2020 was a year that turned the world upside down. COVID-19 impacted nearly every business, and changes had to be made to adjust to the situation. These days, if you want to learn how to manage business effectively after covid, you got to run that extra mile.
The situation was hard to adapt to, but it was also a good learning experience in the business world. It may be more challenging today, but it’s well worth the effort.
Now that the situation has normalized, it’s still important to keep your business running smoothly. Businesses need to continue adapting to change, which means your business has to stay on top.
In this article, I will review seven strategies for managing your business in the post covid era.
- Prepare For The Unexpected
- Focus On Things You Can Control
- Improve Customer Satisfaction
- Set Short-Term Goals More Often
- Maintain Short-Term Cash Reserves (Keep Cash Flow Running)
- Focus On Your Priorities (Do Work That Matters The Most)
- Maintain A Presence Online (No Matter What Business You Have)
Prepare for the unexpected
It’s good to understand that anything can turn south in a business. There will be times when businesses decline or experience slowdowns.
There are a lot of situations that can come up, which are not uncommon in the real world. Some of them include:
- Slower periods (i.e. non-peak season)
- Your product or service offered may not be the best quality- there can be a period of decline in sales
- External factors (i.e. recessions, natural disasters, or pandemics)
These are things that can happen at any time, which you may not have control over. Although you may not be able to stop or change those events, it’s good to be prepared that they can happen at any given moment.
Focus on things you can control
When you’re in charge of the business, there are things you can change. For example, you’re able to manage your finances, make changes in how you conduct business, and improve the quality of your product or service.
A major one to keep in mind is maintaining contact with your customers. I think staying in touch regularly with them is key to maintaining stable business growth.
So keep having those great relationships with clients, in-person or virtual meetups. There are a lot of ways to maintain contact with people who are crucial to your business.
Going back to the external things, understand you cannot control external factors taking place around the world. If you focus on the things you can control (i.e. internal), you’re much more likely to succeed when you’re not concerned about constant distractions.
Improve customer satisfaction
Speaking of customers, working on the customer experience can help improve relationships. It can help gain trust and confidence in your business, while not focusing too much on the “make profits” part of it.
Typically, what customers want the most includes the following:
- Convenience
- Better services
- More choices before making an educated, well-informed decision
These days, it’s easy to figure out what your customers want the most. Some things you can give to them are feedback forms or surveys (i.e. SurveyMonkey).
Or, it doesn’t hurt to have an open conversation about what they want from your business. Again, a key point to consider is to keep building trust and engaging with your customers.
Set short-term goals more often
More often these days, short-term goals are better to set out than long-term goals. Planning for the short-term helps you get a better insight into what needs to be done sooner than later.
Normally, a lot of businesses will develop annual goals at the beginning of the year; however, I feel that’s not the best approach sometimes. Annual goals can be vague and not realistic, as things can change as the year goes by.
My approach: Set quarterly goals
I feel the best approach to goal-setting is doing them every 90 days or so. Doing it on a quarterly basis helps you stay on track and be more focused.
When you set goals in a shorter time frame, you have a better understanding of what needs to get done. Also, it helps set some expectations as you move into the next quarter.
Maintain short-term cash reserves (Keep cash flow running)
One problem in business is not having enough cash to cover expenses. When businesses lack sufficient cash flow, they can run into some problems.
Some things that need to be covered include payroll, costs of running facilities, taxes, etc. During the peak of covid, many businesses struggled to pay their staff while not working. It leads to many layoffs and furloughs in a short timeframe.
A lot of businesses went to apply for loans from the government. In the United States, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was a major initiative to prevent companies from going out of business.
My approach: Maintain cash reserves for up to three months
Maintaining a lot of short-term cash reserves may be a challenge, but it helps to plan ahead. Also, you’ll remain calm and more confident during uncertain economic periods. Some of the most successful businesses do it, so that way they don’t lack cash flow when they need to cover unexpected costs.
Focus on your priorities (Do work that matters the most)
When running a business, focus on tasks that will help grow your business. In other words, don’t spend too much time doing the little things (i.e. administrative work). Oftentimes, I find that working on the little tasks does not move the needle forward in business.
Also, spending more time planning at work can be another time waster. I think planning ahead is great; however, not taking action is what will hurt you the most.
If you focus on taking more action than planning, it will eventually lead you somewhere. By doing the actual work, you’re accomplishing something meaningful.
Maintain a presence online (No matter what business you have)
Lastly, this one is the most important thing to do as an entrepreneur today: Have a presence on the internet. Regardless of what business you have, being online can help grow your business down the road.
Whether that’s through a website or a social media channel, it can help you find more customers while growing your business. Even a basic website will is enough to help you get found on the internet (i.e. search engine results).
Throughout covid, most people did their activities online, which benefited a lot of businesses. The fact that it’s easy and convenient to do business online (i.e. shopping, virtual meetings).
It shows that the internet is much more powerful today than it’s ever been. More so, the number of people using the internet continues to grow exponentially, including yourself.
Right now, you’re reading this article in some format (either a computer, tablet, or mobile phone). So don’t miss out on some excellent opportunities to grow online.
Final Words
During the peak of covid (2020), it was very challenging to conduct business around the world. Many adjustments and changes had to be made to keep business going as usual.
Although there were bad things that took place, a lot of good things came out of it. For some businesses, they’re much better at doing things now than they did before covid.
But as we move into a post covid era, you have to stay on top to run your business effectively. It’s easy to get distracted by what’s going on in the world, and it can lose your focus sometimes.
However, if you follow some of the strategies laid out, you’ll have a better understanding of how to run your business effectively. It may take some effort, but it’s worth it to stand out and go to the next level.
Your Turn: How will you manage your business post-covid?
I would like to get some of your thoughts on this topic. Were you in a difficult situation with your business a few years ago?
If you run a business, did you manage to do well during a time of uncertainty? What will you do moving forward to ensure your business stays on top of the unexpected?
Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. I look forward to reading your responses, and I’ll gladly respond promptly.
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Eric is the owner and chief editor of notimekillers.com. He takes great pride in helping people manage their time and grow their businesses. Eric is a firm believer in financial and time freedom, as he believes in financial independence and taking ownership of your time. “Time is your most important asset. It can be your best friend or worst enemy. How you use your time can shape the future you desire to have.” In his leisure time, Eric loves to write and read whenever possible. He enjoys going for long walks outdoors while doing in-home workout videos every week. You can also connect with Eric via LinkedIn.
This is a great breakdown of how to manage your business effectively post-Covid. I appreciate your focus on customer satisfaction and maintaining your presence, as people need to know you are there with them.
They need to feel seen, and it goes a long way to not only serve them, but also to reassure them and stay connected, regardless of the business you’re in.
Thanks for your thorough and thoughtful post! 😊
Hi Shannon,
Keeping a constant presence in business matters, along with putting the customer first. For some time, I’ve had a “customer-first” mentality in previous jobs. The same is true when running a business.
So being there for them helps, and keeping in touch regularly can help boost that confidence. I think having that personal interaction with customers helps create trust in you as an authority.
When that happens, that’s when your business will grow and succeed. Regardless of the times we live in, being authentic and honest will win over and over again.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts- I greatly appreciate them.
The effects and the ramifications of the global pandemic response (along with all of the other concurrent changes that have been happening) have made us very aware of the basic impermanence of life. I agree that they are a reminder to all of us who are trying to run a good business to pay attention to the things we can control.
You are right. The times do demand attention to the basics of doing our business: Providing good service, working on maintaining customer satisfaction, doing the work that matters most as well as making sure people know you’re there for them.
When things get hairy, it really is a good idea to pull your focus to the short-term needs of your business and the situations you encounter. Sometimes you have to keep your eyes on where you’re putting your feet.
Every once in a while it’s also good to remember to check out the road ahead for potholes and big boulders and other obstacles so you can be prepared for them.
Thanks, Eric.
Hi Netta,
No matter what happens around the world, it’s important to focus on what we can do. Regarding business, what can we do to keep ourselves on track? Or how to ignore the external distractions?
Those business basics will always be key to long-term success. If you stick to them now and down the road, you will do very well in the long run.
Even when things turn south, look at your short-term needs and reevaluate them. We need to look at the short-term and long-term implications for business growth.
Thank you very much for sharing your insights- they’re much appreciated.