Online business owners’ manual to tackle the second wave
The second wave of Covid-19 might arrive in autumn. This survival guide for online business owners, helps you get ready and prepare!
The second wave of Covid-19 might arrive in autumn. This survival guide helps you get ready and prepare!
Is the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic coming? Is the first part even over yet? Whichever is true, start preparing your online business now for the possibility of the second wave, and you’ll be sure not to miss a beat if the worst comes to worst.
Update your remote work protocols
If your business is one hundred percent online, you’re already a big step ahead when it comes to remote work. Most or maybe even all your tasks can be effortlessly accomplished wherever, whenever.
To prepare for team work remotely, check these things:
- Are all your shared tools available online? Are they up to date?
- Do your processes need polishing? Does everyone know what to do and when? If possible, write instructions and share them with your team to make sure everyone is on the same page.
- How are you informing your clients about eventual changes in meetings and delivery options?
- If working remotely means taking care of your family at the same time, what can you do to prepare? Hire a virtual assistant, grow your team, prioritise… Plan for these things.
Prepare for growing demand
In an online business, changes in demand are less radical than with physical businesses. If your demand drops, you won’t have a stock of croissants going bad, like a local coffee shop entrepreneur might have. Or if your demand goes up, you won’t run out of stock as quickly as hand sanitizer manufacturers did in the beginning of the year.
Still, online business owners need to prepare for growing as well. Make sure these boxes can be ticked off:
- Have you automated every part of your process, or is manual work (that is, your time and presence) needed at any point? If it is, it can become a bottleneck in your business.
- Have you checked that your newsletter opt-ins and payment gateways work flawlessly?
- What do your fixed costs look like if your business grows dramatically overnight? If there are recurring costs related to payment gateways, for example, make sure they won’t skyrocket with your business.
- Where can you find extra help, if needed? Could you interview candidates in advance or hire freelancers to establish a relationship with? Written processes and instructions will serve the whole team also in a situation where you need to onboard new staff quickly.
Plan for decreasing demand as well
If the spring time was really bad for your business and you are afraid that another season like that will wipe you out, planning is even more important.
- Could you package or price your services differently to better meet the demand?
- Are there new services you could easily integrate into your offering?
- What kind of promotions can you run to boost your sales? Remember relevancy: you need to serve people in a difficult situation. Your promotions shouldn’t be all about you.
- Could you use the time productively, if clients disappear? This can be a good moment to work on new solutions that may not bring any money in right now, but will in the future. Also, consider to develop new skills.
- Are there any fixed costs you could cut, at least temporarily?
The best thing is that all these things will also serve you even if the second wave won’t hit us as hard as the first one did. At the end, either you are well prepared or you have a better running business and a solid contingency plan!
Photo © Eric Rothermel / Unsplash