Overnight, COVID-19 put all businesses in a state of uncertainty, one where it is necessary to reflect and question everything. As a result, we must revisit the fundamentals of our businesses — the customers and markets that are critical to our success. We have defined four key areas that are imperative to talk about with your clients or potential clients as we work to build back our businesses stronger in 2021:
- Problem: Is the difficult problem you are solving for your customers relevant now and will it be in the future?
- Solution: Is your solution a fit for the current needs of your customers?
- Price: Does COVID-19 affect the difficulty of the problem you are solving? Can you charge a premium?
- Go to Market Strategy: Have you re-evaluated your marketing and engagement channels? Do these channels match the behaviors of your target clients in today’s environment?
Getting Back to the Fundamentals
Now is the time to check-in with your clients and discover any new priorities, behaviors, or challenges that have arisen from COVID-19. Reaching out to your clients during this period of uncertainty can help you mutually find comfort and hope in the future. Start Co. has made it a priority to reach out to hundreds of businesses since the beginning of the Pandemic, to find out how they are addressing challenges arising from COVID-19. The majority of them needed a process for addressing these challenges, real or perceived, and most faced these problems in a silo, alone.
We recommend that before you switch your modality to overcome short-term strain or to prepare for the new market that is emerging that first you make sure that you get back to the fundamentals of business overall. Put the effort to call and speak with your customers. Create a strategy based on the feedback you receive in order to gain awareness and confidence as you adapt to the new market. Start Co. recommends using this time of returning to the fundamentals to also explore the things that might enhance your business that you may have been putting off: technology, innovation, processes and systems that scale, partnerships, etc. — and yes, cuts and other operational changes. We are all out of excuses for changes that will make our lives a little easier
Forecasting for Our New Futures
Assumptions we’ve made about our businesses prior to COVID-19 need to be revisited. Take the time to reevaluate and update your budget and operations. Pre-pandemic plans to deliver your service or receive payments have probably changed in the current environment. It’s important to think about staying ahead of the curve by making difficult decisions regarding critical components like your human capital, suppliers, processes, and systems, etc. Doing this now will positively impact the future of your business in handling challenges down the road. You must try your best to get ahead of it.
The recession we witnessed earlier in the year occurred more rapidly than any we had ever seen in modern history. There is no guarantee anymore that the slide into a recession will take place in the course of 6 or so months as it usually does. While we deal with the crisis of today, let’s simultaneously see the macro point of view and prepare our business for the potential precipitous crisis of tomorrow. We have to talk to our customers and partners, rethink and redesign products and services, and adjust our assumptions and therefore our business models. Let’s work together to transition from surviving to thriving!
Guidance
We can ground ourselves during this chaotic time by taking a step back to look in on our businesses and prepare for months into the future, the Start Co. Small Business Toolkit can help guide you along this process. For existing businesses, the following items are essential to revisit:
- Business Model Canvas
- Operating Model Canvas
- Risk Mitigation
- Porter’s Five Forces
- Prioritizing the Growth Wheel
For those of you who are protected from the current economic happenings, we suggest you stay in-tuned with your customers, partners, and environments and assess your industry’s lag to the current economic situation. New opportunities will always present themselves if we are open to the possibility and seek them out.
When looking at the day-to-day developments from assistance packages to unemployment, make sure you are thinking about the full picture. This will help you better make sure the micro decisions fit into a broader plan for the future that is ahead.