The COVID-19 pandemic keeps us in a permanent state of uncertainty. Among freelancers, entrepreneurs, and companies alike, however, the biggest fear is the pandemic’s economic impact. With many small businesses closing their doors and with entrepreneurs staying at home, one must wonder: are there any solutions to develop new streams of income during the pandemic? And, if there are, can people and brands extrapolate them and make them sustainable after this problem is over?
Moving a Business in the Online Environment – Opportunities and Limitations
How can brick-and-mortar stores and businesses survive this global crisis? The answer, as obvious as it is, may not cover all variables but may solve a wide variety of issues.
Moving your practice from a physical place to an online environment is not impossible, even if you think some jobs and services cannot perform to the same standards. However, the first example that comes to mind is doctors in Devon, who now use technology to offer medical consultations, so patients do not leave their homes. It is a system that may still need fine-tuning, but it works. Video consultations, phone discussions, and the use of smart devices, health apps, and computer software seems to be the way out of this situation.
So how does one take a brick-and-mortar business or a service from the street and to the Internet? Is it smart to make such a move?
The Harvard Business Review notes that in Wuhan, although shops were closed, online sales skyrocketed. It was not because people bought more products; it is because they became a part of something greater.
If you look at statistics in Europe or the United States, you will see an exciting trend: it is not about the actual selling of products that still keep businesses alive. It is the engagement of customers, the revealing of secrets, the chance of making loyal customers take a glimpse behind the scenes and become even more loyal to a brand. In fewer words, the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us the real value of business storytelling in its pure forms.
But let’s bring the theory into practice, shall we?
Build a Website or Improve the Existing One
There is nothing hard in building a website if you do not already have one. You can find fantastic free website builders like Ucraft, for instance, that allow you all the customization you need. From free templates and layouts to serve your type of business to logo creation, you have plenty of opportunities. Consider multi-media integrations, website performance analytics, and customer support tools, you can make the website look professional by investing only your time and passion in it. Remember that you can find free website creators that also offer secure SSL encryptions for your customers’ safety, a handful of SEO and analytics tools, and plenty of resources to make a new website or an older one look professional.
If you already have a website, consider revamping it. It applies to both new and established sites:
- Make sure it supports a wide range of multi-media content to share;
- Make sure it is responsive across multiple devices and is mobile-friendly;
- Keep an eye on performance, tools to monitor traffic, measure speed, and always have UX standards in mind.
Now that you have a website ready for moving your business online let’s take the next step!
Sell Skills and Expertise Besides Selling Products and Services
As we said, this pandemic taught freelancers and entrepreneurs to think bigger, a few steps further from the box, and engage in real business storytelling practices.
- Freelance photographers cannot attend a wedding or other events right now, but they can keep clients close by offering online photography tutorials, for instance. Others keep online classes about their art, emphasizing on what makes them stand out from the competition.
- Restaurants keep their audience engaged by offering video and written recipes for people to try at home with pantry provisions. High-end chefs reveal some secrets of their trade, teach people how to cook, and so on.
- Gyms keep up with the trends by providing online fitness courses and free wellness tutorials and tips.
- Small bakeries, brick-and-mortar grocery shops, flower shops, produce vendors, and other small retailers do not emphasize on what they sell but how they make things exist, grow, etc. If you can write a pro tutorial on how to grow herbs at home or you can stream online a “how fresh bread is made in the kitchen,” your business has plenty of chances to survive and thrive.
- Brick-and-mortar bookstores have writers read fragments of their work from home, and social media is in love with this strategy.
- Theatres offer free streaming or video recordings of their plays.
The examples can continue. It may be fashion, construction, engineering, retail, etc. You can surely find that special “je ne sais quoi” that people love your business for, but you never paid much attention to, as it was second nature to you.
The main point to understand here is that now you have the chance to do what you always took for granted.
- Show off your skills, talents, that unique spec of genius that brought people to your business in the first place and kept them coming.
- It is not what you can offer your clients, but how you provide it to them. From this point of view, the sky is the limit.
Back to our Wuhan example, a cosmetic company’s beauty advisors moved to online chat and streaming platforms to engage customers and boost sales, even if the company had already closed 40% of its physical stores.
It makes sense on a human level. Now, in a time of social distancing, panic, uncertainty, and sadness, people want to feel they belong somewhere. They want to have a connection still with the real world. Your business can provide this to them by keeping them close through blog posts, video tutorials, how-to guides, live interaction, real-time online streaming, email marketing, and more.
The secret is not to aggressively sell products or services, but offering them an experience.
Increase and Preserve Brand Loyalty
Diversifying your income stream outside the usual patterns and methods is challenging. However, here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Did you see businesses that had something so appealing that made you a loyal customer?
- Can you replicate that “I so need that” factor or model of good practices to your own business, no matter what you do?
- Can you cover via your business or freelance projects a need, a desire, a gap that people feel during these times?
- Do you have any means to strengthen the relationship between you and your clients and build customer loyalty?
- Can you extrapolate your new revenue streams and make them sustainable for your business after the crisis is over?
Rethinking a business A to Z is the last thing on peoples’ minds. However, maybe this is the perfect time to stop and look at what we do and what we can do from different angles. Perhaps now we can all take a short break from work and think about how we can make the business work better.
