3 Ways to Keep Your Business Afloat in 2020

Current events have put tremendous amounts of stress on just about everyone, from private citizens to publicly traded businesses. The inherently medical nature of these events has resulted in medical facilities taking the brunt of the damage. While these times are a truly trying test of will, there are solutions just around the corner that benefit any business. Here’s what you need to keep your business afloat in 2020.

Finances

Finances are the cornerstone of commerce at large, so it’s no surprise that the bottom line for any business is money. In order for a business to survive, let alone make a profit, the owner of said business needs to be able to make enough money to cover expenses, and then some. This means first understanding your revenue and your expenses. For example, if your business isn’t doing well in light of current events, your revenue is likely to decrease substantially. This means that the survival of your business may depend on reducing expenses. Medical professionals can use a lifetime value of a patient calculator to determine the amount of money they’ll need to invest in a given patient in order to ascertain the fiscal viability of treating that patient in the long run. Likewise, a business on the brink will need to reinvigorate their cash flow, and this is best done via marketing.

Marketing

Marketing is almost as important to finances for a given business, because marketing is the primary mechanism by which a business brings new customers in and keeps customers loyal. The most visible form of marketing is advertising, and that’s because the role of advertising is to speak directly to consumers. However, marketing is a much deeper, much more nuanced field. Branding, for example, affects every other part of marketing and also affects your place of business. For example, color palettes can be used to form certain associations with your business, and that can include the provocation of certain emotions. For examples, many hospitals use cool colors in their interior design, because colors like blue have a calming effect on people. Medical facilities often use the staff of Caduceus in their branding for similar purposes, as the staff is heavily associated with healing. Therefore, it serves as a nearly universal, non verbal signifier of health and medicine.

Supply Chain

The supply chain is a matter of great importance to any business. Retailers depend on supply chains for the products they sell to consumers, but many other businesses simply need certain supplies in their day to day operations. One prominent example in the medical field in 2020 would be medical masks. These masks have been instrumental in dealing with the current crisis, so much so that their availability has fluctuated. A supply chain must be built in order to meet the demands of your business, and that includes changing in accordance with that demand. As these masks see greater use during a situation like this one, you need to be able to depend on your supply chain to provide them in greater amounts. However, this entails not only the distributor or wholesaler from which you buy them, but also the manufacturers that produce them. In dire straits, a business may need to circumvent distributors and wholesalers in favor of buying products straight from the manufacturer, and this can also save you money. In doing so, you inevitably sacrifice some of the niceties added to those products by distributors and wholesalers, so look at your options carefully and use your best judgement.

2020 has been a difficult year thus far, and it has demanded that everyone rethink much of the way they live their daily lives and do their jobs. However, taking some time to really think critically about the whole situation and listen to experts makes things a lot easier. This is just as true for businesses and medical professionals as it is for the average person. Luckily, there is an abundance of knowledge on these subjects that can help your business stay afloat during hard times.