Featured Image Caption: Business after Covid | Image Credit: Ketut Subiyanto Via Pexels
Jump to read...
It is no shocking news how the pandemic has changed the global healthcare and economic landscape at an unparalleled level. The buzzing highways and public commotion have now gone quiet as the situation forced people to stay at home. Aside from the healthcare crisis, this global upset has led to a massive economic collapse that brought numerous business closures, job displacement, and a complete change in strategies.
This transformation seems to occur rapidly—most businesses are closing soon after reporting their losses before we know it. What do all these changes and developments mean for consumers? There could be a straightforward solution–new ideas!
In December 2020, 41.8% of the workforce in the United States was working in a full-time remote setup, while 56.8% was working part-time. Some businesses remained closed or shifted their operations online, while others have gradually adapted and started opening their services with limited operation.
To help you survive a crisis like the pandemic, here are some strategies you must consider as you plan on what’s next.
Reconfigure financial strategies
Aside from safety, finance is one of the primary considerations that business owners think of amid a crisis. This unprecedented time is the perfect opportunity for you to reassess your budget plans. For you to survive during the pandemic and after, you can start cutting unnecessary expenses by reducing overhead costs and switching to digital as much as possible.
Shifting to a work-from-home setup can be life-changing. Letting go of your physical office can cut rent expenditures and minimize the budget for office supplies and management. You may also consider canceling subscriptions and contracts that are not needed at present to reduce expenses.
If you have uncertainties in shifting completely online or the nature of your business does not fit a remote setup, you may still opt to keep your physical office. You just have to reduce the number of employees required to work face-to-face while still adhering to the CDC guidelines to ensure their safety.
Employ new business strategies
With the changing times, every business must be flexible enough to adapt to the shifting demands of the industry and the needs of the customers. Flexibility may be as little as a few tweaks in strategies or maybe as grand as revamping your business’s very foundation.
Online presence is essential for businesses as consumers are shopping online today instead of visiting physical stores. With the golden time of technology, you have to take advantage of its benefits to attract more customers and get your services noticed.
You can do this by creating a website with all the necessary information and setting up social media accounts to reach out to customers conveniently. Make sure to post updates regularly and interact with your customers. You may do tutorials, promotions, live videos, and even share memes related to your products.
Aside from promotional strategies, you should also look at the bigger picture and invest in services that you think may help your business in the long run. Shu Saito, the founder of All Filters, has made several strategies to help his business survive 2020. Despite having in-house employees, most of the workforce is in a remote setup.
To streamline their processes, they focused on improving their technology to create a new fulfillment process. Their remote employees could create packing labels at home that will be automatically uploaded on the cloud server. This saved them more time and even smoothed out their overall work process, all while ensuring the safety of the employees by having them work at home.
Improve employee productivity and engagement
Employing a remote setup should not limit the communication between you and the employees. To ensure that employee productivity can still be boosted with the absence of physical communication, utilize collaborative tools. This helps ensure that everyone is on the same page and can encourage people to reach out to one another when necessary.
This is also essential in building positive morale and establishing good relationships among the team. Some of the tools you can use are Trello, Microsoft Teams, and social media to manage communication.
Your employees are also having a hard time adjusting to the new setup. To help them adapt to the changes, you must also invest in equipping them with the necessary tools to work. Provide them with resources, equipment, and opportunities to learn new skills through webinars and online courses.
Final Thoughts
The pandemic has upended the business industry and changed how we usually deal with everyday life. Slowly but safely, you must move forward and think of the best ways to thrive during this uncertain time. Through reassessing the budget, employing new business strategies that would fit the customers’ needs, and enhancing the work culture, you can survive and even adapt in a crisis like this.
There’s no harm in stepping on a brake first; once you are ready to venture out again, you can slowly release the clutch until you can fully speed on again.
By Adrian Agawin
works as the Marketing Manager for Asia Premier One Source. He has the creative mind to plan and implement multiple strategies for businesses. He expanded the company’s social media presence using digital marketing.
Member since September, 2021
View all the articles of Adrian Agawin.
Leave a Reply