4 Ways to Help Your Business Recover During COVID-19
October 31, 2020
If your business has been floundering since mid-March of this year, you are not alone. Businesses of all sizes and from many industries have really suffered as the result of the COVID-19 crisis.
Whether COVID-19 caused you to close your doors for many months or cut back on or change the way you are doing business, if you feel that now is the time to try to get things back on track, there is hope.
The following strategies can help your business become successful once again.
Assess Your Financial Situation
As Hometap notes, the first step to getting your business up and running is to make a thorough and honest assessment of your funding situation. Look at your financial statements and see how far behind you are on your yearly goals and how you compare to last year. Think about what you will need to do to re-hire employees, re-launch advertising, re-stock your inventory and offer health and safety training for your team. Once you have a solid look at your finances, you will be better equipped to research your financial options to get up and running now and what to keep in mind for the future. For instance, you may need to speak with your landlord about an extension on your rent, and if you own your home, you might be able to apply for a home equity loan to get your business going again.
Rethink Your Business Goals
While you might be bound and determined to reach your yearly business goals, realistically this might not happen in 2020. This year has been beyond challenging, and it is okay to adjust your year-end goals, especially if you were closed down for a while. Think about more realistic goals moving forward, then evaluate where you are every month so you can adjust as the year progresses.
Plan for Safety
The last thing that you want to have happen is to open up your business, only to have to shut it back down due to a few employees getting COVID-19. As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says, your primary concern at this point is the health and safety of your employees and customers. Getting back on track will require the formation of general hygiene and safety procedures, including requiring your team and customers alike to wear protective masks at all times, doing frequent cleaning of surfaces and taking the temperature of your employees as they arrive for work. To do this effectively, you may need to stock up on cleaning supplies, an infrared “no touch” thermometer and masks.
Invest in a Flexible CRM System
To help more easily identify areas of opportunity and growth in your business after you re-open, you may want to invest in an innovative customer relationship management (CRM) system that is also easy to use. For example, the Creatio CRM system is agile and can easily adapt to the demands of your business, while also focusing on your entire business as a whole or specific areas of concern like sales or marketing. And by using the Creatio mobile app, you can keep tabs on customer data and analytics from the convenience of your smartphone.
Your Business Will Grow Again
These last several months have been hard, but you do not have to shutter your business for good. By taking tangible steps to look at your finances, come up with more realistic goals, making safety the number one priority and using a CRM system, you should find that getting your business back on track and thriving is a very doable goal.