You might have heard about the pandemic of the Novel coronavirus, known as the COVID-19 virus. The world is really shaken by this new Coronavirus, COVID-19. It is tougher for all businesses right from small business to survive this coronavirus.
With nearly 5,58,683 dead and almost 1,24,46,105 are infected worldwide, governments and WHO are taking immense measures to prevent the spread of the virus and treating the victims.
There is no doubt that small businesses will be the hardest hit out for the current COVID-19 pandemic. So, How can a small business survive the coronavirus and the upcoming struggles ahead in 2020? There is no easy answer.
However, here are a few points to start planning and implementing at least for the next three months. As the situation increases, all the business owners are confused about the next steps to sustain this COVID pandemic.
1. Keep Yourself Calm
The first and foremost thing to do amidst all things is to keep calm and take care of yourself and your family. This can create a strong mindset that will help you to come up with more innovative ideas to move forward and to take care of your business.
This can be very difficult especially when you are running out of cash. If you are faced with some difficult decisions, take time to balance yourself and your mind before taking any drastic decisions. Ask for emotional support where you can, and when you need it.
2. Create an Elaborated Work plan
After getting a healthier mindset, creating a business plan is the next thing to do. As an important precaution, every business should have an emergency work plan. If you haven’t created any plan yet, you are lagging behind and missing your potential growth.
An emergency plan will have a clear strategy that your company needs to take during any kind of emergency crisis such that it will cause minimal to nill impact on your business. It will also have various measures that you are taking to protect your employees and business before any kind of disaster strikes.
3. Make a Financial Plan
Every small business usually has the similar expenses, which include office rent, employee salaries, and other utility bills. Explain to whom you need to pay immediately and find out the available options you have to spread out the costs. Look at your personal finances, and try to control your personal spending. If you have a business partner, have an open and honest discussion with him/her about your immediate and long-term plans for the business.
Your biggest costs would usually be your staff and your office rent. You could perhaps freeze hiring any more full-time employees and instead work on a project basis with freelancers. You could also consider shifting it to a smaller place or reducing your office space or else using a co-working space to have reduced cost, have more affordable and flexible payment terms.
4. Find the Right Opportunities
It is never nice to capitalize on pandemic situations like this, but then they can also be a wake-up call to reconsider how you have been doing your business all way since the beginning. In this case, can your business model survive the changes that will emerge out from this pandemic?
Can you digitize any of your products or services that you are offering and provide them online? Can you implement the technology to balance any loss of earnings by offering new ways to connect with your customers? You have to discuss and make the right decisions.
5. Take care of your Employees
As it is the time of crisis almost all sorts of businesses have already been shut down. Employees are your wealth assets. You should understand the situation when something comes up.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, most of the businesses across the world are forced to work remotely. These are done to ensure the best work from the employee and helps to maintain a safer environment.
There are multiple online business tools available that can help you to stay in touch with your team and continue working wherever they may be. If you have managed a good team, they should be supporting you a lot in spite of the hard times.
You could train your existing staff on additional skills, which could make them more productive and efficient, rather than hiring new staff. There are multiple online courses that are very affordable that will allow them to focus on other areas of the business as well.
Remember this won’t last forever
By keeping in mind and implementing these steps, a small business can survive the coronavirus. Whether it’s two weeks or two months, businesses must adapt to the new realities that coronavirus presents.
Finally, try to serve and help those who are in need. The more you help others, the better you’ll feel. I wish everyone to get healthier and stay safe during this unusual time.