Learning continuously is one of the significant characteristics of entrepreneurs as they drive their businesses while crossing various hurdles. However, the Covid19 pandemic has been like a crash course for small and medium business owners who have learned special lessons in survival to keep their businesses afloat.
While the pandemic has taught several lessons, in this article, we will discuss some of the pertinent ones. These lessons should help to navigate the businesses amid unprecedented turbulent times while ensuring they reach safe shores to enjoy better days ahead.
Always stay prepared for the worse
Small business owners stay prepared for uncertainties during normal times and can withstand shocks and tremors while taking their business ahead. However, the pandemic was one-of-its-kind and beyond all expectations that caught all business owners on the wrong foot. Most business owners could not predict anything nor understand how to deal with fast-changing situations filled with total uncertainty.
However, innovative business owners overcame the initial shock and were able to adjust and move ahead. For example, many bakeries, restaurants, and food stores arranged for curb side pickups to ensure contactless delivery. They created a new blueprint to continue their business dealing with safety and precaution while earning profits.
Maintain a corpus marked as emergency funds
Small business owners never paid much attention to building emergency funds. For many, it was not at all feasible because of financial constraints. As a result, when the pandemic struck, almost 75% of businesses with monthly expenses of a minimum of $10,000 had enough funds to run the business for only two months.
Today, small businesses have learned the hard way the importance of building emergency funds that can help to sustain the business for at least 3-6 months. Giving more effort into saving costs should help build a sizeable corpus over some time.
Seek government assistance
In the future, if you encounter a situation as grave as the pandemic, look out for government assistance programs that can help to tide over the crisis resulting from shutting down the business for some months.
During the early days of the lockdown, all companies, from big corporations to small businesses were able to access the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) of the government.
The program offered assistance for eight weeks of payroll assistance and supported 50 million jobs. The funds helped businesses to cover other expenses and even call back employees who were laid off.
Strengthen your online presence
The pandemic turned the focus to online business operations in a way that no one ever expected. Before the pandemic, businesses were in the process of gradually adapting the online model. But, the jolt of the pandemic fast-tracked the switchover.
Almost every business revamped its websites to create an impressive online presence for maintaining business continuity. Some others even augmented their social media accounts to facilitate business interactions.
The pandemic taught business owners the importance of taking care of the mental health of employees who can help to pull out the business from the depths and turn it around.