Ensuring that your business survives and thrives during the work disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is not easy feat. However, it is during drastic changes that you learn not only what your brand is made of, but also what your staff is made of as well.
Economist Nicholls Bloom, who is the William D. Eberle Professor of Economics in Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), conducted a study that revealed that 42 percent of the U.S. labor force now working from home full-time. Another 33 percent are not working, and the remaining 26 percent are mostly essential service workers in retail, healthcare, transport and business services, and need to see customers or work with products or equipment.
This global COVID-19 was an unforeseen crisis that no one and no business has been immune to and it demands drastic changes in the way we perform in business and function as a society. In addition to following health and safety guidelines, it’s important to have a fluid business strategy to help your business navigate the social changes and the landscape of your industry. Be ready to reassess your business strategy, shift employee roles if needed, and manage uncharted waters. the social changes as well.
It may be hard to think about the changes that need to be made when you are constantly thinking about your bottom line, but now is the optimum time to reevaluate, refresh and possibly reinvent your business in order to position yourself for when the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
Ways you can optimize your staff and business performance:
- Streamline Your Process – Identify cost-saving insights that reduce overhead and maximize profits.
- Cut wasteful spending and unnecessary services. It may be time to re-think that leased office space
- Develop new and improved budgets that help streamline post-quarantine operations
- Develop or enhance a new product or service – Think about what opportunities you identified pre-COVID 19 but haven’t had the time to thoroughly hash out and implement.
- What’s the competition doing? Brainstorm new products and services that you can add to get ahead of the competition
- Think about how you can improve your existing products and services to better serve your clients
- Highlight the areas of business or services that you are uniquely able to provide to your clients
- Evaluate Your Marketing Strategy – Consider boosting your marketing channels that could raise your business profile and profits: email, social media, on-site content, direct-mail and more.
- Develop your business or organization as a leader in the industry. Generation campaigns designed to establish authority, foster trust, and build client confidence
- Re-examine your website and identify opportunities for improvement: content, search engine optimization, layout, easy navigation, highlight your services, strategic calls to action, and more
- Plan, develop and schedule social media posts for now and after the quarantine is lifted
- Create Content – Now is the time to craft, plan, develop, and schedule creative content that highlights your organization or business. Providing valuable content will keep client for more and secure potential clients.
- Develop unique, insightful and optimized blog posts packed with information to increase engagement and boost search rankings
- Create social media posts, photos and digital content to earn likes, follows and messages
If you are speculating, what comes next? It’s time to change your perspective and identify ways to make this time in quarantine work with optimization for you and your business. Position yourself for success with a new vision and enhanced goals in the interim and post coronavirus.