SUMMARY
The Covid crisis has upturned the way businesses operate forever
One of the things that the crisis has taught us all it’s the astounding power of empathy
One of the key traits of successful entrepreneurship pursuits is that they operate frugally
As we all know, Covid-19 has shaken the world from its roots, and we are witnessing the worst economic slowdown of the millennium. 68% of small businesses feel that they were unprepared for a global recession.
In the near future, only those businesses that are able to rethink their way of working during a crisis will be able to survive.
Today’s CEOs face extraordinary challenges to sustain their businesses — challenges that no one ever has met or knows how to overcome. There is no instruction manual to keep a business afloat during a crisis. If you are daring enough to take an entrepreneurial plunge in the post-Covid-19 world, you need solid strategies in your arsenal.
How Has Covid-19 Changed The Face of Today’s Businesses?
The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic has forever changed our experiences ― as consumers, employees, businessmen, and marketing representatives. If you are still on the drawing board stage and yet to have a solid strategy in place, here are 8 strategies that you can consider trying out.
Accept The New Norm
The Covid crisis has upturned the way businesses operate forever. It has instituted a new normal that has introduced businesses to new challenges as well as opportunities. The way forward for businesses would be to accept and apply the rules of the new normal in your business.
Start with the virtual mode of working. Conduct zoom meetings. Use online marketing collaterals — newsletters, webinars, videos, social media, etc. Focus on contactless service, and for the greater good of your employees and customers, follow WFH norms. This will ensure everyone is in good health and cut down a lot on your operational costs.
Focus On Building Your Remote Team
According to Fortune, around 1 in 4 business leaders do see more employees continuing to WFH once they’ve reopened. That puts the focus on setting up a remote team from scratch. A strategic process needs to be developed for the same.
Use team collaboration apps like Trello, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Skype for communication. They can remove any possible friction that could creep in when remote team members work together.
Plus, hiring a remote team has so many perks:
- Remote working lets you hire the best resources across the globe
- Remote work saves operational costs required for rentals, office maintenance, etc.
- Remote work is proven to be productive
While a fully remote team has its benefits, you have to also think about creating a great remote work environment. Neal Taparia, a former public company executive and founder at brain training start-up Solitaired, explains, “We offer home office equipment and clear career growth plans tied to remote work goals. We are built with remote work in mind, allowing us to create an attractive virtual workplace for our team.”
Create Empathy In Sales And Marketing
One of the things that the crisis has taught us all it’s the astounding power of empathy. Whether intended or as a way of following the herd, most of the emails began with the standard phrase, “Hope you are safe and sound…”. Never before in humanity have we as a race been more kind and empathetic to each other. Businesses, especially sales and marketing functions, have lessons to learn from this.
Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the most talked-about entrepreneurs, attributes empathy to his success. He says that it doesn’t matter what your profession is. But if you’re able to understand your customer’s goals and map their needs into your solutions, you’ll become invincible.
He also says that the best salespeople understand their customers in and out without having them share their needs and requirements.
But, How Can Businesses Display Empathy Virtually?
If you’re a B2C company, the first step towards showing empathy is to understand your customer’s needs and create an appealing user experience revolving around it. For one, this will help users navigate through your website or app easily and two, retain them. Empathy also helps to create an emotional connection between brands and customers, which, in the current situation, is more important than ever. Experts emphasise the fact that customers are much more likely to purchase a product from a brand which they share an emotional bond with. Hence, being empathetic is a win-win situation.
How Can You Win Clients By Being Empathetic?
Think of the best interest of your clients. And for that, you need to walk in your customer’s shoes to sell your products and services. Ask yourself, would you buy something from without first taking the time to understand what you believe and why you believe it. Show that you care.
Implement Flywheel Model For Consistent Growth
If you are a seasoned marketer, you most probably know about the flywheel model of converting leads into customers. The flywheel model focuses on customers’ consistent growth and their relationship with your brand even after you have converted potential leads to customers.
It emphasizes providing a seamless experience to the customer right from the awareness stage to the purchase stage.
Besides, it stresses on the need to focus more on customers who come to you with the buying intent as they’ll buy from you, promote your brand, and recommend you to your friends and family.
Hence, in the post Covid world, where people and businesses would still recover from the economic slowdown, focusing on building a long-term relationship with the client, delighting your customer across all levels of the company — marketing, sales, customer success, after purchase support will help you make your big.
Show Your Potential To The Investors
The National Venture Capital Association, in its report, states how coronavirus will affect startups in the coming quarters. It also states that the VC will now think multiple times before investing in a startup.
In the post Covid world, you need to know your competitive advantage, leverage it, and have a sense of adaptability. You need to show that you’re capable of growing your business and handling the investor’s money effectively.
Having said that, an idea would make more difference than ever in the post Covid world as people are tightening their purses and spending only on necessities. However, if you’re confident that there’s a need for your product and service in the post-Covid-19 era, and you’d be able to grow your business, you would definitely get funded.
But before pitching to an investor, prepare a comprehensive business plan that can convince them. Along with that, do thorough research about what businesses the investors want to get involved in and tailor your pitch according to their interests and your benefits.
For example, food delivery apps and eCommerce apps would continue to do well. In contrast, the startups related to travel and hospitality would have to pull up their socks or think of innovative ways to garner a customer’s attention.
The post-Covid market is going to be ruthless. Customers and businesses would let go of anything that’s not important and focus on the things that would add value to a customer’s life.
Build A Roadmap To Scale Your Business
Entrepreneurship pursuits are meant to scale. They are not meant to stall at a certain threshold. That said, scaling a business is no mean task. You need a well-planned roadmap to ensure that the business moves forward like a person on a mission.
Let us say; you are into a restaurant business that offers in-dining only. In the post-pandemic world, people would be hesitant to eat out. Now, as a business owner, you wouldn’t want to lose cash flows. So, you can tweak your way of doing business by partnering with food delivery apps and offering delivery and takeaways or by partnering with local stores that sell products related to essential services and start delivering them.
Additionally, you also need to chalk out a business plan for marketing and fundraising. Government schemes such as Startup India can help you grant some cash flows. Along with that, niche-based fundraising platforms such as Kickstarter continue to invest in startups having a potential.
The post-Covid-19 market will demand a more experienced and versatile businessman, as many current business strategies will change. Hence, you need to have well planned and effective strategies.
Cut Unnecessary Expenses
One of the key traits of successful entrepreneurship pursuits is that they operate frugally. They spend on what is essential and to the right extent.
They do not compromise on essential costs like building strong steam, devising marketing strategies, procuring inventory, and so on.
There is an estimation that the consumer demands will rise, as there will be an increase in the global expenditure from $37 trillion in 2017 to $64 Tn in 2030. You can cut down unnecessary expenses to meet this demand and still increase revenue generation by adopting automation.
With automation, you can easily cut down on production costs, build more effective marketing campaigns. Plus, it also gives you time to focus on the things of utmost importance — scaling a business.
Focus On App Development
According to Statista, there would be 3.8 billion smartphone users across the globe until 2021. With such an enormous number of people hooking up to their phones, you must not miss this golden opportunity. In the post-Covid-19 world, people would still avoid going out and doing everything online. They will shop, order food, listen to music, watch movies, read online.
More and more people would opt for contactless delivery where a mobile app can scan and give a go-ahead for the items collected upon delivery. Hence, hire an app developer to leverage this potential and propel your business in the new normal.
Besides, you may be the only fish looking for food in the pond. In such an unprecedented situation, most of the businesses would want to initiate operations only when the situation is in their favor. But, if you stay consistent with your efforts and market it right, you’ll get an edge over your competitors.
Closing In
During the global recession of 2008, several businesses that were not prepared for a crisis shuttered. However, at the same time, several startups also came to the surface that rewrote business processes that have become mainstream today. Netflix and Airbnb to name two popular names.
The Covid-19 pandemic is definitely a painful crisis to ensure. It has forced several businesses to go out of business. At the same time, it also has created new opportunities. Entrepreneurs who can spot the needle of an opportunity in the haystack can turn this crisis into an opportune moment for building a legacy.
