With the gradual easing of the lockdown, businesses are now starting to make plans to open up once again but obviously things will be quite different to before. This means that planning will be critical to success both in term of protecting public health and also finding success with the business. Here are a few of the key areas that you will need to plan for.
Social Distancing
The most obvious change will be that you need to make sure that everyone is able to comfortably socially distance from one another. It will depend on the type of business that you run, but this might include making changes to the layout of the office or putting markers down on the floor if you have customers coming in to the business. You may also need to offer no-contact alternatives or change working hours to accommodate demand.
Reassess Business
Nobody could have seen a pandemic coming which means that it is something that businesses were not prepared for. The forecast for 2019 to 2020 will have changed drastically due to COVID-19 so you will need to alter your forecast, change your targets and create a plan for the coming months and years as the impact from the pandemic and economic fallout will have long-term consequences. You may also need to reassess your legal requirements with so many changes to the world and hiring a firm to provide legal service delivery will be the best and easiest way to do this.
Staff Consideration
It is important to assess your staffing situation and to make plans going forward. If you have found remote working to be successful with no productivity issues then you should seriously consider continuing with this as it can bring so many benefits and help to lower your business costs.
Reassess Marketing
The world will be a very different place in the short term so you may also want to create a new marketing plan. Your marketing may now need to address the pandemic and show how your business is adapting to provide a safe service for your customers – this will be crucial in a time where consumers will be anxious when lockdown is over but there is still a threat of the virus.
These are the key areas that a business needs to focus on as things very slowly start to return to normal. Planning is always important, but particularly with the current situation where there are a number of issues to overcome and businesses will be desperate to get back to normal.
