COVID-19 Business Resources
How to Quickly Shift to a Work-From-Home Business Model to Maximize Productivity in Today’s Coronavirus Environment
As a business owner today, you are now facing unprecedented challenges to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic. You are asked to self-isolate and practice social distancing to “flatten the curve.” You have been told to allow your employees to work from home to reduce possible exposure and slow the spread of COVID-19.
These are all reasonable requests given the extraordinary circumstances. However, as a business owner, you also need to maximize productivity, bring in revenue, and try to grow your business in these difficult times. How can you accomplish these goals when your office is now a ghost town, and productivity has fallen off a cliff?
The answer lies in setting up your office to function remotely. If you’ve never implemented a work-from-home policy before, it may seem like a whole different world. Managing an entirely remote workforce goes far beyond giving your employees a laptop and reminding them to check in every once in a while. After all, there are many factors most business owners haven’t ever had to consider, such as:
Cybercriminals Are Counting on You Letting Your Guard Down During This Global Pandemic – Here’s How to Stop Them
The world has slowed down during this COVID-19 pandemic. Wall Street has been walloped. People are no longer going out. State officials tell us to quarantine or self-isolate and not engage in groups.
However, you can bet there’s one group that’s not slowing down at all. They’re probably working overtime while the rest of us have our lives turned upside down. Cybercriminals and hackers know there’s no better time to strike than during a global crisis. While you are distracted and spending your time trying to make sense of this new normal, they are finding new ways into your IT network so they can steal data and passwords, compromise your clients’ private information, and demand ever larger ransoms.
Cybercrime is already on the rise, and several authorities expect the damages to rise to $6 TRILLION by 2021! If recent history has taught us anything, those bad actors will be out in full force throughout this coronavirus scare. I fully expect in the upcoming weeks that headlines will change from stories about COVID-19 to accounts of a frenzy of cyber-attacks on corporations and small businesses.
5 Steps to Rise Above the Fear Of COVID-19 and Focus on Growing Your Business
In a matter of just a few short weeks, we have gone from living the way we’ve always lived to changing just about everything we do. Schools are out for weeks, if not months. Cruises have stopped sailing, and air transportation may be next. Bars and restaurants are closing; sporting events are nonexistent, and so many people are now unemployed. If you watch the news or follow social media and see the number of infected people keep rising, you can’t help but wonder when, if, or even how life will return to normal.
As a result of these unprecedented life changes in such a short amount of time, so many people today are frozen in fear. They don’t know what they can do and what they can’t do. They’re numb, fearful, and questioning everything.
I believe that the accomplished and determined business owners in our world are facing a unique brand of fears: Will I lose sales and revenue because of the coronavirus? What if I must lay (more) people off? How can I keep my team and keep them working hard? How will I continue to provide for my family? How long will this last?
Here are five steps you can start taking now to stop being frozen in fear and move forward with your business, your family, and living your life.
Step #1: Communicate Often.
You should try to communicate with all your stakeholders regularly. From your employees, to your customers, to your partners and vendors, stay in communication with them to share how your business is doing and how you can continue to serve them.
While in-person visits may not be ideal at this time, you can always resort to the good old telephone, e-mail, videos, or webinars. You can bet that if your customers don’t hear from you, they are hearing from your competitors.
Step #2: Be a Valuable Resource.
While money is always necessary, now is the time to be a trusted resource and friend to your clients and prospects. People today need bold solutions. If you’re actively bringing solutions to your clients, you become a valuable resource. If they’re simply writing a check and never hearing from you – especially in today’s environment – you’ll be first on the chopping block when they have to cut expenses.
Step #3: Lean on People.
It’s ironic that the one time we need people more than ever before, we are supposed to socially distance ourselves and stay in our homes. Through video conferencing and web conferencing, work together with your team, your partners, and your Accountability Groups to lean on one another. Because nobody has gone through anything like this before, nobody has all the answers. But as a collective group, you will find almost every answer you need.
Step #4: Be MORE Than a Businessperson.
They may be your employees, your colleagues, and your clients. But they are PEOPLE first. And just about everyone you interact with within your business world has endless stresses when the workday is done. Their kids are home from school all day, getting into who knows what. They’re worried about going to the supermarket and if there will be meat and toilet paper. They’re concerned about keeping themselves and their family healthy.
When your clients and prospects start to see you not just as a business owner, but as a friend and someone who truly cares, that’s when they want to do business with you for life.
Step #5: Be Informed but Not Obsessed.
People were glued to their TVs for weeks after 9/11. As a result, although they were informed, they were also more stressed, depressed, and fearful. Don’t do that to yourself. Yes, it’s prudent to know how to “flatten the curve” and protect your family but watching too much news or social media right now can dominate your thinking and actions. That can negatively impact your business.
During this otherworldly pandemic, it’s good to have a little fear. To keep us safe. To keep us making the right decisions. However, if you want to ensure your business is stable and growing, to help your family cope and get through this, you should take these steps to rise above the fear.
If you need immediate IT support or if you need help in setting your business up so your employees can work remotely from home, contact me today. Here’s a link to my calendar if you wish to book a quick 15-minute call to talk.
Please know that this is not a sales call but merely an outreach to help fellow business owners stay afloat during tough times.
Thanks, and safe computing!