Now that the worst part of the covid-19 pandemic seems to be in the past, it’s the perfect time to think about rebuilding, restructuring, and setting new goals for your business post covid. After all, activating survival mode was not supposed to be permanent, and if you don’t plan ahead or consider your business’ post covid reality then all the stress from the past year will have been in vain.
What this means is that you should not just be aiming to keep your business afloat anymore, instead it is time to make your business grow.
So here are a few pointers to get you started on growing your business post covid:
Assess the damage
The ideal place to start any plan for the future, is to make an inventory of what your business looks like today, and what was the extent of the damage it sustained during this past year. This means calculating where you stand from a financial point of view by updating your financial statements such as profit and loss, cash flow, etc. Once you have this data you can compare it with your pre-pandemic performance and see exactly how much your business is down. This can be a bit scary, but you might just be better than what you imagined.
It is also important that you consider other ways in which your business has changed during the pandemic. Maybe you had to lay off a bunch of people, or perhaps you had to cut the marketing budget in half, or you lost a few key accounts to a competitor because your customer service was lacking in resources.
Revisit your business plan
If your business had to pivot in any way during the covid-19 pandemic, this means that your original business model has now become obsolete. It also means that it is time to revise your entire business plan in order to see what can be improved going forward. At the most basic level it is a great idea to reevaluate your strengths and weaknesses, as they probably have changed.
This also applies to your old marketing strategy, which probably needs to make digital marketing a priority instead of just a side project. And while you are at it, you may want to review your entire digital strategy including online sales, customer service, social media marketing, and your entire online presence now that this is the main way that people are doing business.
Apply for funding
Growth can only come with investment, and at this point your business might not be in a position to make any big investments. But there are many ways to access the funds you need to grow your business post-covid. There are SBA loans and microloans for small businesses, Economic Injury Disaster Loans, and many other government loans designed exactly for this purpose. Additionally, you could apply for a loan from a bank or credit union, apply for a business line of credit, get inventory financing, and many other forms of credit that you can take advantage of and grow your business.
Growing a business is hard work in normal times, and right after a pandemic it may seem like an impossible task. But it is time to get out of survival mode and start thinking about moving forward and bouncing back.
