellness for both customers and employees are integral for success in the new world. During the early days of the pandemic, Amazon experienced significant backlash based on their lack of safety protocols and mistreatment of employees. Despite increased sales, the company has seen a significant drop in profits as a result.
Position your business is a leader in safety and wellness in the post-pandemic world. Prioritize the wellness of your people, and they’ll prioritize your business.
Host a Blue Sky Strategy Session
New situations call for new ideas. Schedule a blue sky strategy session where your team can brainstorm new offerings, processes, and solutions for the post-pandemic world.
When hosting this session, anything goes— ideas should be shared without worries about costs, timelines, etc. A blue sky session is meant for creativity and innovation; the practicalities come later.
Cultivate Community Connections
Finally, cultivate community connections by reaching out to other businesses and helping the local economy. Give back to community initiatives and become a helper during these trying times.
With these ten tips, you can reshape your business and survive the new normal.
