As we all adjust to remote work, it is imperative to keep yourself well-prepared and sustained through the Covid-19 Pandemic and its aftereffects. We want to give you these tactics you can take right now and give you a distinct advantage that will not only ride you through this situation but, more importantly, best position you to come out on top.
Here are 10 tips to make your business sustain and improve through this pandemic!
1. Communicate
Communication has always been vital to a business, but now it is quite possibly the single-most important thing you can do to keep your business moving and thriving due to the requirement of remote work.
Communicate with your team, your customers and clients, and your network early and often. More importantly, stay level-headed. There is a lot of push from the media to panic, but you need to be the voice of calm in the storm. Make sure you are communicating that you are here for your team, clients and customers, and network and that you are wanting to support them in the best way that you can.
2. Stay Positive
As already stated, there is a large attempt to cause panic by the media, so it is imperative that you stay positive. Being in a state of panic never helps anyone, especially not your business.
Something to keep in mind as you push forward is that whenever there is a massive change, there is also a terrific opportunity. Staying positive will help you see the opportunities to learn and grow rather than react and shrink.
Looking back at the 2008 crisis, there were companies who decided to stay positive, make some logical decisions to move their business forward, and, ultimately, came out on top stronger than before the crisis. You may need to slow down or adjust your business and use this time to invest in your existing pool of customers and clients. Engage with them to plan for the future.
This can also be a great opportunity to see the positive side of your marketing strategy, including the net positives of remote work, which we will talk about more later on. You have a lot more time to plot and plan for the future trajectory of your business, including content marketing and materials, sales processes, etc. Either way, the important thing is to stay vigilant but stay positive.
3. Know the Cycles of Change
There are seasonal changes that happen every year. Some industries and businesses are more affected than others from these cycles, but it is really important to be aware that these seasons will likely still happen in the midst of this time of change. Using the Google Trend tool will give you great insights to see some of the seasonal changes when you need to be focusing on specific things for your industry, but also give you a more holistic view.
Within these regular cycles of change there are always major changes that happen every 7 to 11 years. All we have to do is look back at 2007 and 2008 to see these shifts in action and how they can affect change on people, the culture, and society in general. These bigger cycles of change will naturally influence the stock market and various other economic factors. Being aware of these things is vital to see where your business might be able to respond in an advantageous way rather than be reactionary.
Some of these changes stick around, and it is worth considering remote work as one of those changes.
4. Change Is Here
The only constant in our world is change. There’s no getting around the fact that change is here. Shifting to remote work, for the time being as well as for the future, is a great example of obvious change in our culture. The question is: how are you using this situation as a springboard for your business?
You need to get out ahead of the change, so rather than being negative throughout this whole situation and feeling sorry for yourself you need to figure out how you can get ahead of this situation. George Soros, one of the greatest stock investors and hedge fund managers of all time, talked about in his book, “The Alchemy of Finance,” the theory of reflexivity. He studied how public perception ultimately influenced the stock market changes and vice versa. The idea behind the concept being about how you can influence people to get some kind of financial gain in cultural situations like these.
It is important to think about this situation with this view in mind right now because you can use this situation to better serve people and grow your business. All it takes is accepting the change and using it to your advantage.
5. Cut Back a Little Bit
This one seems obvious and affects pretty much every single person, not just businesses: it is time to cut back a little bit.
If you do need to cut back, then remember that cash is always king in these kinds of situations. Don’t be spending exorbitant amounts of money on travel and unnecessary expenses. Instead, focus on spending your money where it is working for you, especially in marketing, sales, and lead generation for your company. These are the lifeblood of your business, so it is crucial to not think about cutting back in those areas because that’s going to be where you’re going to continue to push through this crisis.
Rather than travelling for conferences, it is a great time to start doing digital summits and conferences and meetings. As remote work becomes more vital to your business, invest in equipping your remote workers with equipment to help them, and you, succeed. Catalyst Brand Group works with clients and team members all over the world and we do it all from home. Working remotely can be a great way to cut back in creative ways.
6. Extend Your Credit
Now is a great time to extend your credit. The Small Business Association has been offering some loans at a very low interest rate to help businesses stay afloat and expand their credit lines. Making sure you have increased liquidity will allow you to securely continue to provide services to your team and your customers or clients. This helps you do your part and encourages others to do their part in keeping the economy moving.
This point is simple, but vital for your business and the economy as a whole.
7. Cut Back Hours/Staff Changes/Remote Work
Now is a great time to think about cutting back on hours, changing staff around, and implementing remote work, maybe even permanently. Taking some vacation time and recommending your team takes some, too, goes a long way to improving morale and taking advantage of some of this slow down.
It’s also a good time to think about implementing a remote work policy. Not all industries and businesses have the ability to offer remote work, but if your business can continue to function with remote work, then it is better to take advantage of that ability sooner rather than later. It is also worth considering the cost/savings of remote work and implementing it beyond the pandemic, too. There could be significant savings for your business as you learn to reposition to remote work as the norm and come up with creative solutions to keep working at maximum efficiency.
It’s important to think about these things seriously as the visionary, entrepreneur, and leader in your business. If you have the chance to cut back on your hours, work remotely or let others choose remote work, and to think of ways staff can be used creatively and fill new needs in your business, then you need to take every advantage to do so.
8. Plan to Work From Home and Learn From Home
Realistically, it is time to plan on remote work and learning from home.
Schools at every level are already planning on and creating ways to do remote learning and working. There is a greater chance that, whether you have a remote work policy or not, remote work will become a requirement now and it may be required again in the future. With this in mind, it is better to be prepared than to live in denial.
You can also consider this a great opportunity to see people’s self-control. In most cases, the studies that have been done on remote work show around 2x-3x increased productivity. This is largely because of the reduced distractions.
Here are some tools we use at Catalyst Brand Group regularly to aid with our remote work:
Slack for team communication, chatting back and forth, and even calls and meetings.
Asana for task management, project management, and project planning.
Trello for content marketing and content marketing planning. Email for communication with clients, of course.
Google Drive and Dropbox for file storage and shared folders or documents.
Zoom and Google Hangouts or Google Meet for some video meetings.
Lastly, a good cell phone for conference calls or business calls.
All the tools you need are readily available and remote work can make a huge difference in expanding your business, too.
9. Marketing and Selling Is Still Essential
Marketing and selling is essential right now. Whatever you do, do not stop doing your marketing and sales because your competition is not going to stop.
Earlier we mentioned the companies who are successful today are the ones who used the crisis of 2007-2008 to get ahead of their competition. These companies embraced thinking of innovative ways to market their company, to sell whatever product, information, or service they had.
Use this time to think about new branding packages, content marketing, or paid advertising you can do with the different offers you have. Think through some new offers or opportunities you can share with people, especially for people affected by the virus or the increased number of people working from home. These are all opportunities to serve people in a greater way.
10. Focus On Your Current and Repeat Customers
Moving forward, you want to be focused on serving your current customers or clients. They are the people who are working with you right now, so make sure they have absolutely everything they need to get through this situation.
At Catalyst Brand Group, we have dedicated ourselves to working with the companies we have right now. Not too much is changing with them and we are continuing to support them through marketing, sales liaison, tech and IT, and software as best as we can. It is having a good impact for them and that is our ultimate goal.
We try our best to create deals for them, communicate with them as much as possible, and be as much help as we can to them. Dedication to your current customers or clients is one of the most important things your business can do right now. Especially as remote work and remote purchasing becomes a regularity in our society, being able to cater to regular and repeat customers and clients remotely the same as you would otherwise will create big wins for your business.
Looking For a Partner to Help You With Remote Work During This Pandemic and Beyond?
How do you think any of these 10 areas could bolster the influence of your business? How do you feel about remote work beyond the pandemic? Do you think we left anything out? We want to hear your successes and struggles and help where we can! At Catalyst Brand Group we focus on implementing proven growth strategies in brand, platform, and growth that will help your business grow by at least 2x-3x per year. If you are looking to implement remote work for your business, then Contact Us to start a conversation about how we can partner together.