Apart from the very real health concerns raised by COVID19, there are very real financial and economic implications that concern business owners.
What do you when all your strategy and best-laid plans go out of the window? Strategy works when things are predictable, but in the current unprecedented situation, you need to get tactical.
This is not the time for strategy. This is time to get tactical.
If you’re a business owner or are working in a business that has been affected by the unwinding developments related to COVID-19, here are the 7 key areas you should be focussing on to safely navigate this period.
1. Manage cash-flow during COVID19
Work on maintaining cashflows. Keep a tight eye on this on a daily basis. Have weekly projections. Right now the situation is too fluid to get to grips with. Without this critical information, you are flying your plane blind.
First things first, like in a plane emergency you need to put on your oxygen mask first. Make sure that you have cash reserves to take care of your family for the next 3 to 6 months. Then do the same for your business. Identify fixed costs that are essential to keep your ‘doors open’. Next, identify the variable costs and look at how you can minimise, mitigate or stop them to ease your cashflow. A penny saved is a penny earned.
2. Focus your bandwidth on Marketing, Sales and other Income Producing Activities.
It’s easy to get distracted by what’s happening around you. Your competitors are also scared and holding back on ad and marketing spends. This is the time to double down.
The question to ask and genuinely answer is how can you grow sales by 20% while decreasing costs by 40%? Asking a quality question will get you to focus on the right things.
Identify 3-5 things that can generate revenue for you. Don’t try and work on huge goals. Work on things that you can accomplish in the next day or two. Implement them and then see what’s working.
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Identify key measures that will help you understand if you are making progress. Is it the number of new leads, number of conversations or calls you need to have that can lead to new income.
It’s also time to cut those things that are not working.
3. Diversify revenue streams
Brainstorm how you can generate additional income streams. Focus on your clients. Identify how you can help them right now. Be in frequent communication with them.
You will get a real-time understanding of what they are facing, think and feel. See how you can modify current products or create new ones that leverage your strengths.
4. Seek advice and be in regular contact with a coach, mentor or business advisor.
It can be challenging running a business during normal times. But it’s at times like this that you need to lean on mentors and coaches.
When I lost my previous business and had to restart from scratch, I turned to one marketing coach that charged me 12 lacs. I put my savings on the line and maxed out 3 credit cards to be able to pay. He helped me package and pre-sell a brand new program which I hadn’t even created.
He helped me put a plan together that helped generate 49 lacs of revenue in a 2 week period. It was just the confidence shot I needed to get started. I had the peace of mind to get my business off the ground in no time.
You don’t have to try and figure out everything by yourself.
Reach out and have a free call with me today to see if we can help you. CLICK here to book your call.
5. Manage, minimise and mitigate unnecessary expenses
This is the time to look at how you can decrease your expenses by 40%. Keep reviewing expenses and see how you can stop, renegotiate, or mitigate your expenses.
Look at how automation can help you save. Technology is a great accelerator.
Everybody would like to maintain clients. Everyone would like to stay in business. Let go of the things that are no longer serving you.
6. Get creative with your product or service delivery
The current situation has shown that the digital economy is the way to go. If you have not thought about digitizing your product or service then this is a great time to do so. I suggest reading the book – Bold by Peter Diamandis to understand.
There are also many other ways in which you can reposition your strengths and deliver something different.
What has been working may not be relevant any more and we will need to innovate new business models along with products and services. Design thinking is a great place to start.
Take a leaf out from the Google playbook and devote 5-10% of your time to developing new products.
7. Upgrade you and your team
This is a great time to invest in upgrading and upskilling you and your teams. Learn how to market digitally. Make your team more tech-savvy. Teach them to be more productive. Teach them to work remotely. Here are 9 morning routines that successful people do every morning. This is the perfect time to get into your morning routine.
Identify new skills that are going to be relevant in the future. Teach them situational leadership. Teach them how to upgrade their well being through things like meditation and bio-hacking.
You can buy some courses online. Could you get a virtual instructor? Make learning part of your week. Devote a one to a two-hour slot for learning something relevant for you and your team.
Comment below. How are you dealing with the COVID19 situation as a business owner and what’s your next action going to be?
