A year on from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been many lessons learned for businesses across the world regarding the practices in place for situations such as this. The turn of events seemed to be completely unexpected, and the businesses which thrived were the ones who were quick to adapt to the change in lifestyle many millions of people were thrust into.
With this in mind, these lessons shouldn’t be disregarded when it comes to future planning for your company. If anything, it should be seen as a chance to fully overhaul the way you work to allow for the unexpected without it having a detrimental effect on your business.
Flexibility
We all know flexibility is a must. Just because something has always been done a certain way, doesn’t it is right or that you can’t make it even better. Rigid business practices do not allow for deviations from the norm and, as such, can hinder efforts to progress or to rise to unexpected challenges.
Evaluate which parts of your company would thrive if we were to have another unexpected global event. Why would they thrive and what would keep it going?. Once you have established this, look at what would let you down should you need to adapt to how you work. Why would this be a failure, and what would rectify this? Being clinical in your approach will allow you to put new ways of working to allow you to future poor your company or allow for quicker reaction.
Diversity
Online shopping, curbside pickup, food delivery services and those offering online services all saw booms in their business sector recently, thanks to more people staying at home to avoid catching the virus. As such, many saw this quite rightly as a make or break time. Their ability to diversify what they offered and how quickly they offered it put them in higher regards with consumers than those who were slow to adapt. Many established brands didn’t survive the cull, and in hindsight, their inability to diversify most definitely played a part in this. There has been a recent surge in new businesses emerging from college levers that create new apps to the recently redundant chef who starts their own meal service from home.
Whether you are planning to diversify products and are looking for more competitive delivery options. For larger loads, consider quotes for a full truck move over smaller, more frequent deliveries, or you are looking to offer more services virtually or even allow your staff more flexible working options such as continuing to work from home or splitting time between home and office. Having the confidence to know you are ready and able to adapt should the economy shift again will give you a head start making changes.
Trends
Any savvy business owner knows that the following industry trends are vital. Our new normal is forever changing, and being prepared for the next new normal will help you flow seamlessly into changes as the world demands them. Looking forward to 2021, we can see that as the world bounces back from the pandemic’s effects, impulse shopping and spending in the leisure sector will inevitably surge, as will travel for pleasure as people look to travel once more.
Join the conversation: