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Businesses that are navigating the “new normal” of the COVID-19 crisis should take this opportunity to revisit their business growth strategies and think bigger than merely stabilising. While your competitors are just trying to get back to where they were, now is the time to reach for where you always wanted your business to be. Below, we discuss why business leaders should reshape their business during recovery and reach for new heights.

Safe work environments ensure continuity

Prioritising your workforce’s safety is as essential now as it has always been. As a business owner, you should communicate with your employees continuously, openly, and transparently. People are looking for guidance and support from their employers and government leaders.

You can engage your employees by initiating flexible work arrangements, developing wellness programs, and implementing work-from-home rotations that will ensure safe working environments. Make sure that your company communications align with current government guidelines. In doing so, you minimise disruptions and strike a fine balance between continuing business operations and keeping your employees safe.

Transparency allows quick actions to react and reshape

Inevitably, some businesses will underperform at times during the COVID-19 pandemic. This will mostly be attributed to consumer demand and changing behaviours across various industries. However, businesses that immediately start looking for opportunities, rather than reaching for the nearest band-aid, may well have found capital growth before their competitors are even back on their feet.

As a business undergoing unexpected challenges, you need to closely review and monitor your overall product margins and renegotiate where necessary. You can also consider alternative supply chain options, especially if you source materials from suppliers that have been impacted by the pandemic. Finally, your business needs to determine how the current crisis will affect budgets and business plans moving forward and adjust strategies accordingly.

You may want to stress-test financial plans for multiple scenarios so you can fully understand the potential impact of the situation on your current and future financial performance. If you discover that some plans are no longer sustainable, consider revising vendors, locations, or technologies to keep your operations agile.

Secure ongoing support to reshape business

As your business looks beyond recovery, you’ll need to secure ongoing support from relevant stakeholders to reshape your business. Whether from existing clients, suppliers, investors, or creditors, you need to pool all your resources so you can successfully build a platform to make your business adaptable. Businesses will want to maintain open lines for their customers and take a proactive approach to answer unmet obligations.

Businesses also need to contact suppliers, know their capacity to deliver goods, and then consider alternative supply chain options accordingly. For investors, companies need to review their loan contracts so you can limit debt breaches and put refinancing arrangements in place.

Adjust your business to the new normal

Revised strategies, prompt action, and open communication with relevant stakeholders can make your business more fluid and adaptable during crises. The goal is to not only reduce the negative repercussions but also to learn to excel in a different environment. Once the outbreak is controlled, your business continuity plan needs to be reviewed yet again so that your educated predictions can be replaced with the certainty of hindsight.

Planning beyond recovery with Bartercard!

Simply recovering and returning to normal means you haven’t learned any lessons. This crisis is an opportunity for business leaders to build resilience, and they must carry the lessons they’ve learned forward into whatever the world will look like once the crisis has passed. As such, businesses need to consider initiatives that will allow them to grow, get ahead of competitors, and succeed post-COVID.

With Bartercard, you can introduce your business to a whole new audience in a massive, supportive network. Bartercard members can trade everything from retail products to various services to stay ahead of the curve. Join Bartercard today!

Anna

Author Anna

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