The pandemic has taken a toll on businesses everywhere, but there’s good news: 72% of small business owners feel optimistic about the future of their business and are more prepared than ever to recover from and tackle any crisis that may come their way. Here are 3 things you can do to prepare your small business for the post-pandemic boom.
1. Write down your growth plans. Be ambitious!
Start at the end goal and work backwards. What do you want to achieve? 100 more repeat customers by the end of the year? A 50% increase in revenue? What will get you there? Start with a one-year goal, and then within that goal, plan concrete steps that you will take month to month.
Can you find a common thread between past tactics that have worked? What about those that haven’t? Also, decide how you decide whether something is working or not. What are the metrics that you use to measure success? With both of these in mind, brainstorm new tactics that may work to push your growth plan forward. Maybe offering a referral bonus?
When you plan for growth, you may find yourself needing to hire more hands to help. Are you sufficiently staffed? Do you have plans to hire more staff, and have you decided whether they would be full-time, part-time, or seasonal?
2. Take advantage of your contacts.
It’s likely that, over the course of last year, your product and service offerings have changed. Do you have a plan in place to let your customers know? If you have their emails, consider sending them a newsletter and connecting with them!
Offering your current customers coupons or discounts for word-of-mouth referrals is a proven way to convert new customers, so consider whether you’d like to implement this strategy.
Another way to connect with your community is to run neighborhood specials. By establishing good rapport with the community, you’ll build good brand sentiment and name recognition, which will lead to more business in the future. What’s more, your community wants to see you thrive, so this is a way to let them help!
3. Automating routine tasks.
The pandemic has forced businesses to go digital, and one way to keep up with this change (and to stay ahead of the game) so you can focus on growth is to set your customers up on a recurring payment plan to streamline payment collection. Invoicing daily, weekly, or monthly (or worse, sporadically or whenever you can remember) can be a pain, and chasing down payments is awkward for all parties involved. Set up on a recurring billing software, customers don’t have to worry about when they’re paying, and you don’t have to worry about when you’re getting paid. See how Finli can help.
Things are looking up for small business owners. After you recover from the havoc the pandemic has wreaked in the last year, be prepared to handle all the customers coming your way with Finli’s comprehensive payment system. Schedule a demo here.
