Focusing On What You Can Control With Your Business During A Global Pandemic
There is no denying that we are in unprecedented times right. The world has seen so many changes in 2020, and with personal effects as well as causing issues with your job, finances and businesses, it isn’t changing anytime soon. We are all in this new normal as we learn to navigate the global pandemic and live with the virus until things can return to normal. As a business owner, you may have had to deal with a lot this year. A loss of earnings and reduced products, perhaps even losses. You may have had to shut your business temporarily or finger out ways to continue to provide a service. There is a lot of talk about the virus, however, unless we are scientists or politicians, we really have no control over what happens next. But with your business, there are things you can control that can help your business during this pandemic. With that in mind, here are some of the things to think about.
Getting paid on time
Every business needs an income to survive, but while you may slog out to get every order you get right now, it can be made even worse if people are not paying you on time. Invoicing things is one thing, but getting them paid can be another thing entirely. It can be a hard thing to manage, and unless you have someone with account experience on your team or a dedicated professional, it can be difficult. There are options to consider such as invoice factoring and looking into recourse and non-recourse factoring could help you to stay on track with this. Getting paid on time will help you to be more aware of your cash flow and understand exactly what position your business is in each day. Which is helpful right now in uncertain times.
Keeping the costs down
Another thing to think about are ways that you can keep the costs down. Right now you may have had a business premises or shop that you can no longer work out of, or have found that making the switch to online and working from home is actually working for you. If that is the case you could be keeping the costs down by giving up any leases you might have. This can save you money on a monthly basis and also enable you to feel more secure in the position of your business. There are so many great tools to take advantage of when it comes to communication such as skype and zoom, so things can still feel like they once did in the office.
Placing a value on your time
Right now more than ever your business probably needs you. So it may be time to focus your energy on the areas that you can make the most difference. That might be sales and bringing in the orders, or it may even be behind the scenes managing social media interactions or dealing with trade. Whatever your fortey is, maximise it by placing a value on your time. You could outsource other areas of your business to free up your time. This is supporting others that could be in need of work right now, but gives you greater flexibility to push the business in the right direction.
Diversify your business where possible
Another thing that you could consider doing would be diversify your business in any way you can. You may have already started it during lockdown periods where you had no choice but to think outside of the box, but if that worked, why stop? Diversifying your business could open many different doors for your business and opportunities that you may not have considered before. It could be that you may need to think about other options more often, as this global pandemic is ever changing with waves of infections increasing and then decreasing. The more you give your business options of earning an income, the better and more secure you will feel during uncertain times.
How you advertise your business moving forward
The last thing to think about would be how you advertise your business. Social media is always going to be a game changer when it comes to advertising but you could also think about how you use it. A strategy could help you to be more consistent with your posts. Another thing to think about would be to look at targeted advertising. The local community could be a great way to enhance your business presence and increase your customer base. Working with events and local schools or teams for sponsorship opportunities or even using local facebook groups to advertise. The more you do, the more custom you will get.
Let’s hope these tips help you when it comes to focusing on what you can control during the global pandemic.
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The cost of opening up a physical store can be great. If you’re going to do so, we highly recommend keeping these three things in mind. They’re not the most obvious costs to account for, but before your first week of business gets underway, you’ll need to see about them.