In a crisis, the companies that come out of it sooner and stronger than their competitors have a detailed plan and are nimble, aggressive but smart both during the crisis and in their recovery. We’ve created an infographic on how to prepare to reopen your business.
Have a plan
You need a well thought out ramp-up plan and timeline. Prepare for all scenarios even worst case, if COVID returns. Look to where you can cut costs without hurting revenue or operations and how to improve cash flow in preparation for a fall outbreak.
Get your office ready
You need to confirm what state and federal COVID guidelines apply to your business. Once confirmed you will need to get your office ready and inform your staff of these guidelines so they can both participate and feel safe coming back to work. Do you have to take everyone’s temperature before they enter the building? Do you have to provide masks and gloves? Do you have to move cubicles or desks six feet apart? Lean on HR and get ready.
Who is the 50%?
Determine who on your staff are the 50% of the workforce that can return to the office. Check your employees’ productivity at home; you may have found new stars who were more productive at home. It might be time to improve your work-from-home capabilities further for future use.
Let your customers know
Inform all your customers that you are back in business. Reach out to them and see what has changed. Figure out what you can do to help them. Show them you are still a good value.
New messaging
Have you adjusted your marketing to reflect the changes to your company, industry, community, and customers? Deliver content to help educate and inform your audience rather than to sell. This is not the time to poach and it is not time to cut marketing efforts. Your audience is aware now more than ever before looking for more value and meaningful partnerships.
Cloud Applications and Infrastructure
Is your staff working from home having difficulty connecting to your office network, data, and applications? It may be time to consider moving to more cloud applications and cloud server infrastructure so your employees working remotely or from home are not depending on your network for connectivity.
Sales pipeline
Look at offering your prospects in the pipeline discounts to help them out if they sign now. Don’t be afraid to reach out; your competition may have faltered during the shutdowns or may not be offering discounts. Look for new markets that may have opened up. Don’t wait for your competition to swoop in.
Financial assistance
Did you apply for PPP or Disaster loans? If not, be prepared for the second round of funding. You can also talk to your bank and ask what they can do to help you such as defer payments, lower rates, provide quick loans with no fees, etc. Establish a relationship with more than one bank hopefully a local bank so you have options. Be prepared for a future crisis.
Business insurance
Check your insurance policies for possible business interruption insurance and consider that coverage is often conditioned on timely notice to the carrier of an insurance claim.
What did you learn?
Do you need to make any operational changes to better prepare for next time? Did you see unforeseen improvements that you can implement permanently? Can more of our workforce work from home permanently or part-time? Do you need to implement a documented crisis plan so you are better prepared for the next crisis? Learn from this crisis so you are better prepared next time. Start applying those changes and improvements now so you ready for the next crisis; including, possibly a flare-up of COVID in the fall.
