4 Resources to Help Small Businesses Adapt to COVID-19

Through the progression of the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses have experienced major setbacks regardless of their status or size. Every organisation has had to revisit how they operate and manage businesses, which includes almost entirely reworking their business strategies and way-forward.

Staying afloat during the lockdown has itself become one of the greatest challenges businesses are faced with. With citywide and nationwide lockdowns in effect, businesses have seen lower revenues and greater uncertainty in general within the global environment.

Here are a few means and resources that can help your business survive this time of crisis.

1. Communicate your business needs with your vendors and partners.

It is important to be almost completely transparent with your business partners and third-party investors regarding your requirements to keep your business operations up and running. Here’s one example. Amazon plans to hire 100000 new employees and give existing employees financial benefits to tackle the pandemic at a personal level.

2. Keep yourself open to digital and virtual payment options

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation process for organisations across industries. There is no better time than right now to add digital payment options to your marketing strategy and business model. Moving monetary transactions online for sale and purchase is a simple and effective way to make up for the loss of footfall within physical stores.

A payment gateway or virtual terminal is almost a mandatory online payment system for small business owners. This system enables you to create and store digital invoices and incorporate recurring billing services. You can also share payment links with your customers directly through text message or email.

3. Use the latest virtual business resources

Businesses that have adapted to the changing global landscape and have incorporated remote working, can benefit from virtual business resources. These are tools that can help businesses in managing productivity, output and communications. Here are some you should definitely use.

• Zoom has been one of the most popular remote conferencing apps during the pandemic and lockdowns. It allows entire teams to stay connected, conduct meetings, chat and attend seminars with its remote conferencing capabilities which bring video calls, chat messengers and mobile connectivity together onto one platform.
• The most popular CRM tool to manage sales and marketing is Hubspot. Their services include social media marketing, lead gen services, customer relationship management and social media marketing, among others.
• Trello is a list-making application that helps businesses to turn highly complex projects into simpler, smaller tasks. It allows users to make lists, plan, manage, execute, deliver and share every task that they need to accomplish. It provides greater visibility into which person or team is working on what and who is accountable for which task.

4. Explore new ways to stay relevant to your audiences

Across cities, countries and continents, business organisations are looking at new and creative ways of staying top of mind for their diverse audiences. This includes switching up working styles and strategies at multiple tiers.

• Offer special discounts to loyal customers and first-time buyers
• Create a referral reward scheme
• Create an active social media presence to create a relationship with your audience
• With more people spending time online and fewer people coming to stores, shifting products and services online is a great way to reach more people.
• Create virtual or digital events, webinars or campaigns.
• Leverage social platforms to virtualise your key products and services.

There is a natural tendency to panic when the market gets disrupted. However, the best way forward is to plan rationally and adapt to survive. An online payment system for small business owners can be the first step in that direction. Consider setting up one for your business today.