After a record-breaking year of income in 2019, millions of small business owners faced an unforeseen hardship. COVID-19 caused companies to shut their doors, leaving small business owners shaking their heads in disbelief. Now, more than a year later, they are slowly returning to work, anxious to increase revenue. With valuable lessons learned, small business owners are returning, adapting to the new normal. 

Securing Funds

While the virus affected every business, small businesses felt the effects the hardest. Some may even have had to cease trading completely, prompting questions like “do you need to file accounts for a dormant company?”, depending on how long they anticipated this cease to go on for. Today, however, there’s renewed hope. Many are eager to have funds in place to ensure that they never fall into financial turmoil again. 

Starting over isn’t as easy as with larger companies who have bank loans available upon request. However, there are other types of lenders like Western Shamrock. They make it possible for freelancers and start-up small businesses to acquire personal loans in Lawton, OK or a city near you.

Marketing Post Pandemic

You survived a year of lost earnings. Today, you realize that in order to make it going forward you need to change your marketing strategy. Many people are still wary of entering businesses despite a large percentage of the population receiving the vaccine. 

If you have a storefront, having a website that ensures a safe environment is a must. It’s also beneficial to offer delivery at no extra charge to locals, contact-free. With limited funds, you can increase sales. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have millions of visitors at any given time daily. For short money you can place an ad that appears at an opportune time, reaching your targeted audience.

New Ways to Meet with Customers

Professionals like financial advisors, contractors and real estate agents, who often meet face-to-face with their clients became creative. Thanks to technology, Zoom meetings became their savior. While they could not shake hands, they could see their clients and have meaningful conversations. Real Estate agents are able to show customers’ homes, live. 

Even those in the business who buy and flip homes continued to view properties up close and personal and make sales. Contractors can propose plans to businesses and homeowners and financial advisors are able to maintain a healthy relationship with clients. While nothing replaces human contact, for many industries, having access to the tool is becoming a valuable asset.

Working from Home

Adapting to the new normal includes allowing employees to work from home. In order to remain afloat, businesses large and small used remote worker programs. This allowed teams to continue their work on projects, executives to conduct visual meetings, and the entire staff to remain connected.

Today, your employees can remain the backbone of your business without the need for a desk in the office. If you’re looking to expand the number of employees, remote working lets you do it without the need for a larger space. Offering remote working to existing employees is a plus. It will also benefit the business in attracting better talent.

Customer Loyalty

There’s much competition among small businesses. To remain relevant, you need customers to remain loyal. Discounts on future services and products and cash rewards for referring family and friends are a couple of incentives proven successful. Sending newsletters via email several times annually that provide valuable information related to your industry is also beneficial. Ultimately, your goal is to make each customer feel important. Once you do this, they will stick with you even if a competitor knocks on their door.  

The year 2020 is behind you. However, as a small business owner, there are positive lessons to learn. Keeping money in reserve, utilizing new technologies and allowing staff flexibility with a work-from-home option, are several steps in the right direction. No one predicted the pandemic. However, having a plan B and even a plan C will improve your chances of survival in the future.