So, what should we prepare for and how can we do it in a way that won’t consume all our resources as young and small business owners?

Far-fetched things can, indeed, happen. That’s not to imply you should lower your critical sensibility and consider your neighbors might be aliens, even if they are strange. But you ought to give more thought to verticals your business can explore in the event of another deadly disease, disaster, political unrest, computer hack or weather event.

Insurance

The most obvious place to start is with insurance. Yes, you probably have some minimum required amount of business insurance. But what about a cyberattack? Does your business work with personal or financial client information? If someone stole personally identifiable data and used that information to make purchases, is your business prepared to take responsibility? Cyber fraud can be very costly and not being properly insured can leave your business susceptible to lawsuits.

Create an emergency fund. We’re taught it’s smart to have nine months’ worth of salary as a backup for our personal expenses. Having a safety net for your business could make the difference between keeping your doors open or shutting down for good.

Savings/Efficiency

Are you a manufacturer, distributor or retailer trying to manage your inventory on Excel spreadsheets? Not only are your numbers off when you get reports from different departments, your growth is curtailed, and products are lost or wasted due to poor tracking abilities. Each department’s numbers are accurate per the stage items are in, but as they move along, costs change, labor charges incurred, and inventory data updated accordingly. You might have an Excel spreadsheet expert who configured all the formulas. That person leaves and the spreadsheet is erroneously messed up by transposed numbers. Now what? That’s a disaster all on its own.

There is a better way. You can manage your inventory with software designed to manage your company’s operations from end to end and realize savings by streamlining your processes. The big corporations use it – and they can spend thousands of dollars a year. But, you can work with SaaS inventory software for roughly $25 per user per month and not worry about maintaining spreadsheets, losing data or repairing expensive equipment (visit site).

Figure out where your waste occurs and devise a plan to trim it. If you have bottlenecks holding up things from getting done, like broken equipment or a long drawn out approval process, have a meeting with your team and listen to suggestions. Usually the things that frustrate them the most are the things that are preventing them from working efficiently. When their suggestions are considered and then put into action, you encourage team spirit through recognition and, consequently, better work performance.

Businesses tend to cut out marketing when things become difficult. Ironically, when things are rough, that’s the time when you need marketing the most. On the road to recovery, marketing and communications will play a critical role in repositioning brands, reimagining audiences, and re-evaluating messaging. To remain relevant, PR and marketing pros must be agile and ready to react effectively. Don’t have the money for sleek video promotions? Run a contest to see what kind of content your best fans can generate. Sometime the best marketing pieces arise from the social influencers in your customer base. At the very least, you’re bound to get some convincing testimonials you can post on your website.

Business Verticals/Innovations

At the moment, becoming a Covid-19 supplier is a viable alternative. Thomas.net is working with state and local governments and listing manufacturers offering to produce items deemed essential such as PPE equipment, hand sanitizer, masks, etc. At a time when demand is great and international supply chains are jammed up, producing health related products offers a way to survive and even thrive.

Kodak’s stock recently exploded following an announcement by the administration that the company had been selected to product pharmaceuticals at their Rochester, NY facility. Here’s a business that took a dive when it didn’t follow the digital camera trend, now undertaking a complete revival in an alternative industry that can still make good use of their production and warehousing facilities.

But, survival in extraordinary times comes in all forms. Restaurants have been getting creative with meal delivery service, some with memberships. Thanks to the loosened alcohol laws, some are taking their drinks to-go to new levels of creativity. Roughly half of most restaurant tabs are alcoholic beverages; without alcohol sales, some restaurants can’t make money through the limited seating restrictions.

Planning Ahead

We’ve learned through our current crisis that when people can’t leave their homes, they spend more time on social media. They can’t go out to stores but are willing to order every type of product online. These are lessons that should get your brain thinking about how to adapt to different situations in the future. If you come up with a strategy for outlandish situations far in advance, you’ll be prepared to adapt quickly and grow at a time when others are dropping out of the race.

No one ever said starting a business would be easy. If it’s easy for you, it means you’ve worked past many difficult times and found a way to persevere. Good employees quit all the time. Good customers take their business elsewhere. It happens. These are normal ups and downs every business owner deals with at some point along the way. Crises are a different animal. You’ve never met them before, and you don’t know what they’ll look like. But you’ve now got an education in the what ifs and an understanding about what people do to survive. Don’t forget it. Learn from it and plan from it. You just might invent the next “it” business model that takes you to another level in your business.