Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of businesses have closed, and consequently, hundreds of thousands of jobs have suffered. Despite this, many businesses have shown resilience and determination during this difficult time and as a result, the unemployment rate has fallen since autumn 2020.
Companies all around the world have shown that they can bounce back from hard times by using a plethora of innovative ways to continue to grow their businesses in more innovative ways than ever before. This blog will explore 5 of the top ways to grow your business during the pandemic.
1. Take good care of the workforce: look after your employees’ mental health
The Mental Health Foundation has reported that from the 4,000 UK adults that they interviewed, many stated that they have been experiencing loneliness, and felt anxious or worried due to the pandemic. Therefore, to grow a successful business, and generally be a good employer, it is imperative business owners do their best to make sure they are checking in on their employees, as well as showing appreciation for their hard-work during these unprecedented times. This could be through regular (virtual) face-to-face meetings, encouraging virtual conversations throughout the day, having transparent and honest communication and make sure they know who to contact if they have any concerns.
2. Manage your cash flow
It is essential to maintain communication with, (if you have one) your financial director, an accountant, and your bank. This will ensure you are more likely to make as much money during this time as possible and hopefully enable you to keep all your employees.
It is also important to keep up to date with the Government’s help for businesses such as the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme, Statutory Sick Pay relief, small business grants, business rates support and the business interruption Loan Scheme. The HMRC helpline is also available if you need any help regarding paying business tax if you call 0800 0159 559 for help and advice. Having knowledge of these schemes will enable you to have more success in growing your business even during these hard and unpredictable times.
3. Serve your community
As a business owner, now is the best time to do your bit in supporting local, affected communities. If you have a business which offers products and services to help others, you can push these services even more and offer them at a discounted rate for people in need. This is a great way to show social responsibility and help the local community, whilst also increasing your brand awareness.
4. Improve your marketing
As face-to-face interactions have decreased massively during the pandemic, the use of marketing has never been so important to grow your business! Social media is a powerful tool in generating traffic to your services due to the conversations it can generate, and therefore leading to revenue for your business.
E-mail marketing is an effective tool to help boost sales as most of the adult population regularly checks their emails multiple times a day, especially now due to having more time to do so. Therefore, using social media and e-mail marketing is a great way to grow your business out of the pandemic and introduce your services to new audiences.
5. Hire a Remote Workforce
Prism Digital conducted a survey on 3rd April 2020 whereby they interviewed 1781 professionals and reported that since March 2020, 74% of those working from home reported that they were more productive in comparison to when working from the office, and only 11% felt that they were less productive.
The benefits of working remotely include reduced spending for business owners as there have been drastic cuts to rent and utility costs, increased motivation due to no commuting time which leads to more time with family and more time to sleep and exercise, as well as an increased ability to connect with people from all over the world through video conferencing. All of which would contribute to a more successful business.
Despite the incredibly difficult times that business owners have encountered over the past 15 months, many have shown great resilience, motivation as well as coming up with innovative ideas that may have never occurred if it was not for the pandemic. These 5 top tips are just a few of the many ways you can grow your business out of the pandemic to give you that motivation to look forward to brighter days!
Written by Millie Bateman
If you have a business registered under 42 months within the Liverpool City Region – Enterprise Hub can support you! get in touch on enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk
