Now that the world is readjusting to the new normal, you may be evaluating the next step for your business. However, knowing what the best for your business during these unprecedented times is often uncertain. Here are a few things you may want to consider for your small-business moving forwards.

Whether you are an employee or employer it is important to ensure that your workplace is covid-secure. Here you can find the 5 step guide published by the government to promote working safely during coronavirus https://bit.ly/31OGnlz.

Navigating the recovery phase

As lockdown eases your business will be learning how to work in a new normal, especially as guidelines across the UK are continuously being reviewed. Staying up-to-date in this rapidly-moving world is the most important thing you can do to avoid misinformation. When you consider it safe to reopen your business, the next step would be to get your customers through the door again. However, since many people remaining alert and not wanting to put themselves at risk of coronavirus, it would be beneficial to effectively communicate with your customers the measures in place to keep them safe. Customer confidence is a key step in navigating the recovery phase effectively.

Safety measures

• Share your prevention and safety measure e.g. ensure customers follow social distancing, frequently clean surfaces, and display any visual aids
• Communicate clearly with your customers
• Be adaptable e.g. offer new services or ways of working in your business, such as selling online, offering deliveries or organising “click & collect”
• Stay informed & complaint with the latest government advice

Redesigning your business plan

As we face a new normal you should be taking your business plan into consideration to see if it aligns with your business moving forwards. When you initially mapped out your business plan, you probably considered things like financial plans, marketing plans and your business goals. If you haven’t reviewed this plan in a while it would be a good idea to dig these out and take them into account while redesigning. You may wish to consider how your business operations over the past few months have impacted your objectives, have you introduced any new services to maintain stability?

E-Commerce

The impact of COVID-19 has meant business models of UK retailers have been pressured to make radical changes. Although many of these would have been catalysed by the pandemic, there are strong financial trends that were already pushing the UK towards e-commerce dominance.

Throughout lockdown, countless small-businesses have launched delivery services to maximise the power of ecommerce in order to counter the restrictions in place. Moving your business online offers a great additional customer stream and revenue to your business. Offering ‘click and collect’ services restore some of the customer confidence of picking up from your premises. Old buying habits acquired under lockdown will become a thing of the past as the UK slowly stabilise at the “new normal”. Leverage over the power of data will become a valued asset for organisations in order to find a growing online audience.