When businesses reopen for customers after lockdown, it’s not going back to the way business used to be. Chris has 5 shifts for you to consider.

As different places begin to allow local businesses to open up, you’re not alone if you’re breathing a sigh of relief mixed with a gasp of worry. We all need the money. We all want to get back to being useful for the people we serve. And some or most of us are worried about what happens next. Let’s talk about some of it.

OPEN UP! It’s the Customers!

Remember this above all else: everyone is tense. No one will likely be their most courteous and their best behaved. No matter how grown up and strong we all our, this really counts as actual real mental trauma. It’s going to take a bit to get over it, and that means you as the business owner will have to smother their customers and prospects with kindness, but there’s a lot more.

1. Clean Up

Customers are going to want to understand how you’re handing a clean work environment after this pandemic. Even if you personally think it’s silly in some cases, don’t discount your customer’s vote on this one. Make it clear and obvious and explain how you are handling everything, even things you can’t imagine someone wondering about like whether you disinfect your cardboard before boxing up their product. (Turns out this is a big and common question now when people consider purchasing something online.)

2. Sell Online

Even after the big bad bug is finally vanquished enough for us not to care about it, people are used to ordering and buying online for many products and services you can’t even imagine people getting remotely. I have a friend who sells hay and the moment he got the web store live on his website, he had orders.

3. Communicate More

Partly because of online sales and definitely because of this “If I can’t see it, how do I know what’s going on?” mindset, people are looking for more “touches” between themselves and companies, even in B2B situations. If the order typically takes a week to build and ship, then give people updates every day or two. When I ordered DoorDash to get a burger sent to me during lockdown, I received five or six texts from the app, telling me the food was being made, the food was ready for pickup, the driver picked up the food, the driver is two minutes away, and the driver is here. Do something like that.

4. Consider New Payment Options in Two Ways

On the one hand, if you’re not using things like PayPal, Stripe, Venmo, and Cashapp, you might want to get some accounts setup. People are sending money through multiple channels. Second, you might realize that with nearly 30 million people unemployed in the US on the day I wrote this to you, cash is tight. You might have to sell “smaller bites” versions of what you offer, so that people can afford you. There are many creative ways to work on this.

5. Reach Out

It’s no surprise that this is my advice. I’ve spent twenty years begging companies to use tools like video and audio and good email marketing to reach potential customers. There’s a lot to this, it seems, but at the root of it all is the same goal: communicate and connect with the people you hope to help and earn the right to sell and serve.

Here’s help

To that end, Becky and Deb have a whole new program about learning to restart your local shopping. If that’s your kind of small town business, then it’s pretty important you check that out.

If not, realize that all businesses are going through some form of what you’re experiencing and that it’s important to accept that it won’t be perfect. But know this, also: people are really getting behind “shop local” in a way they’ve never expressed it before. This might be an ideal time to change up some of your work and really earn their money and customer longevity.

You ready?

Photo (CC) by Howard Lake, on Flickr

Let’s start with Best Wishes for 2018. 

That wish was to be a part of my post last week. But as you may or may not have noticed, I didn’t get a post done.

This is not the first time it has happened but those missed times were typically planned for some reason.

Last week my missed blog occurred when I had a “life happens” event. A Saturday phone call put me on a different track as I ended up locating and helping my mother move to an independent retirement community.  Thankfully, Becky gives me a great deal of independence in my posts.

But it raises a good question. Are you prepared to handle such unplanned life events and still maintain your business? Most businesses can’t just shut down for a short break and then restart right where they left off. Momentum is lost as well as good will with your customers. For a retail business, shutting down during the holiday season might just end your business.

In many ways, such events are just another type of disaster. As you have done your disaster planning, did you think about these personal life events that impact your business as much, or maybe more than, as a burst water pipe or a fire.

Yet, most of the events you have planned for probably involve the business system only. This makes them somewhat more contained than a personal event where both the business and family systems are involved at the same time. If only one system is under stress, we can often call on the other for various types of relief but where do you turn when both systems are stressed?

As you head into a new year, I would encourage you to think about similar events that you might face. What unique demands might you face? And what resources do you have to help? Some prep work will offer a great deal of relief both: (1) thinking about the future, and (2) when and if the day comes when you need to put your plan into action.

Once again, have a happy and prosperous 2018.

Photo (CC) by USDA, on Flickr

Disasters happen.

If you are a business owner, you can count on having a disaster in your business. It may be a major event such as a flood, thunderstorm or tornado, but more likely, it will be something smaller, such as a water leak over your computers, an electrical outage or even the street being ripped up outside your store.

A disaster is something that happens that is out of your control. Two things are known about them: They are man-made and natural, and the business goes through certain stages of response. What is not known is whether the business will recover, and if it does, how quickly that will happen.

One obvious difference in a business response to a disaster is business size. The larger the business, the greater the resources needed, internal and external, to help it recover. Also, larger businesses more often tend to have response plans in place, as well as insurance and policies to help restart.

This means small businesses are at a greater risk of taking longer to return to full operation, or not returning at all, after experiencing a disaster. Add to that the fact that 52 percent of small businesses operate from the home or property where the home is located, according to the U. S. Census Bureau. And adding to the potential disruption is that fact that many of these businesses are a family business with the business and family fully intertwined.

Estimates of businesses that will not recover from a major disaster range from 19 to 30 percent. While recovery chances improve substantially for minor disasters, the speed of the recovery is slower for the small business. Even a minor disaster will bring a temporary closure of anything from a few hours to a few days for even the minor disaster, while the effects of a major disaster could stretch out for months to more than a year.

Small-business owners have steps they can take that will improve the likelihood of recovering and doing so more quickly after a disaster. Preparation is a big factor.

The North Dakota State University Extension Service has developed an app for smartphones or tablets that lets small-business owners build a plan, including photos of inventory, supplies, equipment and other material to help do the planning. Plus, business owners probably will be carrying their smartphone or tablet, so they will have the plan with them if needed.

The goal is to help business owners get back on their feet as quickly as possible. The app is available at http://tinyurl.com/DisasterPlanApp

Disasters happen. They never are expected. And businesses have no guarantee of recovery.

Yet businesses that plan improve their chances of getting back into business quicker and staying in business. Take some time and get your plan together.