Surviving in Business through the Corona Virus

Over the past week or so we have seen the world change before our very eyes with our personal wellbeing and safety becoming the most important concern.

The CoronaVirus has taken over the world we live in today, I have never seen such an outpouring of friendship, empathy and support for each other.

Family and friends have been told to self-isolate to contain the virus and reduce the infection spreading. This is something I have never witnessed before in my life and I am sure that also applies to you as well.

I see businesses and sole traders very concerned about their livelihood’s and how they are going to cope with the restrictions they face.

This got me thinking what can we do to help each other in these challenging times. I try to look at it from a positive point of view instead of a negative one.

How can we use this time to be productive if we have to self-isolate and are not able to do face to face meetings or deliver service and products to customers in person? What options are available to us as business owners and providers?

I have seen a number of my colleagues deliver online content suggesting to fill this void as Mark Schaefer spoke about in his blog post recently “Looking into the Void”

I have put together a list of some suggestions that you might take into consideration which you could develop and invest some time into being productive both digitally and offline. Most of these suggestions are free online:

• Upskill with online courses (options include Google Digital Garden, Umdy, Teachable and LinkedIn Learning to name just a few

 

• Schedule some Zoom Video Conference Calls (free of charge to two people and up to 40 minutes free for any number over 3 people)

 

• Work through your connections on Social Media and send a message to re-connect and see how you could help them.

 

• Research online business owners, Influencers and potential partners or collaborators you could reach out to, as this could be the best time to grab their attention.

 

• Start writing evergreen blog posts that you could release at a later stage or even content that would resonate with other people about the struggles you are encountering with your business at this time.

 

• Start writing that book you have been putting off, even draft the ideas for it.

 

• If you deliver courses to students or business owners, start brainstorming ideas for new courses.

 

• If you have course content you already deliver, think about recording them for an online course.

 

• Create your own Podcast, show your expertise and deliver value added content to a new audience. You can start recording with a set of smartphones and mic and record onto Audacity or GarageBand for Mac (Audacity also available on Mac).

 

• Record some video about your business the services you provide or a tutorial about the products you supply.

 

• Thinking of setting up a website but never had the time to develop it. Now is the time to start planning and putting it into action.

 

• Do you have an existing website that needs to be updated? Look at the current content and think about refreshing it or maybe adding some new features or pages.

 

• Business has changed over the past number of years, instead of having competitors look and see where you could join forces and offer a bigger and better solution to both of your customer bases.

 

• Start sharing other people’s content online pick three posts per day and retweet repost them and send them an encouraging messages and watch your relationships grow exponentially.

 

• If you work from home already and have seen a downturn in your business, take some time out and maybe spring clean your home office and reduce the clutter around you, this is great for your mental health as well.

 

• If you are an online content creator reach out to smaller businesses and offer your services to them for free. Paying it forward….

 

• Reach out to experts that are also self-isolating and share your content with them.

 

• Start a webinar and share your expertise or invite a guest to share their expertise with your audience.

 

• Look for ways to help your local community online in these challenging times.

 

• Share your concerns in business with others and see how you can help each other in this moment of time and uncertainty.

Some personal things you could do as well.

• Start reading those books you bought a while back that you never got around to reading.
• Watch some old classic movies.
• Listen to some music.
• Spend some time with your loved ones.
• Meditate and Relax your mind.

I hope some of these suggestions may help you and keep you busy and productive over the next few weeks and fingers crossed it is only a few weeks.

Remember your business does not need to stop, we just need to adapt to the situation we are in now.

Stay Safe and Stay Healthy.

Alan