With workers having to isolate themselves at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, most businesses are suffering with a dramatic drop in customer acquisition. Most contractors have their laptops at home because the show must go on, but right now it’s the time to strengthen your business so that it doesn’t break.
The idea is to make something good out of a bad situation. The pressure is on and it’s perfectly fine to be a little concerned right now, but instead of falling into despair, let’s instead take measures to make sure your business survives this period and remains rock solid for when you’re back in action.
1. Update your clients on upcoming changes
First and foremost, it’s likely you already had some ongoing projects with clients and those will have to be changed, postponed, or put on hold. Go through your projects for the month and update each respective client on their progress. You surely don’t have to abandon projects, but clients should understand if they have to be delayed given our current circumstances.
2. Be transparent about problems
When going through your projects and telling your clients the new deadlines and expectations, don’t be afraid to be honest – everyone is going through the same problem right now. If you’re sure you can’t deliver on a certain date, it’s better to let them know and reschedule for a deadline you can keep.
It might be frustrating for you, but your clients are surely going through frustrations of their own right now and having someone being honest and understanding with them is definitely a good thing. Reassure them everything will be alright and it will make them much more comfortable with the imposed changes.
3. Work on your marketing
By pushing most projects further down the timeline, you might find yourself with some free time to work from home. This is a great time to work on other aspects of your business – like your marketing.
There’s a lot you can learn about marketing from the comfort of your home, so how about taking the time to plan a new marketing strategy? You can find new and economical ways to advertise your business and get new clients without having to invest heavily on a marketing agency.
4. Streamline internal processes
Consider everything you do during a day of work. Is there anything that always seems to take longer than necessary? Or anything that always disrupts your routine?
Take notes and find ways to streamline those processes into something faster and easier to do. A common example is writing contracts – an extremely important part of a contractor business, but without a template, it will always be a drag to get it done.
Some contractors will also struggle with giving out prices on the fly, and that’s usually the first thing homeowners want to know. Take a few minutes to type in a sheet with all your average service costs, so that everytime you need a reference, they’re easy to find.
Finally, maybe you get confused when trying to organize your calls. A to-do list helps a lot – add the calls you need to make there with a date and you’ll never get lost.
Apply this idea to everything that seems to give your trouble and you’ll quickly find ways to make them simpler!
5. Use technology to your advantage
There’s nothing wrong with the old pen and paper. You can write an epic novel with just a pen, paper, and great ideas. But when it comes to managing a business, you’ll quickly find that technology gives the upper hand.
For example, most people forget to use it, but Siri (from iPhone) can easily understand commands such as “Remind me to call Charles later” or “Set a meeting for tomorrow at noon”, and much more. You can just say it with your own words, without halting momentum on what you were doing, and it works very well.
But that’s not all. Digital calendars, lists and note taking apps, visual organizers – all of these can do so much for you, if you just take the time to unlock their full potential.
Here are some free apps for you to try:
Todoist. By far the best list-making app. Works well with nearly every browser and smartphone on the market, and works wonders for simple list-making to complex project management.
Evernote. Focused on creating notebooks to store notes and documents. Great for taking notes on business plans, saving ideas, and important business documents.
Trello. A mixture of list-maker and mind-mapper, Trello excels at visual organization. If lists are too boring for you, Trello is a much more visually appealing alternative that’s also great for simple lists or big projects.
Google Docs. All the power of Microsoft Office, except it’s always saved on the cloud (meaning you’ll never lose your documents and can access them anywhere) and completely free.
6. Improve your customer experience
Just because you’re likely working from home doesn’t mean your customer experience has to suffer – in fact, there hasn't been a more important time to look professional than right now.
Good customer service is a combination of many skills, such as managing expectations properly and being open to communication at all times. As you can imagine, now it’s the perfect time to exercise those skills because clients need reassurance more than ever.
7. Strengthen your finances
This is probably the area of your business that will take the biggest hit. Working from home is great, but most contractors still have rent to pay and even subcontractors waiting on payment. It’s time to sit down and make important financial decisions to make sure your business continues to thrive.
These decisions will boil down to a combination of cutting costs and making better use of your money. Set a long-term financial strategy, pinpoint anything you can cut without compromising your business, and minimize taxable income – those are good places to start.
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