The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it great uncertainty, hardship, and loss. Despite the massive shifts happening right now in the economy, education, business, and interpersonal relationships, there is still truth in this famous Einstein quote: “In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity.”
As an entrepreneur it is time to change your mindset and ditch those survival strategies that helped you get through the chaos of the pandemic, and start thinking about ways to maintain or even grow your business. Here are a few tips to help you out:
Cut your losses
The first thing you need to do before even contemplating any strategy to grow your business is that it is important to stop any bleeding your company is experiencing. The most common problem areas you want to look into are cash flow and liquidity. Now is the time to give your clients incentives such as discounts for those that pay more quickly, as this will help you maximize the inflow of cash into your business.
Next, it’s also a good idea to renegotiate with your vendors so that the liquidity you do have can be stretched a little longer. Keep in mind that almost everybody is facing the same issues that you are. And finally, consider applying for a low-interest loan such as the one offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
Rethink your marketing strategy
As people are urged to stay home and reduce contact with others to a minimum, it is easy to see how useless investing in any marketing strategy that relies on face-to-face meetings, trade shows, events, or bricks-and-mortar stores is.
If digital marketing and social media marketing weren’t an important part of your strategy, now is the time to make them your top priority.
Start with evaluating your current online presence and think about how it can be further improved across all channels you are currently using and if you should incorporate new ones into your mix. Keep in mind that all your efforts in online marketing should be geared towards getting more paying customers, so don’t waste time on less relevant metrics such as likes.
Implement new sales channels
Social distancing and minimizing exposure means that it’s not just your marketing strategy that needs to be implemented online. Now is also the perfect time for your business to fully embrace a digital strategy. You can start by building an e-commerce platform on your website so your customers can easily keep purchasing your products and services while they stay safe at home. This new sales channel needs to be supported with a robust operation that includes high quality online customer service, quick delivery at a fair price, and revamping your sales process so your sales team has the tools to keep building meaningful and strong relationships with clients. This means hosting webinars instead of face-to-face presentations, having video conference calls instead of traditional sales calls, etc.
During these uncertain times it is only natural that you think about business in terms of just staying afloat, but this mindset guarantees that you miss out on some great opportunities while those who are able to adapt to new situations thrive.
