What Small Businesses Need to Survive
Since March 2020, the global outbreak has brought the global economy to a standstill, with most businesses worldwide unable to operate normally and retail establishments, offices, factories, and construction sites closing. Over the next three years, a steady stream of new virus variants infected and restricted continued to disrupt normal life. As a result of this unforeseen economic crisis, most small and medium-sized businesses around the world struggled with declining sales. This has led to most businesses around the world not making ends meet, and so many businesses, both large and small and medium-sized, are experiencing widespread unemployment and bankruptcy. How to help companies survive and get through this crisis has become a top priority for China and the world.
Change the mindset of survival -From growth to survival
The years of the new crown epidemic have been some of the toughest years for small business owners around the world. Timely support is especially important in countries where governments have provided little or no funding to help them survive the epidemic. The global entrepreneurship TechnoServe is a nonprofit organization that has supported small and growing businesses in nearly 30 developing countries in its 50 years of existence. Due to curfews and social alienation rules, these business support organizations have made a behavioral shift from offline to online training for their businesses. TechnoServe’s solution proposes to help entrepreneurs “develop a survival mindset” by helping them overcome their initial “grief”, realize that the business they have built may no longer work, and revisit their plans with an “entrepreneurial mindset”.
Ensure liquidity of funds
One of the key challenges facing small businesses today is how to access cash. Running any business is risky, however, small businesses are particularly vulnerable. The hope is that the state will provide financial assistance to those small businesses that were truly insolvent before the crisis, providing immediate cash flow to the most vulnerable businesses and keeping those small businesses afloat. It is also important for small businesses to have quick access to their capital to maintain their operations.
Combination of work from home and office work
The home office has formed a new mode of work
Before the viral pandemic, it was widely believed that the office was critical to productivity, culture, and winning the war for talent. But as people have been forced to stay home due to the epidemic over the past two years, many have been surprised by how quickly and efficiently video conferencing and other forms of digital collaboration technologies have been adopted. According to a McKinsey study, 80 percent of respondents said they prefer to work from home because they believe it offers more flexibility in balancing their personal and professional lives. Many organizations also believe that this also reduces real estate costs for them.
Pros and cons of working from home
Although, for individual entrepreneurs, who would have been working from home, such a work model allows them to work flexible and free hours. But for large corporate employees, although they no longer work according to the traditional 9 to 5 schedule, fully digital communication cannot produce the same cost benefits as physical interaction like face-to-face communication. Moreover, not all businesses are suited to work from home.
Long hours at home can create physical and mental anxiety, and the tedious home environment must require strong self-discipline from practitioners, otherwise, they may be less productive due to laziness. And for large companies, the long time between employees can not produce physical interaction, which will inevitably affect the corporate culture and management.
Therefore, there is bound to be a change in the working model of the future. To maintain productivity, collaboration, and learning, as well as corporate culture, the line between being in the office and being out of the office must be broken. Companies can choose whether to work from home or in an office company, depending on the situation.
Change the sales model: new remote sales model combined with traditional channels
Focusing on social media and email to reach customers
The new crown epidemic has forced many analog companies to adopt digital technologies, such as contactless payment tools and online chat software. About 25 percent of respondents said they are increasingly using online platforms to market goods and services and don’t even need a website to be successful online. Creating valuable videos and putting them on Instagram and taking customer orders over the phone, a combination of old and new sales models helped many businesses weather the storm during the epidemic control period.
Double-check every cost
Every penny counts now. Companies with their lives on the line should carefully account for every expense and spend it where it will do the most good. It is recommended that small businesses account for and track daily expenses on a monthly basis so that they can respond quickly to changing economic conditions.
Look at your personal finances, talk to the people who may be supporting you, and have a realistic discussion about how to control your personal expenses for the next three months. What costs are necessary and what can be put on hold? If you have a partner to support you, having an open and honest discussion will serve you well in your immediate and long-term business plans.
Focus on the best profit opportunities
Small business owners must identify their most valuable products and services and discard the others that are not valuable. It is also important for companies to understand the most loyal and profitable customersーーwho they are, what they buy, and how to attract them. In addition to their buying power, loyal customers can be a company’s best advocates and evangelists, providing you with real and free powerful word-of-mouth advertising.
Keep interacting and communicating with your customers
Maintain positive interaction and communication with your existing customers and, when appropriate, suggest directly to them that “we would like you to repurchase in order to get more inventory for you to sell”.
Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Stay calm, don’t panic, take care of yourself, don’t blame yourself too much because that’s what’s happening to everyone, don’t get too anxious, and get the things at hand done. This can be difficult, especially when cash is running out, but remember to take care of yourself in a way that works for you – for example, eat well and try to do some exercise. Have a healthy mindset and always believe that things will get better and that you are not alone in this fight. Seek out as much emotional support as you can when you need it.
We all hope that things will get better. Small businesses and the communities in which they live can join forces and help these businesses survive, just as we are doing everything we can to help each other survive. The coronavirus pandemic has affected industries and businesses of all sizes. In a global sense, the lessons we’ve learned from this crisis – helping others, keeping each other safe, banding together to work together, and learning new ways to connect – are equally applicable to small business survival during these tough times.
Take advantage of the resources available from governments and financial institutions
Governments around the world have begun to take action to support small business owners by keeping up with daily policy changes. Find out how governments can help cut costs and what support policies other important institutions, such as banks, have in place, and apply for government support on your own terms.
Identify opportunities
How do you want your customers to behave in the future? What is important to them, what is not important to them, and how can you adapt to those who may become new types of customers? Can you digitize your product or service and start offering it online? Can you achieve the technology to balance lost revenue by offering new ways to connect with your customers?
Think more, learn more, and identify new opportunities to get yourself out of trouble.
Upskill your staff
Instead of hiring more staff, you can train your existing staff with additional skills that will improve their productivity and efficiency. There are many online courses that are very inexpensive, look for the ones that best fit your needs and budget and that will allow them to gain skills in other areas. For example, your sales team may be able to help the marketing team as well. When you or your team is in self-imposed isolation, skills training can be completed at home. Thus, they can gain more skills and use them to their full value.
