HELP YOUR SMALL BUSINESS SURVIVE THE PANDEMIC
On Yelp.com, 140,104 businesses closed at the onset of the pandemic. By August the number fell to 65,769. This drop is not from businesses reopening, instead, it mainly because of business going completely under.
As per Yelp’s Local Economic Impact Report, 97,966 businesses have shut down permanently during the pandemic.
This situation may only get worse.
But what about small businesses?
There are more than 30 million small businesses in the United States. Small business generates more than 1.5 million jobs in the States annually.
The small businesses reacted unevenly to the pandemic. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York report in August, the active Black small business owners fell 41% from Feb to April. Overall, one-third of the small ventures in the US were not operating as soon as the pandemic hit us.
However, one might expect that with limited resources, small businesses that collapsed in the beginning, must be in the phase of closure.
But surprisingly, small businesseshave started understanding the terms and conditions of working in a pandemic world and are, therefore, reopening.
But like we said, small business owners have adapted to the new reality. To help their business survive the pandemic storm, most of the small business owners started interacting with their customers over the internet.
They also started investing in minimal tools such as a high-speed internet service, from Spectrum Internet that provides Spectrum Double Play Select and Spectrum Select Packages, for affordable internet and cable TV services, respectively.
However, there is a lot more that goes into making your small business survive a global and economic crisis.
Following are some of the ways that you can work on to help your business earn success during the coronavirus times:
Be Social on Social Media
Believe it or not, the current time is all about social media interactions.
Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has increased people’s reliance on social media for making their purchase decision, or even to think positively or negatively about a brand.
It is unsurprising because social media was already booming for its power to influence consumer behaviors and decisions. And now, with millions of people stuck in their homes, with little for their entertainment, it was certain, that they will be lured towards more social media consumption.
If you do not believe, here are some stats to prove how big social media consumption is.
According to Smart Insights, more than half of the world now uses social media. An average social media user spends 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media and messaging applications.
Therefore, there is no way you can think any less of social media. Instead, with such high usage from consumers, social media should be your top priority.
Therefore, in the current times make sure you are truly social on social media platforms. Divide your team into parts so that they can manage different social media platforms at one time.
Also, keep in mind that you not only have to create content for your social media profiles but you should also focus on creating a great bond with your customers. Try to win back their trust in case you lost it in the crisis and due to infrequent communication.
Learn How to Pivot
With such a volatile global climate and the ever-changing rules on how to operate a business, it is important to learn how to pivot at the time of need. Pivoting means that you should be ready to change your strategy, mode of operation, or overall business module in case the old ones are not working well with the company or the situation.
Pivoting doesn’t necessarily have to be intense, it can also be as simple as changing company software with an application.
To sum it up, your business your company strategy should now be flexible. In case of need, you should always be ready for different modes of operation so that you can continue your way towards success and do not have to put your company’s function to a stop, as happened at the onset of the pandemic.
Get Help from Local Government
At this point, it is important to acknowledge that you are not alone. There are many business owners out there struggling with the same problems as yours. The pandemic has spared no one, therefore, there should not be any hesitating in asking for help.
You can ask your local government to offer you help in a time of crisis.