Surviving In The Pandemic – Best Practices For Startups
In the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, there has been a massive decline in consumer demand worldwide. It has caused high economic despair and uncertainty leading to a decline in revenue for a lot of businesses. For startups, this has been the worst phase as their all business activities have been severely disrupted.
It has become necessary to accept the situation and rethink work strategies in order to successfully deal with the sudden changes as the coming months are going to be equally difficult. With this article we aim to help entrepreneurs and startup founders to survive and get through the crisis:
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Adapt to the situation:
The ongoing monthly expenses of running a business can burn a huge hole in your pocket. It is important to adapt to the situation and shift to remote work permanently. This reduces your expenses significantly as you no longer need to pay rent, buy office supplies, or pay for electricity.
Employees also save time and money as there is no need to commute to the workplace. This will help them enjoy a better work-life balance which will keep them motivated and engaged. Engaged employees are more productive and drive better results.
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Increase productivity:
To survive these unprecedented times, startup founders need to amplify their sales to earn more revenue. Using tech tools to schedule and plan work helps in increasing the efficiency of work, which increases business productivity.
There is various open-source project management software to help you plan every aspect of work and allocate it to employees working remotely. With better work management, employees become more aware of their responsibilities and strive to achieve defined goals.
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Manage your expenses:
Good financial management is crucial for startups to stay afloat in these times and to be able to tackle further lockdowns. Go through all your daily expenses and cut down anything that is not absolutely essential in the current situation. You need to immediately stop manufacturing any products whose sales have been affected by the pandemic.
Re-evaluate every expenditure and understand what exactly you actually may need. This could be something as simple as a phone bill that includes unused benefits but eventually adds up to thousands of dollars getting wasted.
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Research:
Buyer demands and needs have changed a lot in the pandemic. People have become more conscious about what they invest in. Research and understand what your target audience needs and how you can provide it to them. Online marketing is a cheap way to promote yourself on social media platforms according to the demand for your services.
Once you understand their needs, restrategize your business operations to offer services that are definitely going to benefit your business. For instance, you can provide some additional services to your consumers that none of your competitors are providing. Keep in mind that these services should get you more customers without depriving you.
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Maximize cash flow:
In order to pull through the crisis, you can request vendors and investors for credit. A lot of suppliers are more considerate in these times and may offer small concessions if you request them for a discount as a small business owner.
You can also request your regular customers to pay in advance regarding any future purchases and you can provide them proper acknowledgment to redeem that amount anytime in the future. Another option is to offer discounts to incentivize customers for making payments earlier for any pending order.
Conclusion:
Managing a startup in these uncertain times is no easy task. While the pandemic may have impacted your company’s business, you must keep striving to find new opportunities by keeping abreast of the changes in trends and catering to those to increase cash influx.
