2020 has been a devastating year for a lot of businesses, especially small businesses. But this shouldn’t stop you from going forward with a new business or evolving your existing one. Take a hard look at how COVID-19 affected “normal” business practices and learn from them. Next, put that lesson into action and use it to move forward and protect your business. Here are 7 lessons to keep in mind for the future.
Maintaining Client Relationships
In this modern age, it is easy to stay in contact through emails, mobile phones, and instant messaging. More than ever companies are finding the use of modern technology they ignored prior to the pandemic helpful.
Cloud-based communications should be an inevitable part of your working day. Being able to see your client while talking creates a stronger and a more confident relationship. That is why face-to-face meetings are so important. In these days of social distancing, maintaining and keeping strong relationships with your clients becomes more difficult, so try and make sure you are set up for virtual meetings with proper audio and video equipment.
Think About Your Financial Future and Stop Overlooking Your Pension
When running or starting up a business, most people plan how much money they would like to make per month or year. Of course, this is necessary planning for all businesses, but a lot of the time, there is one big step people forget. You also need to plan for the future. This means making sure you are putting enough money away in a pension fund. The whole point is to be able to retire and be financially secure whilst enjoying all your hard work. COVID-19 has certainly taught us, now more than ever, we need to plan for our futures.
Review Your Contracts and Agreements
Not only do you need to check whether your contracts and agreements cover pandemics, but it’s the ideal time to make sure everything else is tip top, like intellectual property, risk, and so on. Take the time to sit down and carefully go over your contracts and agreements to see if they still meet your businesses needs. Reviewing your contracts periodically may not only reduce risk but it may save your business a lot of money in the long run. If you are unsure about any wording or perhaps you don’t have any agreements in place please do contact us. We can draft those documents for you and advise on the same.
Don’t Let Working from Home be a Distraction
Working from home can be great. You will save money on fuel but also potentially on the money you spend in your lunch hour. You have less travel time which gives you a few more hours in the day to do something extra, like family time or working out. However, there can be many more distractions when working from home, from dealing with your spouse and kids to having the TV on. Just because you are working from home mean doesn’t mean you cannot be professional.
Set down rules for your work hours, not just for your family but for you too. Getting distracted can negatively impact your business, which in turn hurts your financial situation.
Review Your Business Model Regularly Including Your Spending
A quarterly time table is many industries standard. This will ensure you catch any overspending or if you need to make adjustments to your business plan. The last thing you need is to find you have overextended your businesses or overlooked practices that are or are not, working. This doesn’t mean that you cannot adapt or pivot your business if you need to. COVID-19 has certainly prompted a lot of businesses to do this.
Remain Flexible and Adapt to Changes but Stay Protected
Market trends change more frequently nowadays, and in order to be successful, businesses need to adapt quickly. Stay open to change. This doesn’t mean you have to completely change your business model or take huge risks. Pinpoint mistakes you have made in the past and learn from them. Keep yourself informed and your eye on what’s going on. That way, you will be able to respond faster and stay ahead of the competition.
Talk to Someone
Running your own business or multiple businesses can be very stressful as things don’t always go as planned. Dealing with unforeseen circumstances such as COVID-19 can be devastating not only to your business but your state of mind. Talking to someone may give you a unique perspective on how to adapt or save your business. There are plenty of business advisors and coaches that can guide you throughout the entire process. If that doesn’t work for you, opening up to friends and family can help. Don’t suffer in silence; remember that you, and your business, are not alone in this pandemic.
As we put this COVID-19 pandemic horror behind us (hopefully very soon) it’s very important to not overlook the lessons we learned from it. Because one day, these lessons may help us build a better future.
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