The coronavirus pandemic made it significantly harder for a number of businesses to stay afloat. Contractors – essential ones or not – might find themselves struggling to stick to their plans and goals with so many changes, and obviously, with the noticeable decrease in sales volume.
But despite these setbacks, you have to maintain focus. There are many different steps you can take to make sure your business continues to thrive beyond 2020. The general idea is to find the balance between adapting your plans and investing smarter.
And as any veteran in the business would tell you, these are indeed extraordinary circumstances, but the best way to go is to treat them as nothing but the regular hustle.
You take the hits, you adapt, you come out on top.
Stay safe
A simple but important step that cannot be ignored: staying safe is just as important as any other aspect of your business. The amount of people ignoring recommendations and refusing to follow safety regulations is a major concern at the moment – the only way we can flatten the curve is to follow safety precautions as closely as possible.
Take all the necessary precautions to make sure you’re always safe when venturing outdoors – not only will this make you more comfortable, but also your clients and everyone around you. People are concerned for themselves and their families, and seeing that others are being careful easens that burden.
Be understanding
We cannot blame clients from being hesitant at this point. You might see a number of cancelled and postponed projects due to our current situation, and it’s important to not take it the wrong way. Most people are just scared or dealing with their own set of problems coming from the pandemic, such as having their own jobs at risk.
It’s never pleasant to lose a job, but keep in mind: lots of people are having it worse right now. Show empathy and be understanding towards your clients – there’s always the possibility of resuming a project later.
Manage your clients remotely
Take full advantage of technology to better manage your clients from the comfort of your office, wherever that may be at the moment. Most messaging apps can make free audio and video calls, but if you want a better option for more professional meetings, Google Hangouts is very easy to set up and it’s also totally free.
Here are some more tips on how to manage your clients remotely!
Take inventory
If you rely on materials that need to be delivered on demand, it’s a good idea to take inventory and check what you can and can’t do right now. Deliveries can run late and some companies are not even working at the moment, meaning some jobs are gonna have to wait.
Update yourself and then your clients on what kind of jobs you can take right now to avoid confusion and only focus on what you can do. This in turn will allow you to also direct your short-term plans to your new focus.
Plan ahead
We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s important to remember: this is a great time to review your short and long term plans. With things so different now, anything you had planned for more than three months in the future needs to be adapted.
But important to note: adapting doesn’t mean scrapping ideas. We’re not suggesting you take your carefully constructed plans, throw them in the trash and start from zero – instead, strip them down and analyse what remains possible, and what needs to be pushed forward.
Look for opportunities
So you had to push some things forward, but there are other ways to invest in your business right now. For example, you can take some time to improve your online presence, strengthen your customer service, review your marketing plan, manage your online reputation...
And all of these can be done from home as you acquire more knowledge and find new ways to solidify your business!
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