7 Tips to Rebuild your Business After COVID-19

COVID-19 Pandemic overwhelmed countries around the globe. Lockdowns were imposed everywhere, and businesses were shut.

Governments across the globe have failed to protect small business owners. According to a report by Fortune, nearly 100,000 firms that were temporarily closed due to the Pandemic have completely run out of business. 

So, if your business has survived the bad days and is still running, consider yourself lucky. But, how will you move ahead from here? More importantly, how will you recover the damage done by the Pandemic? Well, don’t worry because we’ve got your back. 

We have assembled seven tips that can help you speed up your business again.  So, let’s take a look:

7 Tips to Rebuild your Business after the Pandemic

Run a business audit

The first step towards growth starts by figuring out where you currently stand. 

You can consider the previous year’s profit & loss statements and balance sheets for a better picture and compare it with this year’s scenario. 

Customer migration, employee layoff and overhead expenses, if any, should give you a clear picture of your business.  After considering these factors, you can create your budget for this year.

Alter your business plan

Successful businesses are never shy of adapting to change, and this Pandemic has changed the entire landscape of brick-and-mortar stores. 

If you were dependent on offline sales before the Pandemic, then you might want to move online. 

And when you decide to move online, you cannot afford to ignore the cybersecurity aspect. Installing an SSL certificate on your website wards off sniffing, MiTM attacks by encrypting the communication that transpires between the web server and the client browser. 

Or, if you already have a website, you might want to put it to use by expanding it.

To add multiple subdomains to your existing business website, you need to replace your regular SSL certificate with a comodo positive wildcard ssl. A multi domain wildcard ssl is used to protect multiple subdomains at a time with equal effectiveness to level 1. 

They are cheaper than regular certificates as you only need one wildcard SSL to protect all your subdomains. In contrast, if you were to protect every subdomain with a regular SSL, you would need one regular SSL for each subdomain. 

Managing a wildcard SSL is much easier than managing a regular SSL because you don’t have to renew SSL for each subdomain; you only do it once, and the security of all the subdomains gets renewed.

You can buy cheap wildcard SSL certificates from renowned Certificate Authorities without having to worry about your website’s security status. Wildcard SSL will play a comprehensive role in assisting your business expansion plan. So, buy it ASAP.

Fuel your business

As a car cannot start without fuel similarly, a business cannot run without funds. 

After carefully analyzing your business’s situation, it is time to borrow some funds for your business.

Government loans, bank loans, and business credit cards are some of the most popular and viable options out there to borrow funds.

However, we would advise you to have a strict plan regarding how you will be spending every penny that you borrowed.

Otherwise, your business will sink deeper than it was earlier. So, fuel your business cautiously.

Revise your spending plans

As a small business owner, you do not have unlimited cash up your sleeves, so you must be very careful about your business spending. 

Like we mentioned in the previous point, you must have your spending planned out. 

Moreover, reduce your waste to a bare minimum (if not all of it). Do not indulge in unnecessary expenses for now, and keep your advertising cost in check.

Allocate your budget appropriately to places that need recovery. For example, you can increase your stock, customize your service according to the customer or invest in making your product COVID appropriate and hygienic.

Go slow and steady

Focus more on things that need immediate attention and go slow on secondary business operations.

Under your recovery plan, manufacturing and maintaining stock should be your top priority. Apart from that, you can ask your employees to re-join and get to work.

Your marketing plan should be crisp and budget-friendly, where most of the marketing is focused on social media and Google ads.

Moreover, you must have complete knowledge of the demographics of your target audience so that your ads reach relevant people only.

Once your sales start to pick up the pace, you can ramp up your business operations.

Be prepared for the future.

It is highly unlikely something like this will happen on such a huge scale in the future but, we cannot rule out the predictions completely.

We never know what is waiting for us next, which is why it is better to prepare your business for it in advance.

Once the situation gets normal, you can set aside contingency funds to sustain your business in a crisis.

The Pandemic worsened the situation because most businesses were ill-prepared to face anything like it.

Thus, start preparing for the future from today itself. 

Keep in touch with your customers.

Creating trust is one thing but sustaining it even during crises is quite a task.

But, keeping trust alive strengthens the bond between the customers and businesses, which is why you must be truthful about the situation with your customers.

You must keep in touch with your customers at all times by updating them about your situation. You can even send them an email containing the COVID measures you are taking to secure transactions. 

Loyal customers like to hear from their favorite businesses. So, make your presence felt.

To Conclude

The COVID-19 crisis has devastated the entire world. Businesses have been shut down, people have been locked up in their homes, and the economy has borne a substantial brunt. 

Now that things have started getting back on track after the 2nd wave, businesses face issues like shortage of funds, inappropriate pre-pandemic plans, and restrictions on public gatherings imposed by the government.

However, if businesses operate smartly, they can surely come out of the crises without further damage. 

The seven steps mentioned above employ smart strategies that can be practically applied to all small businesses.

So, follow them today and ensure your victory over the devastating COVID-19 Pandemic.