Many business owners are struggling to deal with the negative economic and financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic that has wreaked havoc around the world.
With the economies falling into an unavoidable recession one by one, both long and short-term outlooks for businesses vary from industry to industry, but that doesn’t mean that your business can’t adapt and still thrive. As we work to establish a new normal, creating a new business strategy to make sure that your brand builds a strong position within the latest business and economic landscape is vital. As lockdown measures slowly begin to ease and more companies start to re-open, here are three tips to help you adapt and hit the ground running.
Embrace the new normal
“When will everything go back to normal?” is a question that’s been repeatedly asked throughout the entire pandemic. If there is one thing that’s certain, it’s that there is no going back to normal. Life as we knew it before Covid-19 is unfortunately gone, and while some businesses and marketing agencies wait for things to go ‘back to normal’ so that they can release marketing already created for a pre-Covid 19 world, waiting would be a grave mistake. Embrace the new normal instead because remote working, and focus on eCommerce and automation and technology aren’t going anywhere – and with them come new and unique opportunities. Forget your plan from last year and take the time to strategize and think of news ways that your business can adapt and stay relevant in a post-Covid-19 world instead.
Focus on eCommerce
We are witnessing significant disruptions in global trade on an unprecedented level. These changes not only concern sales and marketing strategies, but place an even greater focus on consumer habits and the inevitable shift to online retail. While we have seen a rapid evolution in ecommerce over the past several years, it has never been more crucial to the business world today. The coronavirus pandemic has ultimately forced consumers to change the way they shop, with more people buying their products online than ever before. It is, therefore, becoming increasingly apparent that the few success stories coming out of the pandemics shadow are those that had already spent time, and money, investing in building their ecommerce channels and presence before lockdown took hold. Think of your customers and how you can reach out and stay close to them. With the majority of people now sitting at home, your best way of reaching them will be through the web. If your business wants to survive and thrive, you will need to change your focus to growing and developing multi-channel strategies for your online store to keep up with your competitors, and changing consumer behaviors.
Reduce unnecessary expenses
In times of crisis, it’s always important to cut down and cut back where you can. Aim to run your business more conservatively and cut back in any areas where profit margins seem risky. Look at your upcoming business strategy and see how you can re-work it to focus on short-term cash flow in an attempt to recover revenue as rapidly as possible. Make sure to limit the number of projects you are working on at any one time, particularly if they are long-term, as the economic climate is currently too volatile to be able to predict their value to you as a business owner. With millions of people already out of a job and the economy on the long road to recovery, reducing expenses while painful at first, will help you to sustain your business in the long run without having to rely as much on government help.
