How Small Businesses should Respond to COVID-19 Crisis?

As most of the cities around the globe go on lockdowns, eateries, pubs, cafes, entertainment venues, and certain other businesses are either shutting down completely or partially, where possible, to carry out takeout and delivery only. Amidst this entire crisis, all kinds of small, independent, and family-owned businesses are letting it be known through social media appeals to encourage folks to keep supporting them. Besides, some of them have already shut down their doors, even before the government orders.

Right now, there is a possibility that small businesses could cease their activities over the next few weeks. Despite the fact that closures could be short-term; in many cases, they could face a permanent shutdown decision.

It goes without saying that the novel COVID-19 pandemic is creating chaos in all our communities not only with respect to maintaining hygiene and safety but also in relation to how local businesses may be affected. We have figured out a list of ways to assist you in responding to this crisis and which surely would help if implemented. Let’s dive in.

1. Communicate with your Customers

The most important thing in the time of crisis is to communicate with your customers and community at large, in an honest way. Keep in mind that maintaining a positive and healthy communication channel with customers is very useful in these hard times.

Let it be known through your communiqué that the steps taken by your company are meant to keep everyone safe. Give a message that you value your customers, understand their needs, and will do whatever it takes to meet their needs when it is safe and feasible to do so.

1. Draft a Crisis Management Plan

If your small business faces an unforeseen disruption, what will you do to protect your business from the outcome of a shutdown?

Besides, what steps will you take to recover when u face the decision of shutting down your business for a few days?

A better-drafted crisis management plan is what makes you well-prepared for these unforeseen situations. This detailed plan may include,

Make use of this time to get a line of credit or a low-interest loan to help cash outflow from your business for rent, utilities, and employees to manage less cash coming in.

You should also ensure that there isn’t a single employee within your team that has a lot of key information that you won’t have access to, just in case that person needs sick leave or quarantine.

The best practice would also be to collect passwords and confidential information in one file that can easily be shared with you and your key team members. Also, try to grasp any potential concerns associated with your supply chain and make sure that you have a plan for it.

1. Up-skill your Staff

Wherever feasible, try your level best to up-skill your staff. During hard times like these, they mostly rely on you and in case, if you manage them well, they should be supporting you.

The best thing about training your current staff on additional skills will help them in being more productive and efficient. Besides, it will save you from hiring more staff.

As far as up-skilling your employees are concerned, there are lots of affordable online courses that will allow them to make their contribution to other areas of the business when their department is not going through good times - for example, your sales team could also help out the marketing team as you can find an e-course on digital marketing for small businesses online and learn to create digital marketing strategies as well as implementing them. The coolest thing about these courses is that they can be attended from home while your team is self-isolating.

Make sure that you look for the courses and resources that are similar to the aforementioned ones and are the best to match your needs and budget.

1. Look for More Opportunities

Although crises like these can bring bad times upon us and our businesses, still they can also give us a wake-up call to reconsider things and how we should be doing our businesses. In this situation, you have to figure out as to how your business model should capable of surviving the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic.

Besides, you should also comprehend your customers’ response to the change and how can you accommodate the new type of customer.

Last but not the least, implementing technology such as implementing till systems and enhancing your social media presence while communicating with your customers will also help.