ExecutiveChronicles | Keeping Your Business Running in a Post-Covid World: 5 Tips | After two years of chaos and disruption, business owners across the globe have learned the importance of resilience within their companies. With fluctuating lockdowns, curfews and other restrictions, one can never be sure if their business will be able to keep operating at full capacity.
It’s now more important than ever to be prepared for just about anything, and to have systems and plans in place to keep your business up and running no matter what happens.
Here are 5 tips to keep things going, even when the world is trying to stop you.
Use What Works
At this point, most of us have had some practice with all the chaos and have probably learned a thing or two about how to handle it when things are shut down.
Making use of your experience and knowledge is crucial. Remember your downfalls and put plans in place to repeat what has worked for you before. If your entire staff can easily work from home, consider switching over to that model permanently to avoid potential outbreaks in your office which could lead to a loss of productivity.
Prioritise Health and Safety
The health and safety of your employees and your customers is paramount. As a business owner trying to break even and make ends meet, it can be tempting to ignore what’s going on in favour of keeping your business running optimally.
Making peace with the fact that this isn’t always going to be possible is important. Screening your staff and insisting that they stay home if they present any symptoms is crucial. If you suspect contact within your office, it’s your responsibility to shut down for a few days in order to disinfect the premises.
You need to be prepared for events like this and have a plan for how to handle it, as well as how to cope with the loss of work done.
Be Financially Prepared
Things can and will go wrong – pandemic or no pandemic, this is simply how business goes. Your emergency plan should account for financial risks and losses.
Even when things are going well in your business, stay on top of your finances and make sure you’re always aware of going on, and try to build up a financial safety net to draw on in the case of any issues that may arise.
Sometimes, being prepared entails making sacrifices in order to save a little extra for those uh-oh moments.
Have Backups
By this, we mean backups of everything possible. Backup staff, backup finances, backup supplies. These days, you never know what might happen – a supplier might be shut down due to restrictions or you may face a huge loss of income when your audience is impacted financially.
Being prepared means having the means necessary to carry on even when you can’t really acquire them in the moment.
Make People Feel Safe
Finally, remember that we’re all in this thing together. Making the effort to make your customers feel safe is crucial – complying with regulations and offering extra safety checks and measures will make your business trustworthy and draw people to you over competition who doesn’t take safety seriously.
Infographic provided by Earthwise Environmental, experts in industrial wastewater treatment
