Everyone knows that this pandemic has hit a lot of business owners hard. At this point over 90% of small businesses in the United States said that they have experienced negative effects on their business due to COVID-19. You may even be one of those whose business has suffered ill effects because of this pandemic. However, not everything is doom and gloom! We’re going to tell you some things you can do to start rebuilding your business and recover from the impact of COVID-19.
Get Ready to Hit the Ground Running!
Have a Plan
The most important aspect of the recovery process is going to be having a plan. The first step you should take is to evaluate your financials and overhead. Go over all expenses line by line, item by item, and dispose of anything that no longer serves you or that isn’t making money. Make sure you know exactly where you stand concerning your finances. This will give you a good look at the damage that needs repairing. If you haven’t been keeping up with your financial statements, now is an excellent time to get them in order, before everything gets too busy again.
Take a good look at your industry. Is your industry thriving? Great! But always keep innovating. Is it dying? Then you MUST pivot.
Don’t Be Afraid to Pivot
PIVOT! Be able to adapt to the new economic climate. Whatever business model worked for you before the virus may not be what’s in your best interests after. Your business may need a hard pivot to adapt to the coming changes. Don’t push against the tide of change, ride that wave to a brighter future! Take a look at your strengths and weaknesses; they may have changed a lot with the shift in the economy. Look for areas that still work well and places where you can make adjustments to better serve your market.
Commander’s Palace, one of the Top 10 restaurants in the Southern US has done an excellent job of pivoting! They are in the business of creating experiences. They started wine and cheese nights for their customers and they deliver this experience to your door. You can get similar wines and cheese and Zoom with them and others who want to share this experience. They know what their customers need; connections to others. They solved that human need and created a demand for their new service.
Negotiate!
- Renegotiate with your vendors, they will want to make any kind of money right now and will most likely give you reduced pricing.
- Negotiate with your employees, especially high salaried. Find a solution that works out for everyone in the long run.
- Negotiate with landlords! Most will be willing to accommodate due to exceptional circumstances.
Assess Your Budget
Figure out whether or not you may need federal funding to get back on your feet. Assess your business’ financial needs and how to best address them. Can you recover on your own? Or would it be best to get some temporary assistance? Keep in mind that federal funding is not an unlimited resource, so apply NOW. Along with this, reassess what your budget should be. You may not need the same things that you did before, so you need to take that into account.
Create a Marketing Plan
One of your number one priorities should be marketing right now. Even if you cut down other expenses; marketing should never be cut. If new customers can’t find your business, then it’s dead. Use the money you’ll save with negotiating to double down on things that are working for you!
Something that’s very helpful is creating yourself an estimated timeline plan for your recovery. It will help you visualize what goals are more reasonable than not. A possible timeline might look something like this;
- Re-evaluate business model
- Request and acquire government funding
- Restock inventory
- Re-hire employees
- Clean the house and reopen your doors!
If you find yourself having trouble developing a plan that works for you; the Small Business Association is providing free courses and webinars on coronavirus specific issues for business owners. They are also offering access to mentors to help guide you through this whole process, which can look very daunting if you’re on your own.
In addition to the resources provided by the SBA, you can find more tools and tips by visiting exitrichbook.com. There you can find the Top 10 Considerations that business owners should be taking into account right now.
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