COVID 19 has left the global economy shattered. Experts are predicting that this downfall in the global economy will be the worst in over a 100 years, surpassing the disastrous effects of the Great Depression. As a result, every business around the world is suffering, big or small. So much so that many have been forced to close operations due to the financial crisis. So how should a business owner deal with this economic impact during and after the pandemic, making sure his or her business survives and is ready for the post COVID-19 world? Here are a few tips:
Identify what your current position is in the market, and how the coronavirus is affecting those companies that are in similar positions. If the situation is dire, you may need to adapt and change your positioning according to the current scenario. Think about how you can adapt in these times of changing consumer preferences and implement your plans accordingly. Think medical equipment, internet services, online educational services (to name a few).
While we are going through one of if not the biggest natural disasters in human history, it will come to an end at some point. You will need to think about your post-pandemic operations, about how consumer preferences will shift with an overall decrease in purchasing power. People will want to consume less and save more, so it will be up to you to target goods and services they will need to buy, or target other essential business services in case you are a B2B company. Think long and hard about your capabilities and draw out a clear and doable action plan.Â
Read: COVID-19: How your Business can survive during this pandemic.
The world as we know it is changing. Consumer preferences, demands, supply capabilities; nothing will remain the same after we get through this. You need to broaden your view and think about how you can help alleviate the troubles people are bound to face. As they say, when a problem arises, an opportunity to solve it arises as well. Identify the problems, strengthen your core values around solving those problems, and instill the same belief and willingness to adapt in your employees. We can only pull through this if we work together and doing so requires adaptability.Â
As countries and businesses struggle to survive, it is because they do not have the necessary resources to do so. Hence, to ensure you stay afloat and competitive, you must innovate to improve efficiency. Efficiency means using up less resources to produce the same output, and to do so you must innovate and come up with new ways to accomplish tasks. However, efficiency also requires one to stay in their limits. Do not take on more workload than you can handle, or more employees than you can support. If you do so, you may lose focus and may have to decide between initiatives with respect to how many of the already scarce resources you want to commit to them.
Read: 6 Small Businesses to start in 2020
This may sound cliché, but you must be prepared for the worst, but be optimistic about the future. Preparedness for what is to come is quite necessary because it is likely that you will need to adapt to various situations you may not be ready for. Hence, you must anticipate every possible outcome and strategize accordingly. Companies who fail to do so will find themselves overwhelmed by unprecedented situations and may catapult under pressure. Those who start making decisions and strategies right now will gain a huge competitive advantage over those who do not.
While surrounded by the uncertainties of COVID 19 and its disastrous effects, we must stick together and plan ahead. Doing so will help prepare us better for the post-coronavirus world, one which we hope will be better and more resilient than it was before.
Also see: COVID-19: Its Impact on the Businesses