If we had to choose one word to describe 2020 it would be significant, especially when it comes to business. The mayhem the pandemic unleashed on the education system, businesses, and consumers is completely unprecedented. Many businesses were left scrambling to implement overnight changes to their workflow while others had to shutter their doors forever.
If you’re one of the businesses that has so far been spared from widespread closures continued operations may not be guaranteed. Fortunately making a few small changes may help ensure your business survives 2020 and beyond. Below we outline five easy steps you can take to help make that happen:
Increased & Open Communication
Many businesses proved their ability to continue productivity without reporting to the office, but this was only made possible for effective communication. Apps like Slack and Zoom became necessary tools to give employees direct lines of communication to each other and their supervisors, while task management apps, like Trello, allowed managers and employees to stay up-to-date with assignments and their progress. Maintaining regular communication channels keeps employees empowered and connected, allowing them to be productive therefore turning in high-yielding results.
Planned Flexibility
The business climate changed drastically during Q2 and it may be awhile before things return to the way they were before the pandemic, if ever. While it’s important to have a plan in place for recovery, being flexible in such plans remains paramount to a business’s survival. An example of this can be seen in the education sector. Schools for students of all ages have been adjusting learning plans and returning to the classroom consistently since the pandemic began, and will continue having to do so for the foreseeable future.
Customer Empathy
While your business may be suffering during the pandemic, it’s important to note that it’s not just your business afflicted by the current crisis, it’s also your client. Understanding the ways in which your customers are affected and tailoring your business to meet their needs and current situation is integral to converting prospective clients to happy customers. Your customers spending habits have most likely changed with the recent pandemic, and framing your service or products around that idea is essential to continued sales.
Digital Growth
With many public places still struggling to fully reopen, the world continues to rely on technology to navigate the muddied intra-pandemic waters. Incorporating and growing digital potential helps to keep your business relevant now and bring it successfully through the post-pandemic phase. Implementing simple procedures like cloud backup ensures your data stays protected no matter where your employees are clocking in, and also aides in file and project sharing when your workforce isn’t centrally located.
Smart Spending
With many industries reporting losses or slowed growth during Q2, their budgets have been drastically affected. Marketing budgets have been squeezed, labor has been cut, and development put on hold. While your business may have been on one trajectory before the pandemic, needing to refocus goals must not be ignored. Investing in methods that can guide your business currently but will prove to be useful long-term, once the economy recovers is one way to ensure expenditures are not wasted.
While these practices can help aid your business now and through a post-pandemic climate, the economy doesn’t have to be recovering in order for businesses to reap some benefits. Continued employee communication, effective marketing and smart spending, can help your business thrive in any economical landscape; while a digital transformation, or at least preserving enterprise data, is a practice that should be well underway to best protect your business from loss. Being mindful of not just the bottom line, but the processes it takes in order to improve it, can inadvertently help increase productivity and sales and be the key to your business’s success.