The modern world has never faced a situation with such immense global ramifications. Amid the spread of Covid-19, global lockdown measures and international social upheavals, small to medium enterprises are doing their best to survive in uncharted territory.
Some industries have made their services as accessible as possible, from parking-lot deliveries to buying bitcoin. As the currency is becoming quite convenient to transact in, business are implementing digital currencies as a payment option. You can buy Bitcoin with prepaid card options, with Euros, Pounds, and several other currencies.
Yet, lockdowns have changed and limited the way most industries can run operations. Public restrictions are an essential hurdle any company must overcome. The first of which is how to manage staff.
Setting Up A Functioning Work From Home Ethos
One of the biggest concerns an employer may have with having staff work from home is productivity. This seems to be a somewhat old-fashioned concern. Companies who employ simple teams and task management systems, such as Trello or even Any.do, have seen increases in employee productivity.
By changing your team’s focus from logging hours at the office, to logging tasks on a shared productivity chart, the ‘office slow day’ has become a thing of the past. The psychology of achievement preempts the tendency to have a casual attitude towards work. In combination with the flexibility this offers staff in terms of hours available to deadlines, this has shown to lead to increased employee satisfaction with no change in expected productivity.
Changing How You View Your Client-Base
To survive as a small to medium enterprise, you must connect with your client base. A less obvious observation is how clients are searching for products and services. You no longer have clients; you have an audience. In truth, this has been the case for some time, but small companies have been operating in the outdated approach until recently.
What this means in practice is that where once a bit of signage and a couple of flyers could get you enough marketing to get by. Your clientele can no longer be a ‘local market’, people are searching for and sourcing products and services at the best price, and the highest rate of convenience, regardless of locality. Your ‘clients’ may have searched for you, your audience, on the other hand, needs to be found. Your marketing needs to reflect this. Your service needs to reflect this.
To successfully do this, look at your product or service and ask how you can maximise your geographic market, particularly if you can shift to international markets. Additionally, cut out the fluff. By fluff, we mean anything that is not conducive to an expedient delivery of goods or services. As an example, if you sell a product, have your website’s landing page make the process of purchase zero fuss. Gone are the days of redundant ‘about us’ introductions. Striking, convenient and direct, these are key to your success.
How To Deliver To A New Market
A vital aspect of this new economy will be the ‘how’ of your product or service. Look deeply into ways in which you can physically deliver, be that via courier services for products or subcontracting for services. You will need to develop an attitude of synthesis with companies and services that offer you ways to increase your market share.