The coronavirus situation has certainly shaken up the economy with every business affected in some way, including mine. I’m a very positive person though and not the type to sit back and just see what happens; I believe in being proactive to help my clients remain active and positive during this period, so have created a list of tips for your business to survive this (or any) crisis.
These are all actionable, relatively simple tips, to keep your head above water and even thrive during these uncertain times. These links take you straight to the relevant sections.
Links to business survival tips
If your business levels are going to fluctuate over the forthcoming months, it’s vital to maximise income and minimise expenses.
- Chase invoices – get in touch with your clients and ask when they are expecting to pay invoices, whether overdue or not. Make sure you know who the person responsible for actioning this is, as your usual contact may be furloughed. Don’t be shy about this as your cash flow will depend on it.
- Get government help – if you are a limited company then you can furlough employees which means you will be reimbursed with 80% of their pay via the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme from the government. Here are full details from the government website.
- If you are a limited company director then you could furlough yourself, but is not an option for many in this situation. You can’t work during this period and, depending how much salary and dividends you receive, this may not be a large sum.
- If you are self employed then you can claim a taxable grant from the government which is 80% of your average profit from the last three years. You can carry on working too, and full details are on Martin Lewis’s MoneysavingExpert website here.
- Get a head start on your 2019-20 accounts once the tax year ends on April 5th. If you’re anything like my self employed husband then this is a job that is always put off until the last minute, so use this time usefully and try to get on top of it this year. Even if your business’s year end isn’t aligned with the financial year you can still get your books in order during any downtime. It’s likely that accountants and bookkeepers are still working, so now is a brilliant time to get these boring jobs done so that when you start working again you can concentrate on that and not worry about the accounts. I can highly recommend Tori at Monetori for taking a disorganised pile of receipts without judgement and allocating them to the right expense in Sage. She is a lifesaver for us and you can email her at tori@monetori.com to enquire about her bookkeeping services.
- Monitor expenses to reduce outgoings if your income has dropped. Review, cancel or downgrade recurring payments and renegotiate phone, energy and other bills. I recently rang my mobile phone provider to get more data for my son’s account and I ended up with triple the data for 75% of the previous monthly amount. Look at all your costs and see what you can reduce, even if it’s temporary. Reach out to suppliers and see if they are offering special deals. If you don’t ask then you don’t get!
- Use social media to let clients know how your business is operating during the coronavirus. Keep them up to date and find out if any need extra help.
- Put a message on your website if your business is temporarily closed – or extra busy. That way you will be managing clients’ expectations in terms of how quickly you can respond to queries.
- Email clients to let them know how the coronavirus has affected your business and what you can do for them.
- Write a blog post about how you are coping, what’s happening at the moment and when you’re likely to be back, and then share it on social media.
- Offers and discounts are a great idea for keeping in touch so can you introduce special pricing to encourage business, or deals for existing customers?
- Customer service is key so try to over-deliver if possible.
- Pivot your business to try new clients as there are many busy sectors at the moment even though your traditional client base may be struggling to operate.
- There are many booming businesses which you can reach out to – here are some ideas
- Online wine sales
- Farmers
- Supermarkets, butchers, greengrocers, independent food retailers
- Dairies
- Logistics
- Delivery companies
- Getting the food from A to B
- Delivering pharmaceuticals
- Live streamers – churches, health & fitness coaching, entertainment
- Mental health support
- Bidet manufacturers (!)
If you can’t work then there are a number of things you can do to put yourself in the best place to restart when life returns to normal.
- Build up your LinkedIn profile and network. I always recommend building up your network a few months before you need to look for a new role or build a business, just because it takes time to grow. Now is the perfect time to do just that. You can be more indiscriminate on LinkedIn compared with Facebook, so connect with anyone you’ve ever had business dealings with. Search for people and look for businesses you’ve worked at and use their employee list to find potential connections you know. Follow businesses and skills, use hashtags to find useful articles in areas of expertise. You can start by connecting with me by following this link!
- Are you on Google Business, the listing which is returned when people search for services on Google? If not then you should do it today as it’s completely free and only takes a few minutes. Here is a link, and all you do is fill in some details and they then send a notification in the post to confirm you are a real business with a physical address. You then enter a code in your online profile and that’s it, you’ll appear.
- Attend webinars and other online learning facilities. I’m trying to attend at least one a week, and they generally last from 30-60 minutes. Many online coaching businesses are offering these and they are free!
- Use business coaches as many are giving a free hour of support such as that offered by Sarah Williams at ActionCoach. I attended one of their webinars last week and plan to use my free hour with Sarah planning my next steps. Although she works with a lot of businesses in the Portsmouth and Chichester areas, the beauty of her service is that she can do it remotely to anyone in any location. Here is Sarah’s LinkedIn profile if you want to find out more, or you can email her using sarahwilliams@actioncoach.com.
- Can you still offer quotes by Facetime or Zoom? If you are a plumber or builder and can’t visit customers at home, you could offer to price up new jobs using video calls instead. They can show you what they need and you can supply a quote, maybe with caveats, but at least you are remaining active for your customers.
- Catch up on all the admin tasks which never get done, or you put off. Log your expenses, make sure all your data is backed up, check your website for broken links, clean up your computer’s hard drive. All of these will be super useful for when you can start working properly again.
- Create an MI suite – from Google Analytics to sales forecasts – go mad on spreadsheets and make them as simple as possible so that when you get up and running again it will be quicker to update and maintain them. You could even make a video for how to create the data which you can then use to delegate to an employee once you’re at the helm again.
When your business is up and running again you want to maximise your offering, and be ready for a potential rush of new business.
- Use the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (link to more details here) offered by the government to keep your business going and also build a new website or upgrade your existing one. Now is the perfect opportunity as you have more time to work on the design and create something to really showcase your business.
- Keep marketing (and selling, if you can) using all of the tips above. Plan new products and services, think about where you want to be in three years and how you can get there.
Not everyone is quiet at the moment though. Some businesses have the opposite problem where they are run off their feet. This is a different kind of business crisis but here are some tips to manage the situation during an unexpected peak.
- If you’re super busy as a result of the covid situation then reach out to get help.
- Use social media to find staff, or recruitment firms who have access to many candidates in different sectors.
- Keep your website up to date, especially if you may be slow to respond due to being so busy.
- If you’re a small business that has suddenly taken off consider building a simple website to showcase your services.
During times of stress it’s vital to take care of your mental health. Here are some tips to help you ride the storm.
Stay positive – think of your business as a 3 or 5 year plan and this period is just a hump to get over.
Exercise really helps mental health and we can still go outside for our daily walk or run. Make the most of the dry weather and use this time to get some fresh air and move your body. If you can’t get out then there are so many training sessions online at the moment, with plenty of choice, from Joe Wicks to live zumba and pilates classes.
Be kind and compassionate. Most people are feeling stressed at the moment but if you can be nice to those around you then it will make this period much more manageable.
Maintain routine and structure to your day. Plan some time to dedicate to your business even if you’re not actively selling your products or services. Use the tips above to keep things moving and when we are back to normal you will be able to hit the ground running.
I found this really useful guide to mental health during Covid which may also be helpful for you.
I hope you have found some of these tips for surviving a business crisis useful. I’m here to support businesses through this tricky time so please get in touch if you’d like a chat. I also have a team of dedicated, multi-skilled people who can help out in many different ways, so give us a ring to see what we can do for you!
These are really useful actionable tips. Thank you.
Thanks for reading!