We are still in the grasps of the Global Pandemic and we will be for some time. This is a critical time for all businesses, many are adapting trying to survive in this economic crisis. Some businesses, however, are seeing this as a time to thrive, a time of opportunity, a time to restructure, rebuild and diversify and these are the leaders who provide real business continuity to their organisations.
No matter how you view the pandemic there is no doubt that it will have a huge effect on everyone’s life in one way or another. It’s important to stay positive and see that with great change you get positive ramifications as well as negative, here are four positives for many businesses:
These changes can take a little of your time to complete however you will see the benefit! I personally was involved in an accident around 5 years ago and as a consultant and business owner I could not attend client sites for almost a year, so I made the choice to change 85% of our services to remote. This meant we could pass the saving on to the client and in turn made us the most cost-effective ISO solution in the Country. As I didn’t need to waste time traveling to attend client sites, our turnaround time for orders increased by 50% making us the fastest solution in the UK and we retrained our 100% pass rate so our high standard of work was not affected. I really have seen the benefits of these changes, in and hopefully this article will help you do the same.
Step 1 – Research
This is a critical part of the business evolution process and is not given enough attention by many business owners. However, this research will act as a foundation for your changes and the more time you dedicate to this stage, the more effective your changes will be.
Research the competition - You should research the competition not to mimic what they do but rather to ascertain what they all do wrong. This sounds crazy but you need to make sure that you stand out from other companies and the best way to do this is to be different! Review the service or product that you will be supplying and try to see it through your customers eyes, this will allow you to foresee their questions, potential hang ups etc and will improve your marketing, sales and delivery of services dramatically as you will add steps and information to process that will ensure your product or service is easy to understand.
Research Products or Services – This is another great way your competition can help you. Look at their reviews from customers as this will highlight the good and bad points of the product or service which again will allow you to improve your service and promote the selling points. Remember to always promote the problem your product or service resolves rather than the product or service itself.
Accreditations and memberships – Review accreditations that are available to your industry. Companies that hold accreditations show that they are dedicated to improving standards and that they have been independently inspected which adds buyer confidence. In addition, many tenders request accreditations as mandatory requirements.
Tenders – Some industries for example construction, security, consultancy etc along with most large organisations will put available contracts out to tender. What this means is they invite companies to register interest in a contract then they send over a series of documents and questionnaires for them to complete. This allows them to review the tenders in a non-bias structured and fair way. There are many free tender sites that you can sign up to and set up notifications for contracts that fit your search criteria.
Review ICT systems and Apps – Every business has processes and tasks that can be automated including sales, time management, stock management etc so find the right ones for you. The great thing with online business is that you an integrate most things into your website. I also highly recommend the use of E-form builders such as survey monkey and google forms as this is a great way to back up all your critical data and you can set up the forms to migrate to spreadsheets to allow you to manage your data with ease, this again saves time and increases your margin.
Review your supply chains – The breakdown of supply chains can seriously damage your business. Especially during the pandemic as once low risk suppliers may now have become high risk or even ceased trading. Take nothing for granted and ensure your supply chain is stable, you also need to make sure you are controlling and monitoring your suppliers during the foreseeable future. You can do this in a range of ways including:
Sometimes the worse can happen no matter what checks you complete so I always recommend having a second (or even a third for critical suppliers) supplier pre-vetted and ready to use to allow a smooth transition, this will ultimately provide a worse case failsafe.
It’s also extremely important that you understand your customers’ needs and expectations. You can learn more about this in another article I have written titled “understanding your customers” http://www.isoandbusinessexpert.com/understand-customers.html
Step 2 – Plan
In this time of uncertainty, it can be extremely worrying for many businesses but it’s important to remember to stay positive. If your business has been closed for example if you are in tier three of the government’s lockdown scale, then use this time to plan and evolve your business and in turn you will see it grow.
The main challenge that many businesses face is keeping revenue coming in to support running costs including staff wages etc, especially industries that have been hit severely for example the events industry, Beauty & Salon Sector etc. Some are choosing to sell tickets or gift certificates for future services for example wedding venues and some events companies have now released next year’s dates and ticket sales or beauty salons selling gift certificates to secure dates when they re-open (this also creates buyer excitement as they have a date to look forward to), with others changing their business to online for example some pubs and bars are hosting virtual events like quiz nights and delivering food etc.
When creating a plan for your business it is important that you use the evidence and information you compiled in the research stage and also take into account a range of other factors. Remember to include the who, what, why, where, when and how and also add timeframes for how long each element will take as this will make the execution of the plan much easier. Here are some area’s you may wish to include in your plan:
Become delivery friendly - As some businesses have been forced to close and others seeing a huge reduction in footfall, it is important to have the ability (if possible) to deliver your product or service especially if these services can benefit people in lockdown or isolation, for example, foot, toiletries, cook from home kits, craft kits, Handmade items etc.
When you are moving into the delivery of a product, ensure you have the right documentation in place for example goods in notes, delivery notes, delivery process and packaging requirements. Again, these can be created as e-forms with a photograph upload for the delivery sheet etc to reduce false claims.
Affordable shipping - Make shipping affordable to your customers, a high postage rate can put people off buying your product, remember in today’s world any business can be run on the web with no rent or office costs, it also opens up Global Markets.
Social media marketing - Social media platforms are excellent for advertising; these can also be maximised by working them at the right time:
Facebook - 12-3pm (Monday-Friday) 1-2pm (Weekends)
Twitter - 2-3pm (Monday-Friday) 12-3pm (Weekends)
Linked In - 12-1pm & 5-6pm (Monday-Friday)
Instagram - 12pm-1pm (Monday- Friday) Various (Weekends)
You can find out more about how to get the most from social media in this great article - http://www.isoandbusinessexpert.com/social-media-essentials.html
Embrace social media shops - Twitter buy buttons, Facebook shops etc are a good way to maximize conversions from your social media pages. This is, I believe, the best form of mass marketing to increase product awareness and of course it’s free to use. Look at the age group of your clients and select the right social media platform to target them for a for example 25-30yr Facebook is very effective however for the over 50's, Linkedin is a much better social media platform to use.
Blog - Blogging is a great way to show off your products/brands/company’s personality and a great way to show off your best products. Also look at the synergy between other bloggers and find the businesses that compliment yours. This will increase your effectiveness and also reduce your work input requirement.
Use images - A picture paints a thousand words..... Customers love visuals when purchasing a product. Use high quality images to show off your product to its full potential. Images are important to promote on some social media's for example Pinterest & Instagram
Use videos - Having a video on your landing page can increase conversions by up to 80% also when you use search engines like google they will automatically search YouTube as well as the web this means it can be used to improve your page ranking.
Run competitions - Everyone loves freebies, so why not run a competition to generate hype around your products. Ensure that you run the promotion for a good amount of time, for example instead of selecting 5 people to win, select 1 winner a month for five months to maximise the effectiveness of the competition.
Make sharing easy - Social media shares are important for marketing, make it easy for people to share product information, also thank people who share and forward as this increases the customer service and builds relationships
Use email marketing - Loyal customers will be interested in seeing your latest products or news. Use email marketing to keep them up to date. Use the marketing to also offer them exclusive deals as this will give them a reason to want to receive your updates.
Create an affiliates scheme - Affiliates are useful because they do all the hard marketing for you for a small commission also it’s a great way of expanding your operations without any financial risk.
Work with bloggers - Bloggers and Vloggers are big influences. Use them to promote your products, you could also ask Bloggers and Vloggers to produce yours in exchange for freebies. Also write a blog yourself as it is important to gain a reputation as an expert in your field.
Tell the press - Marketing a product, particularly a new innovative product, should start with a well written press release to get the word out. A great way of doing this is by creating a campaign or charity give away to help get the product awareness up.
Connect locally – Don’t forget about your local community during these challenging times. In a crisis people see how businesses respond and with social media being such a powerful force if handled in the wrong way then this can have detrimental effects on your business. I’m sure you all remember the businesses who increased the cost of hand sanitiser by 1000% etc. However, if you respond in the right way it can yield amazing results, for example, you could run a online skill shop or tutorials and market on your local Facebook group to help build up your brand awareness in the local community.
Reward Referrals - Satisfied customers are happy customers, and happy customers will recommend your product/brand to others, also its good to give rewards to clients that are unexpected as people will always talk about pleasant surprises.
Reward loyalty - Ensure you reward customers who come back to you again and again. Offer loyal customers special offers/discount or maybe establish something to help them in business. I set up a number of free directory's which are free to register on, but my clients get a free priority listing for the entire time they use us.
Create guides - Guides are a great resource of your customers whilst carefully guiding them towards your products and remember all guides can be published as books on Apple I Books for example.
If you would like more information on writing a business plan then please following this link https://www.slideshare.net/CraigWilletts/how-to-write-a-business-plan-62760108
Step 3 – Execute & Evaluate
You have completed your research and created your plan it’s now time to execute it. A great way of doing this is to take the plan you have built and use it to create a roll out program. List the tasks starting with the ones that will take the longest and then you can work your way through the plan based on time duration to complete, when executing your plan ensure you complete it in a controlled way, this means constantly evaluation including:
Data Capture & Feedback – Requesting feedback is a great way to monitor your services and processes and you be sought from a number of sources including customers, staff, consumers, regulators and other interested parties of your business. However as with most things in business “you get out what you put in” it isn’t enough to get the feedback and be happy with an overall positive result. Be critical, look for trends in the submissions to identify the weak elements of your business, also develop your feedback forms as you improve your service and score consistently high then change the questions to focus on other areas of your business/operations. Remember to feedback your success and lessons learned with your team, that’s how we grow together.
Motivate your workforce – If you have had to close your business or reduce staff hours due to lack of trade then this can seriously demotivate your team. Many business owners avoid conflict and ignore the situation however this is the worst thing you can do. Speak to your staff and let them know that you have not forgotten their needs, you will find they understand more than you think, this will also add strength to your business as a team that is valued will go above and beyond. This means that if they have an idea on how to help the busines they will come to you and it only takes one good idea (and hard work) to make a success of your business
If possible, encourage employees who are working remotely to set up a space in their home that is solely dedicated to work also try to keep motivation high by keeping communication channels open for them and if you have a larger work force you can introduce team building. Online meetings are a great tool to ensure everyone is on track, many companies are now using Microsoft Teams, Zoom etc to hold these meetings as they allow screensharing and other functions, also when staff are working from home ensure they have a clear procedure to follow to ensure that the information is kept secure and you do not breach GDPR regulations.
Feedback findings into the plan created in Step 2 – Once you have executed your plan and conducted the data capture etc you will have a wealth of information available to you that you didn’t have in the planning stage. You can now review this evidence and use the knowledge gained to update and improve your plan and ultimately your business.
I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this article and I hope it has helped you in some way. Unfortunately, some businesses will not survive this pandemic but if we all work together then maybe we can reduce the number that don’t and with this in mind I’m offering free advice to any business that is finding it hard to continue in the current economic climate.
If you need any help or have any questions then please contact me on the details below and add me on LinkedIn to get free PowerPoints to help you grow your business and meet the highest standards, Take care and stay safe
Craig Willetts
No matter how you view the pandemic there is no doubt that it will have a huge effect on everyone’s life in one way or another. It’s important to stay positive and see that with great change you get positive ramifications as well as negative, here are four positives for many businesses:
- Businesses are moving to online sales and delivery of products including remote services, this then removes the limitations to their client base that may of existed before (or been perceived).
- Remote working for employees, if managed the right way can lead to an increase in productivity and also staff wellbeing as they are no longer a slave to the daily commute.
- Reduction in costs, many businesses are now reviewing the office space they have or even the need for an office which in turn removes costs from the business, there are other costs for example travel, accommodation etc.
- Business owners are no longer complacent and are actively looking to diversify their products/services to increase client base and revenue.
- Increased Skills, as you lift the boundaries to your customer base so too do you increase the area you can employee from and therefore can have a wider range of skills and experience which ultimately will improve your operational standards.
These changes can take a little of your time to complete however you will see the benefit! I personally was involved in an accident around 5 years ago and as a consultant and business owner I could not attend client sites for almost a year, so I made the choice to change 85% of our services to remote. This meant we could pass the saving on to the client and in turn made us the most cost-effective ISO solution in the Country. As I didn’t need to waste time traveling to attend client sites, our turnaround time for orders increased by 50% making us the fastest solution in the UK and we retrained our 100% pass rate so our high standard of work was not affected. I really have seen the benefits of these changes, in and hopefully this article will help you do the same.
Step 1 – Research
This is a critical part of the business evolution process and is not given enough attention by many business owners. However, this research will act as a foundation for your changes and the more time you dedicate to this stage, the more effective your changes will be.
Research the competition - You should research the competition not to mimic what they do but rather to ascertain what they all do wrong. This sounds crazy but you need to make sure that you stand out from other companies and the best way to do this is to be different! Review the service or product that you will be supplying and try to see it through your customers eyes, this will allow you to foresee their questions, potential hang ups etc and will improve your marketing, sales and delivery of services dramatically as you will add steps and information to process that will ensure your product or service is easy to understand.
Research Products or Services – This is another great way your competition can help you. Look at their reviews from customers as this will highlight the good and bad points of the product or service which again will allow you to improve your service and promote the selling points. Remember to always promote the problem your product or service resolves rather than the product or service itself.
Accreditations and memberships – Review accreditations that are available to your industry. Companies that hold accreditations show that they are dedicated to improving standards and that they have been independently inspected which adds buyer confidence. In addition, many tenders request accreditations as mandatory requirements.
Tenders – Some industries for example construction, security, consultancy etc along with most large organisations will put available contracts out to tender. What this means is they invite companies to register interest in a contract then they send over a series of documents and questionnaires for them to complete. This allows them to review the tenders in a non-bias structured and fair way. There are many free tender sites that you can sign up to and set up notifications for contracts that fit your search criteria.
Review ICT systems and Apps – Every business has processes and tasks that can be automated including sales, time management, stock management etc so find the right ones for you. The great thing with online business is that you an integrate most things into your website. I also highly recommend the use of E-form builders such as survey monkey and google forms as this is a great way to back up all your critical data and you can set up the forms to migrate to spreadsheets to allow you to manage your data with ease, this again saves time and increases your margin.
Review your supply chains – The breakdown of supply chains can seriously damage your business. Especially during the pandemic as once low risk suppliers may now have become high risk or even ceased trading. Take nothing for granted and ensure your supply chain is stable, you also need to make sure you are controlling and monitoring your suppliers during the foreseeable future. You can do this in a range of ways including:
- Have you completed supplier checks including reviews, credit check, review of accreditations and insurance (if relevant).
- Documentation including Contract or SLA, processes, contract reviews, supplier evaluations, approved supplier process etc
- Review of supplier processes including Business continuity plan, quality manual, COVID-19 risk management etc (I am supplying free COVID-19 business documents to businesses, to get yours simply email [email protected]
Sometimes the worse can happen no matter what checks you complete so I always recommend having a second (or even a third for critical suppliers) supplier pre-vetted and ready to use to allow a smooth transition, this will ultimately provide a worse case failsafe.
It’s also extremely important that you understand your customers’ needs and expectations. You can learn more about this in another article I have written titled “understanding your customers” http://www.isoandbusinessexpert.com/understand-customers.html
Step 2 – Plan
In this time of uncertainty, it can be extremely worrying for many businesses but it’s important to remember to stay positive. If your business has been closed for example if you are in tier three of the government’s lockdown scale, then use this time to plan and evolve your business and in turn you will see it grow.
The main challenge that many businesses face is keeping revenue coming in to support running costs including staff wages etc, especially industries that have been hit severely for example the events industry, Beauty & Salon Sector etc. Some are choosing to sell tickets or gift certificates for future services for example wedding venues and some events companies have now released next year’s dates and ticket sales or beauty salons selling gift certificates to secure dates when they re-open (this also creates buyer excitement as they have a date to look forward to), with others changing their business to online for example some pubs and bars are hosting virtual events like quiz nights and delivering food etc.
When creating a plan for your business it is important that you use the evidence and information you compiled in the research stage and also take into account a range of other factors. Remember to include the who, what, why, where, when and how and also add timeframes for how long each element will take as this will make the execution of the plan much easier. Here are some area’s you may wish to include in your plan:
Become delivery friendly - As some businesses have been forced to close and others seeing a huge reduction in footfall, it is important to have the ability (if possible) to deliver your product or service especially if these services can benefit people in lockdown or isolation, for example, foot, toiletries, cook from home kits, craft kits, Handmade items etc.
When you are moving into the delivery of a product, ensure you have the right documentation in place for example goods in notes, delivery notes, delivery process and packaging requirements. Again, these can be created as e-forms with a photograph upload for the delivery sheet etc to reduce false claims.
Affordable shipping - Make shipping affordable to your customers, a high postage rate can put people off buying your product, remember in today’s world any business can be run on the web with no rent or office costs, it also opens up Global Markets.
Social media marketing - Social media platforms are excellent for advertising; these can also be maximised by working them at the right time:
Facebook - 12-3pm (Monday-Friday) 1-2pm (Weekends)
Twitter - 2-3pm (Monday-Friday) 12-3pm (Weekends)
Linked In - 12-1pm & 5-6pm (Monday-Friday)
Instagram - 12pm-1pm (Monday- Friday) Various (Weekends)
You can find out more about how to get the most from social media in this great article - http://www.isoandbusinessexpert.com/social-media-essentials.html
Embrace social media shops - Twitter buy buttons, Facebook shops etc are a good way to maximize conversions from your social media pages. This is, I believe, the best form of mass marketing to increase product awareness and of course it’s free to use. Look at the age group of your clients and select the right social media platform to target them for a for example 25-30yr Facebook is very effective however for the over 50's, Linkedin is a much better social media platform to use.
Blog - Blogging is a great way to show off your products/brands/company’s personality and a great way to show off your best products. Also look at the synergy between other bloggers and find the businesses that compliment yours. This will increase your effectiveness and also reduce your work input requirement.
Use images - A picture paints a thousand words..... Customers love visuals when purchasing a product. Use high quality images to show off your product to its full potential. Images are important to promote on some social media's for example Pinterest & Instagram
Use videos - Having a video on your landing page can increase conversions by up to 80% also when you use search engines like google they will automatically search YouTube as well as the web this means it can be used to improve your page ranking.
Run competitions - Everyone loves freebies, so why not run a competition to generate hype around your products. Ensure that you run the promotion for a good amount of time, for example instead of selecting 5 people to win, select 1 winner a month for five months to maximise the effectiveness of the competition.
Make sharing easy - Social media shares are important for marketing, make it easy for people to share product information, also thank people who share and forward as this increases the customer service and builds relationships
Use email marketing - Loyal customers will be interested in seeing your latest products or news. Use email marketing to keep them up to date. Use the marketing to also offer them exclusive deals as this will give them a reason to want to receive your updates.
Create an affiliates scheme - Affiliates are useful because they do all the hard marketing for you for a small commission also it’s a great way of expanding your operations without any financial risk.
Work with bloggers - Bloggers and Vloggers are big influences. Use them to promote your products, you could also ask Bloggers and Vloggers to produce yours in exchange for freebies. Also write a blog yourself as it is important to gain a reputation as an expert in your field.
Tell the press - Marketing a product, particularly a new innovative product, should start with a well written press release to get the word out. A great way of doing this is by creating a campaign or charity give away to help get the product awareness up.
Connect locally – Don’t forget about your local community during these challenging times. In a crisis people see how businesses respond and with social media being such a powerful force if handled in the wrong way then this can have detrimental effects on your business. I’m sure you all remember the businesses who increased the cost of hand sanitiser by 1000% etc. However, if you respond in the right way it can yield amazing results, for example, you could run a online skill shop or tutorials and market on your local Facebook group to help build up your brand awareness in the local community.
Reward Referrals - Satisfied customers are happy customers, and happy customers will recommend your product/brand to others, also its good to give rewards to clients that are unexpected as people will always talk about pleasant surprises.
Reward loyalty - Ensure you reward customers who come back to you again and again. Offer loyal customers special offers/discount or maybe establish something to help them in business. I set up a number of free directory's which are free to register on, but my clients get a free priority listing for the entire time they use us.
Create guides - Guides are a great resource of your customers whilst carefully guiding them towards your products and remember all guides can be published as books on Apple I Books for example.
If you would like more information on writing a business plan then please following this link https://www.slideshare.net/CraigWilletts/how-to-write-a-business-plan-62760108
Step 3 – Execute & Evaluate
You have completed your research and created your plan it’s now time to execute it. A great way of doing this is to take the plan you have built and use it to create a roll out program. List the tasks starting with the ones that will take the longest and then you can work your way through the plan based on time duration to complete, when executing your plan ensure you complete it in a controlled way, this means constantly evaluation including:
Data Capture & Feedback – Requesting feedback is a great way to monitor your services and processes and you be sought from a number of sources including customers, staff, consumers, regulators and other interested parties of your business. However as with most things in business “you get out what you put in” it isn’t enough to get the feedback and be happy with an overall positive result. Be critical, look for trends in the submissions to identify the weak elements of your business, also develop your feedback forms as you improve your service and score consistently high then change the questions to focus on other areas of your business/operations. Remember to feedback your success and lessons learned with your team, that’s how we grow together.
Motivate your workforce – If you have had to close your business or reduce staff hours due to lack of trade then this can seriously demotivate your team. Many business owners avoid conflict and ignore the situation however this is the worst thing you can do. Speak to your staff and let them know that you have not forgotten their needs, you will find they understand more than you think, this will also add strength to your business as a team that is valued will go above and beyond. This means that if they have an idea on how to help the busines they will come to you and it only takes one good idea (and hard work) to make a success of your business
If possible, encourage employees who are working remotely to set up a space in their home that is solely dedicated to work also try to keep motivation high by keeping communication channels open for them and if you have a larger work force you can introduce team building. Online meetings are a great tool to ensure everyone is on track, many companies are now using Microsoft Teams, Zoom etc to hold these meetings as they allow screensharing and other functions, also when staff are working from home ensure they have a clear procedure to follow to ensure that the information is kept secure and you do not breach GDPR regulations.
Feedback findings into the plan created in Step 2 – Once you have executed your plan and conducted the data capture etc you will have a wealth of information available to you that you didn’t have in the planning stage. You can now review this evidence and use the knowledge gained to update and improve your plan and ultimately your business.
I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this article and I hope it has helped you in some way. Unfortunately, some businesses will not survive this pandemic but if we all work together then maybe we can reduce the number that don’t and with this in mind I’m offering free advice to any business that is finding it hard to continue in the current economic climate.
If you need any help or have any questions then please contact me on the details below and add me on LinkedIn to get free PowerPoints to help you grow your business and meet the highest standards, Take care and stay safe
Craig Willetts
