The COVID-19 pandemic required small business owners to show a great deal of adaptation and resilience.
Many found they had to make significant changes to their business so they could survive. Some businesses diversified their services, adopting online purchasing or helping their clients through virtual meetings and courses. Others had to downsize product lines, where businesses across the street thrived and even expanded their offerings.
Business owners are now looking to rebuild their business, making this a good time to take stock and even build a better business. Here are some tips on implementing a business recovery strategy that enables your business to come out of the pandemic stronger than ever.
How to rebuild your business
If you’re like most business owners coming out of the pandemic, you’ve likely suffered some negative financial effects. As many as 92% of small businesses said the pandemic affected their finances negatively, so if you’re in that group, you’re not alone.
Now’s the time to begin looking at how to rebuild your business following the pandemic. With some hard work and strategic planning, you can take advantage of this period to not only rebuild business but have an even stronger business than before.
1. Assess the financial affects
Before you can figure out how to rebuild, you need to know where you’re starting from. It might be tough to look at, but you need to know your finances and how hard your business was hit by the pandemic.
Examining your business’ full financial picture involves looking at a few sets of data, including profit and loss, and cash flow statements. Compare revenue and expenses with 2020 and pre-COVID years to understand the nature of the change to your business.
Then look at other areas that were affected. Did you downsize? You may have to factor that into your rebuilding plan. Have you lost regular customers to competitors? You’ll need to account for that as you develop your business recovery strategy. Did you expand your services in any way? It may be wise to keep those adaptations as your business moves forward.
2. Create a business recovery plan
You probably already have a business plan, but that plan was created before COVID-19. It will likely require revising as you adjust to business life after the pandemic.
Creating a business recovery plan means looking at your industry as a whole to see how it’s been affected. Have consumer attitudes about your business changed? Has legislation surrounding your business changed?
For example, stores that previously only existed as brick-and-mortar shops have increasingly expanded to allow online shopping, as customers may be hesitant to return to in-store shopping. Can you offer more goods and services online? Can you allow for virtual shopping experiences or use technology to make in-store shopping more efficient?
Supply chain issues were also heightened during the pandemic. You may need to explore alternative supply chain arrangements to prevent delays in case of future (or even persistent) supply delays.
Make sure your business recovery strategy takes into account all areas that have been affected by the pandemic.
3. Develop a timeline for rebuilding
It’s not reasonable to expect to return to pre-pandemic sales immediately following COVID-19. You may find you have a lot of adjustments to make, and not all can be made at once.
With your business recovery plan established, create a list of priorities for your business. Once priorities to your plan are in place, you can begin assigning a timeline to the plan based on the resources you have available.
As your recovery plan is based on the abilities of your resources to execute on time, be considerate of your resources’ timelines. Employees, customers, vendors, and competitors may not be able to match the intended pace for your business’ recovery.
4. Plan for the next crisis
The pandemic might happen once in a lifetime, but your experiences during the pandemic can help you plan for the next crisis.
This might include having more cash savings than you thought you would need or having technology in place so employees can work remotely when necessary.
The businesses that thrive during this pandemic will be uniquely prepared for the next shift in consumer behavior and expectations.
Ways to improve business performance
As your business recovers, there are ways to improve business performance. These business improvement solutions are strategies that help you grow your business.
Find your ideal customers
Finding new customers by relying on word-of-mouth and an email list will be difficult.
Online selling platforms offer a simple way to retain your customers’ data and learn about your actual market. Dig into the data of your online sales platform to see if you can unearth market segments that you can leverage across digital ad platforms.
Build social accounts online and ask and respond to questions that your customers would ask about your type of product. Participate as a maker in online communities to show off your crafts and expand your brand’s visibility. Offering content aligned with your business lets you demonstrate your authority on the subject, while giving more potential customers a glimpse of your business’ value.
Upsell and cross-sell
When you have an engaged customer, you are nurturing a long-term relationship.
For customers that start their relationship with your business for one product, begin building the user story for that customer to get her/him/they to purchase a parallel product in your store (cross-sell).
Stay engaged with your customers through your social media accounts so when the next model is launched, they get first chance on the upgrade or offer new customers discounts on additional related products (upsell).
Limit costs
From investments to payroll, when costs exceed revenue, cutting costs may feel like a last resort. But if you carefully look at your complete financial picture, reducing pre-COVID costs for inventory, marketing, or staffing could bolster funds for another part of your business that can ignite growth. Instead of cuts, consider rebalancing your priorities and costs for the post-pandemic world.
Improving productivity
Prodding employees for enthusiasm and drive during a pandemic is actually the last resort, considering the many difficulties every Canadian has gone through during these times. But investing in measures that improve efficiency or improve the employee’s experience can be the types of downturn investments that provide benefits that last long beyond our COVID world.
Build a better business
The pandemic has changed the small business environment. Customer needs are changing, and businesses need to adapt to be successful.
The greatest challenge for any business is to survive: and if yours can survive and then evolve during these most challenging times, you can build a path toward continued success for the better times ahead.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or an opinion on any issue. It should not be regarded as comprehensive or a substitute for professional advice.