Last Updated on September 1, 2023 by David
Guest Post by Jessica Larson
The coronavirus pandemic has turned businesses upside down from an operational, logistical, and economic perspective. After months of quarantine, some local officials are deeming it safe to reopen. Others are in the early stages of preparing to resume business as usual — well, as “usual” as business can be in these surreal times.
Regardless of where your state is in the reopening process, it’s a good idea to be proactive about your plans — this way, you’ll know what you’ve got right, learn what you don’t, and be able to fix what you can. Not to mention, by squaring away what you’re sure about, you’ll put yourself in a better position to adjust on the fly to anything unexpected in the current and post-pandemic world.
Here are six tips for rebuilding your business after a pandemic.
1. Inventory your assets
One of the first steps to take is to go over your company’s assets with a fine-toothed comb. Appraise your workforce, capabilities, infrastructure, inventory, contacts, and any other resources you have left, while keeping in mind that you may have suffered some losses.
Knowing where you stand will help you make strategic decisions going forward. It’ll also help you identify any unnecessary assets you can sell off or discard so you can focus on what moves your company forward, instead of holding it back.
2. Evaluate your staffing capacity
During the quarantine, you may have needed to transition your staff quickly to remote work. If your company didn’t already have work-from-home capabilities, this likely created a huge learning curve. You may even have been forced to lay off employees to get through the pandemic; if so, now’s the time to think about how you might bring them back.
Check in with your employees and see who’s able to return, who’s willing to work in-house, and who’s flexible. Unfortunately, if you had to let some people go, albeit temporarily, you might find that some employees have moved on to other jobs. If that’s the case, you might want to re-strategize staffing or start planning for new hires.
Once your roster is organized, you’ll want to be sure you can provide your staff enough personal protective equipment to go around. Studies have shown that employees who use hand sanitizer at least five times per workday are about 67% less likely to get sick. So invest in hand sanitizer, as well as hand soap, disinfectant wipes and sprays, and disposable masks, and make them all easily accessible.
One important thing to remember when buying PPE: Not all hand sanitizers are created equal. Some can be toxic if absorbed through the skin, and the FDA has more than 100 such products on its “do not use” list. Check to make sure the product you’re considering is safe and effective.
3. Examine your facilities
When it’s time to pivot once again and bring things back online, your workforce and resources will likely need to be restructured. Social-distancing measures are still firmly in place, and, if you don’t have enough physical workspace to accommodate everyone, you might need to rethink things. Here are some steps you can take:
- Prioritize what tasks can still be done remotely and identify who can perform them.
- Consider implementing staggered shifts and creative scheduling, where possible, to minimize contact among staffers in the office.
- Realign work spaces to accommodate 6 feet between workers, customers, vendors, and others entering your business. This may take some demolition and reconfiguration.
- Install Plexiglas barriers, distancing signage, and other safety precautions.
If you have customers coming into your store, let them know unequivocally that they’ll need to be masked to comply with either your own requirements or government mandates. Make sure you’re able to offer people a mask if they didn’t bring one, so you neither lose their business nor sacrifice your commitment to safety.
4. Investigate new sales channels
If your company relies heavily on one primary sales channel, it’s time to think about diversifying. During the pandemic, as we’ve seen, companies completely dependent on brick-and-mortar sales channels have struggled to stay afloat. Online retail orders had grown at a staggering rate of 146% just through April. Why not join the party and keep your business relevant? Consider these measures:
- Build your social media presence. Focus on specific platforms that best reach your market. And use only the ones you’ll be able to keep active; stagnated social media profiles just look bad.
- Establish an email distribution list. Keep your business present in customers’ minds. You can offer percent-off coupons and other perks to customers who sign up.
- Build a blog. Offer helpful tips, news about your pandemic response, operational or staff updates, or just fun items related to your audience’s interests.
- Network with like-minded professionals. You can pick the brains of colleagues in your industry to learn what works and doesn’t in various sales channels.
Adding new sales channels and building a strong e-commerce presence can help you retain customers while connecting with new audiences, too.
5. Find cost-cutting measures
Realistically, most companies need to scale back to keep their businesses financially solvent. Leave no stone un-turned when seeking opportunities to save. Eliminate waste and bloat in your budget wherever you can find it, and look for creative ways to trim costs.
For instance, have you thought about investing in manual-transmission cars for your business needs? They’re less expensive to insure, use a bit less fuel, and are less likely to be stolen. And they’re great if you’re training to drive commercial vehicles or heavy equipment. If you or your employees don’t know how to drive one, it’s super easy to learn online.
6. Adapt workplace policies
As we all enter “the new normal,” businesses will need to adopt new policies to fit in with a pandemic-informed world. Here are some steps you’ll want to take:
- Set a plan to track virus cases in your workplace.
- Establish a way to do contact tracing so you can report to the proper agencies.
- Write a policy regarding PPE, outlining when and how certain measures will be utilized.
- Set safety expectations for yourself to share with employees.
- Outline any safety protocols you expect your employees to follow.
- Address any benefit changes, paid time off availability, and quarantine requirements (for those traveling or otherwise potentially exposed to the virus).
Your employees’ physical and mental health should be a priority (as well as customers and yourself, too!) when planning operations for a post-pandemic existence.
Reopening “business as usual” in 2020 will be anything but usual. However, with some adaptive thinking and proactive planning, you can vastly increase your chances of a successful reboot.
About Re:amaze
Re:amaze is a modern helpdesk and customer messaging platform designed to help eCommerce businesses boost customer happiness and revenue. Re:amaze allows all customer-oriented teams to work together in a shared inbox through email, social, SMS, voice, and live chat. Re:amaze also comes packaged with automated messaging and chatbots so eCommerce brands can succeed at the front lines of conversational commerce.
About Jessica
Jessica Larson is a write on SolopreneurJournal.com.