Author: Brian Lee

INTRODUCTION

Most of our country shut down from mid-March to late May. The COVID-19 pandemic led to supply shortages, layoffs, furloughs, declines in the stock market and other consequences. 

According to FEMA, 40 percent of businesses do not reopen after a disaster, and 25 percent fail to reopen within one year. Meanwhile, a poll conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that more than one in five small businesses (22 percent) say they are two months or less from closing permanently.

As has always been the case, when your business doesn’t adjust to disruptions in your industry, you are putting your business at risk of losing market share or even failing (see Kodak case study). Here are tips on adjusting your business during a crisis.

EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY

How many locally owned restaurants and retail stores do you frequent that have no online presence? In other words, they had no website to list new hours, no social media accounts to communicate to customers and no e-commerce platform to sell their food or products. I even know a restaurant that finally started accepting credit cards.

For years, we’ve advised many of our clients to start hosting webinars as a way to build their brand. We’ve received a lot of pushback on this tactic, but now there’s no excuse, as our society has had to move from the in-person world to the virtual world, a trend that will likely stay.

Here are some areas on which to focus:

• Website. There’s no excuse for not having a website in 2020. Google builds one for you for free through Google My Business. One step above that is creating a website through a DIY platform such as Wix or Squarespace. If you have more technical expertise, build a site using WordPress, or hire someone to build a site for you.
• Sales. Is the primary way in which your customers buy from you in-person? You should set up an e-commerce platform on your website. It doesn’t have to be so slick that you have shipping set up. Look at all the restaurants out there that finally put their menus online to allow online ordering. Also, for the cash-only businesses, you need to start taking alternate forms of payment. PayPal is one of the easiest ways to start taking credit cards, and Venmo is a popular payment platform.
• External communications. The best customer is a repeat customer, which is why many businesses correctly spend most of their efforts on marketing to and maintaining relationships with past and current customers. At a minimum, if you’re a B2C business, you should have a Facebook page. If you’re a B2B business, you should have an email marketing platform (e.g. MailChimp). 
• Internal communications. Besides email, you have many options for internal messaging, including Slack and Microsoft Teams. For project management, try Trello or Asana. For online collaboration, G Suite (e.g. Google Docs) and OneDrive (Microsoft 365) are good bets.
• Video. You may have seen the limitations of the free versions of video conferencing. Spend the money to upgrade: Zoom Pro costs $14.99/month, and WebEx Starter costs $13.50/month. For live streaming, you can use platforms such as YouTube (with 1,000 subscribers), Twitch.TV and LinkedIn (apply first).

I want to applaud a Milwaukee-based musician named Pat McCurdy. All his shows got canceled during the lockdown. Instead of doing nothing about it, he started broadcasting live on Facebook each Friday night from his house. The camera work, lighting and audio weren’t perfect at first, but they got better over time. Pat took donations through PayPal and Venmo, and he created new T-shirts to sell. 

FIND OTHER THINGS TO SELL, FIND NEW WAYS TO SELL THEM

I know a fancy restaurant that closed initially because it didn’t want to serve its food in carryout containers. That lasted a few weeks before it changed its mind and altered its dishes to be more conducive to carryout.

Meanwhile, a local food cart began selling its sauce online. Sure, it was a lot of work to figure out bottling, labels and production, but it was a necessary revenue stream.

These examples are meant to show you that sitting idly and hoping things return to normal is the wrong way to run a business. You need to adapt to the new needs of your customers. Answer these questions to help you get started:

• What do I currently sell that is no longer in demand (e.g. event planning services) or can’t be purchased easily by customers in today’s climate (e.g. wedding cakes, since sampling is not allowed)? Can I alter these products or services (e.g. online conference planning) to meet demand? Can I change the way my goods are sold (curbside individual wedding cake samples)?
• What are new, complementary or supplementary products or services I could add to my current lineup that are in demand and can be purchased easily? What is the timeline and costs to rollout these new products or services, and what is my team’s capacity to do so?

UPDATE YOUR OPERATIONS

A strong effort on cleaning–which should always have been a focus–is now part of every business. But now hotels also are adding digital/contactless check-in and HEPA-grade air purifiers to ease their guests’ concerns. 

Your business will need a plan to maintain safety for your employees and customers. Take in stakeholder input when possible, and look to local and national guidelines before you proceed. For example, our county provided a checklist agreement for local businesses reopening with physical staff. 

Once you have a plan in place, you need to communicate it to everyone. Those aforementioned channels, including Facebook, Slack and email marketing, would be logical choices. Health and safety precautions are becoming more and more standard now, so if anything, your customers/clients and employees would be surprised if you didn’t make an announcement about them. Keep them up-to-date and assure them you are doing everything you can.

Many successful businesses were founded during a recession. Thus, now may be a good time for you to start one online.