Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, you would know that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm.
If you want to save your service business during this outbreak, then you have to act smart. You have to take protective measures as early as possible.
In today’s post, I will give you some tips on what you can do with your service business during the COVID-19 outbreak. Without further ado, let’s dive in.
1. Create a Plan
The vast majority of businesses have already started to put safeguard in place for protecting their companies and employees — and you should do the same.
According to market experts, you should make or revamp an emergency preparedness plan that clearly outlines the following:
- Steps you are taking to protect your workers.
- What you will do when the outbreak impacts your business.
- How employees can contact you in case of emergency.
- What to do after the outbreak is under control.
2. Try to Establish a Work from Home Policy
With COVID-19 spreading quickly, many companies have already set up a work from home plan or policy — and you should too if you want to flourish when this outbreak is handled.
However, even though employees gathering together at the workplace is far from ideal, letting your employees work from home is just not an option for some businesses — especially those who offer services that require physical presence.
With that being said, if at all possible, you should try to create a work from home policy outlining guidelines, remote procedures, and employee eligibility.
3. Keep Your Employees and Clients Posted
During these times of frantic, we should do all we can to spread awareness about this fatal disease.
You should keep your employees posted by communicating coronavirus related news with them through texts, emails, or video chats.
Keep your clients in the loop with your business status. Focus on maintaining communications with all your customers and employees.
Remember, the more everyone knows, the better. If you need a free email tool to contact your clients in mass, contact Nektyd. We will sign you up and allow you to use our email tool free of charge to update your clients during this crisis.
4. Re-evaluate Your Cleaning Procedures
I know this is an obvious tip, but it cannot go unmentioned.
You have to keep everything as clean as possible, and even though you may think you’re doing all you can to keep everything clean, you may yet be wrong.
So here’s a checklist for you to ensure that you’re keeping your business as clean as possible:
- Ensure that sick employees stay at home.
- Encourage employees to wash their hands more often.
- Clean your business (offices, equipment, furniture) daily.
- Ask your employees to disinfect their chairs and desks daily.
- Fill your workplace with coronavirus fighting soaps, disinfectants, and hand sanitizers.
5. Hold Meetings Without Personal Presence
Instead of meeting face to face, you should hold virtual meetings. Skype and Zoom are great free tools to have online meetings. However, there are some limitations to meeting virtually and if for some reason, you have to meet in person, then ensure that:
● You have taken every precautionary measure you can.
● The meeting is held at a location with a low level of COVID-19 threat.
● The duration of the meeting and contact between attendees is minimized..
6. Enjoy Federal Relief
As COVID-19 continues to bleed business profits and revenues, the government is providing federal relief to small business owners.
Currently, the following help is being planned:
● Employer tax credit
● Federal income tax deferment
● Low-interest federal disaster loans
So if your company is struggling to make ends meet due to the coronavirus, then federal loans may be the answer your business desperately needs.
7. Work On Your Business
Once the proper health precautions and team communications are in place, work on building your business. I recommend starting with reports. Use the downtime to run reports per service, worker, and client. If you can’t run these type of reports, implement software that helps you run these reports.
Find ways to leverage your high profit margin services with existing clients. Get ready to implement these strategies as soon as we get through this crisis. It is much more cost efficient to up-sell a service, than sell a new client (5x less expensive).
Next, rethink your social presence. Our world is changing very quickly, so our business tactics and strategies must change as well. Eventually, Google will be less dominant, and voice control will be the new means of advertising. Once we hit this point, all the non-branded companies will struggle. To increase your brand equity, use social platforms. These are great ways to build content, engage with your clients and workers, and stay updated with trends.
If you do not already, I recommend creating an Instagram and taking time lapses of all your bigger projects and services.
Use this time to plan for the rest of the year and work on bettering your service business.