The world is in turmoil with concerns about the current and potential effects of COVID-19. Although I hope you are feeling as healthy as ever, chances are, you are feeling the economic effects in your small business. I am seeing it in my client’s businesses too. I wanted to write today with a few tips and ideas to help you keep your business healthy right now.
1) Remember to breathe if you are seeing a drop in business. There is panic and uncertainty in the world right now, but it’s not the first time this has happened, and it won’t be the last. Just breathe and determine your next best step.
2) Remember that being small can be to your advantage. A small business can be a nimble business. You can make decisions quickly and implement quickly. Use this to your advantage and take action to react to changing business conditions. This creates a competitive advantage for you over the “big guys”.
3) Remember that people are still spending money! The empty shelves at Costco are proving that. You just need to think creatively about what will entice your customers to spend some of that money with you. What can you offer that is helpful?
I have some ideas that I hope could be helpful to a small business owner to help them adapt to (rather than succumb to) the current consumer behavior:
Go Digital
- Move planned classes or workshops to webinars instead (tip: record them for future use or resale!)
- Therapists and wellness practitioners should optimize tele-health options
- Provide additional training and resources digitally since people are home (paid classes!)
- Push E-commerce options and showcase relevant products right now
- Don’t have E-commerce, but have products? Consider a “Digital Pop-up Shop” with a FB Group or Zoom meeting. Sell your goods directly 1:1 digitally this way!
- Push digital content that you have available (i.e. courses, downloadable content, affiliate sales, etc)
Ideas for Quick Infusions of Cash
- Follow-up and collect outstanding Accounts Receivable. I hope you thought about this already 🙂
- Promote gift certificates for future use, even if you’ve never had gift certificates before. This is especially good if you are an in-person practitioner.
- Flash sales on E-commerce, which is also great for liquidating stale inventory!
- Offer prepayment discounts for larger purchases (i.e. packs of 3 rather than selling individual units)
- Consider a loan as interest rates are lower right now. The Federal Reserve is trying to make this as easy as possible for businesses and home owners!
- If you are a supplier, offer a bulk-ordering discount to good customers who pay upfront.
- Sell excess inventory to a wholesaler.
Ideas to optimize extra time while things are slower
- Take time for a deep clean of your space. Customers almost expect this if you are a brick and mortar store, and they do appreciate it! If you’re an online business, you can still clear out the clutter.
- Plan and create content marketing for the rest of the year. Remember, the rest of the year will be coming, and wouldn’t THAT be a nice thing to get off your plate!?
- Review and revise your budget (don’t have a budget? Let’s get that resolved! Book a Strategic Budgeting Package today).
- Schedule social media and email content.
- Review and update policies and procedures.
- Count inventory and note anything that can be liquidated quickly.
- Plan ahead for work that could be done now to help you in the future when business is back to normal.
- Declutter and digitize your office (we use Hubdoc or Receipt Bank to keep receipts).
I trust that at least one of these ideas sparked something that could help your business.
If you want to brainstorm with me on your SPECIFIC issues right now, I’ve opened up extra strategy session spots.
Stay safe and well!
Disclaimer: This blog and the linked videos are intended for educational purposes and should not be taken as legal or tax advice. You should consult with your financial professionals about your unique financial situation before acting on anything discussed in these videos. Clara CFO Group, LLC is providing educational content to help small business owners become more aware of certain issues and topics, but we cannot give blanket advice to a broad audience.
