Even as the government is ramping up its distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, businesses continue to struggle to keep themselves afloat until the pandemic ends. While some businesses have scaled down their operations, others have closed either temporarily or permanently.
But there are still ways for a business to stay open despite the challenges it faces. Here are some ways a business can stay open while waiting for the pandemic to end.
Use Government Support
The United States government has several programs to help small businesses during the current pandemic. One of these programs is the Paycheck Protection Program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of the Treasury Department.
The Paycheck Protection Program provides small businesses with enough funds to allow them to cover payroll costs of up to eight weeks. The payroll cost isn’t limited to salary since it also covers employee benefits. Additionally, the funds also allow businesses to pat rent, utilities, and interest on mortgages.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is the main implementor of the program and has the Treasury Department’s support. It aims to help millions of American citizens who work in small businesses. The program has over $650 billion available for job retention and other expenses to help a small business stay afloat.
The program covers small businesses, eligible nonprofit organizations, tribal businesses, and veteran organizations. It also covers self-employed individuals and independent contractors as long as they meet the size standards of the program.
The government offers other funding programs through the SBA. These programs include the SBA Debt Relief program and the SBA Express Bridge Loans program.
Adjust Marketing Strategies
Aside from taking advantage of the government’s funding programs, a business can also adjust or modify its marketing strategies. Since customers will continue searching for the things they need online, a business can fine-tune its online marketing strategies to reach the first page of the customer’s search results.
This means businesses should continue updating their content to maintain their good ranking on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It should also avoid any drastic measures that may endanger its position and bring its rank down.
Maintaining the social media page is also recommended due to increased social media usage in the US. With more people going online due to the pandemic, businesses should try to connect with these consumers through social media. This can increase its brand recall and awareness within its market. A business needs to increase brand awareness among consumers to so increase sales of the products it offers.
Evaluating ad spending is also important. Since funds are limited due to low revenues, businesses should find the most appropriate time to increase ad spending to reach their audience. This will entail using online tools to check local online search behaviors. These tools include Google trends that can show patterns on the keyword used by the market. With this, the business can target specific keywords to ensure its ad spending is focused on reaching its customers.
The business should also monitor the cost-per-click (CPD) since it indicates the spending of a business’ competitors. A low CPC indicates low spending on a certain keyword. If the CPC in the business niche is low, it gives the business the opening it needs to reach a bigger part of its market since its ad spending will be lower than usual.
Diversify the Services
When the pandemic started, specific industries bore the brunt of the slowdown in the economy. The hospitality industry, in particular, saw occupancy rates go down, and restaurants had to close due to the shelter-at-home orders from the authorities. Retailers also saw slower sales.
The situation forced some businesses to start offering products they do not normally offer. Many of these retailers started offering sanitizers and cleaning equipment. Fitness studios started offering online fitness classes since people were not visiting their studios anymore.
A business has several options to diversity the products and services it can offer. A business may even consider starting from scratch when offering a new service or getting a commercial cleaning franchise. Getting a franchise takes away some of the growing pains in offering a new product or service in the market. The important thing at this point is for the business to adapt to the situation. By being versatile, a business can weather the storm and offer its main products and services once everything goes back to normal.
The pandemic turned everything upside down for many businesses around the world. But businesses can survive the situation if it knows what to do and where to get the help it needs to stay afloat.