How You Can Transform Your Small Business During COVID

The image source is Envato.

This year was brutal for many small businesses, thanks to a number of factors led by COVID-19. In fact, according to a recent Yelp poll, more than 160,000 small businesses have shut down indefinitely due to the viral outbreak, which emerged in the early months of 2020. Those who have managed to survive now face an uphill battle as consumers change their shopping behaviors and governments continue to implement public health and safety measures during the crisis.

Adopt and Enable New Technologies

As with large corporations, small businesses can and should leverage the latest AI solutions to streamline their operations and fatten their bottomline. For instance, use bleeding-edge customer relationship management platforms to turn your collected data into actionable strategies for lead generation and conversion. Another example would be to use AI tools, like Chorus, to record and transcribe all calls managed by your sales department and then making appropriate improvements to the sales script based on the most successful calls to get more favorable customer responses in the future. And last but not least, employ chatbots that can answer any questions or concerns 24/7.

Prepare For Uncertainty

A question shared by everyone is - how long will it take to eliminate COVID completely and permanently? Unfortunately, most answers you'll get are mere speculation with hints of either hope or hopelessness. Whether it's a quick recovery or a protracted era of chaos, there are ways to manage uncertainty. For starters, eliminate or reduce your costs. There is perhaps no better time to cut back on costs than in a time of crisis. Discontinue anything that is non-essential to the day-to-day operations of your business. Only leave the bare minimum required for your business to manufacture or acquire its inventory, ship and fulfill orders, and run marketing campaigns.

Outsource Your Labor Force

Small businesses can reduce the financial pressures sustained from lower sales and profits brought by COVID by outsourcing their needs to a remote workforce. By outsourcing your needs, you lower or eliminate overhead costs. Luckily nowadays, you can outsource practically any need, from administrative duties to video production services for small businesses. For staffers that you need to keep, allow them to work from home if possible. This minimizes any health and safety risks of anyone who still needs to come to work everyday. Outsourcing not only saves you a considerable amount of money, but it also gives you access to a greater spectrum of talent that will be limited only by your budget.

Digitize Your Brand

If you don't have it yet, create a website and mobile app for your small business. Large corporations aren't the only entities that should and can have a full-scale site and app. The costs of building and maintaining these tools have become considerably cheaper over the past few years, thanks to a greater pool of talent that you can outsource and content management systems that can spit out site templates in a matter of seconds. Businesses that have been traditionally brick-and-mortar until now can easily widen their reach by digitizing their brand. The efficacy of such a move will, of course, rely on how well it is executed. Either learn the process yourself or hire a digital marketing agency.

Reduce Risk to Consumer

For brick-and-mortar businesses, such as ice cream shops or restaurants, the fact that COVID is a viral strain transmitted via respiratory droplets has been the relative crux of this entire crisis. Consumers now fear to dine in restaurants or attend in-person yoga classes as they may get the disease from other people coughing or sneezing in close proximity or if they touch a surface that has droplets of the virus. This is definitely a legitimate cause for concern, one that businesses can help curb by making their customer experience as touch-free and low-contact as possible. Many yoga and martial arts studios, for instance, are now limiting class sizes, checking temperatures before entry, and sanitizing every surface and object used before every new session begins.

Final Thoughts

With the public not having an end date to COVID, it's best to assume and prepare for the worst. Transforming your business during COVID should not be done hastily. You will need to determine if you have to make these transformations as a makeshift solution or a permanent change in brand direction.