Are all your ducks lined up? NOW is the time to prepare your business to succeed after coronavirus lockdown.

Before the crisis, were you so distracted by the strain of just making things work day-to-day that you put off doing things you knew might improve your business ‘if you had the time’?

Now IS that time. Get stuck in today, before it’s too late.

In a few short weeks or months, the lockdown will inevitably come to an end. You and everyone else in your sector will then be scrabbling after the same customers to get the money coming back in. Only the strongest will succeed.

And here’s the rub: To be better than your competition means completing all those tasks you’ve put on the back burner – but you’ll have even less time to do them after lockdown.

Here’s some often neglected ways to work ‘on’ your business (from home) BEFORE the lockdown ends:

• Develop and refine products and services – to be more attractive to your customers and more profitable/ more cost effective/ less wasteful etc.

• Augment products and services – with online sales, delivery options, commission opportunities and recurring revenue streams etc.

• Analyse your business – to find gaps, inefficiencies, waste, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – and work on them.

• Get feedback from your team – What would make their jobs easier and more productive? How do they think you could improve procedures/ resources/ tools? What feedback do they get from your customers? (And then work on those things).

• Research the competition (online) – Discover what do they do better or different. Think of ways to respond.

• Research alternative suppliers (online) – Do you need to put alternative suppliers in place in case any go under or can’t deliver what you need after lockdown? Are you getting the best deal (and there will many more to be had after lockdown)? Are there better or more cost-effective products out there that might improve your business?

• Systematise your business – write down (in manuals and quick reference materials) everything you do in simple step-by-step procedures, photo series or graphics and think how you might improve current procedures to be easier, more efficient, more productive and more profitable. Doing this will not only enhance your business and help improve standards, sales and customer service after lockdown – but will also protect against losing years of experience and knowledge you’ve built up. We can do this for you during lockdown.

• Review existing manuals & documents – to ensure they’re up to date, contain the best policies and procedures and latest best practice, are compliant and easy to follow. If they’re not, use this time to work on them. We can also do this for you.

• Develop your in-house training – Think what skills, processes and behaviours you would like to improve in your business and create a series of training courses to deliver after lockdown. Cheap, simple and regular training is often better than long dreary days of seminars – and is easier to create – so consider creating many short ‘training bites’ and a schedule to deliver them during day-to-day operations. Ask us how we can help.

• Define team roles & create job descriptions – Take this chance to clarify the roles & responsibilities of everyone on your team. This is important – without defining roles you might be suffering the inefficiency of duplication or of some team members carrying the weight of others. You’ll need a tighter ship after the lockdown.

• Consider alternative methods of mid-term expansion – the crisis doesn’t necessarily put paid to plans you had to expand, there are less capital-intensive methods of expansion than adding company-owned branches (etc.) out there, such as licensing, franchising, toll-packing and more. We can help you develop your franchise during lockdown.

• Work on your marketing and promotion – Work on your traditional marketing materials (most online printing portals are still open); develop and update your website; and create promotions and campaigns to bring in business after lockdown. Don’t forget the ‘cheap, simple and frequent’ activities you might have neglected in the past, such as improving CRM and the frequency of customer contact; adding a loyalty or referral scheme; doing street/in-store tastings or product demonstrations (as appropriate to your sector); introducing yourself to neighbouring businesses; networking; blogging; running simple events; etc.

Procrastination under pressure is natural for all of us – but, if you’ve ever ‘left things to another time’ in the past – NOW IS THAT TIME.

You need to be ready when lockdown ends.

With 20+ years’ experience creating manuals, franchises and training – we can help (remotely and at better rates during lockdown too). Get in touch.