What's your business continuity plan for the next 6 months following Covid-19 lockdown?
SMEs needed mental and monetary power to survive the last 6 months through the COVID-19 lockdown. As restrictions start to ease, what have you planned for the next 6 months in terms of financing, processes, staffing, business model, COVID safe measures etc.?
Looking right now at ways to help our clients and prospects.
Helping with business development with a systematic approach will really assist business owners in the next 6 months and beyond.
Rather than trying to predict what the future will look like, the smart money instead focuses on what won't change.
Double down on learning what your customers want, how you best solve their problem and think about the elements of that which will still be present in a post-COVID world.
This is a brilliant perspective! Any trends you're seeing?
The main trend we're seeing is that businesses are jumping feet-first into tech and digital transformation, feeling they need to be hyper-agile when they haven't really thought through the problem, first.
The general sentiment is there will be a lot of unwinding of technology solutions in 2021 and beyond, as companies realise they rushed into spending big on tech and haven't actually solved their own problem.
It's funny - we've had a plan to expand the business for around 6-12 months but at the same time, we were experiencing one of our busiest years on record and we simply didn't get the time to execute the plan we had. COVID has allowed us to take a breather, step back and analyse processes and the business as a whole and actually act upon the plan we've always had. That is, we're now looking into more of the "lifestyle" sector rather than focusing on hospitality. FMCG, beauty, professional services and property are all industries that will withstand COVID times and they're also generally more stable industries across the board. This will allow us to (hopefully) have less turn over of clients, even though our retention rate is relatively good these days. In addition, we have created an e-learning platform which we are close to finalising now. This program will be purchasable through the website and is a way for us to share our knowledge and expertise with businesses who perhaps don't have the funds to pay for our services, but want to learn digital marketing themselves.
Would love to hear your thoughts @Lisa Creffield @Jef Lippiatt @Keith Rowley @Quentin Aisbett @Gregory Vekar @Steve Gray @Rod Wills @Adrienne McLean @Sandy Moore !
Hatty Bell, Executive Assistant at Country Road Group
Sounds great! Have you seen success with this?