The onset of the pandemic led many businesses to postpone sales in their shops and enter the digital world to continue doing their businesses. As of now, many businesses are thriving in their online stores as customers are more comfortable doing their shopping and hiring services with just a tap of their fingers. And this is a manifestation of the future of business that physical contact is no longer required or is limited to a minimum. But because of the different nature of different kinds of businesses, some may find that physical stores are more profitable than their virtual stores.
Now that pandemic restrictions are letting up, some entrepreneurs are considering going back to their physical locations to resume their pre-pandemic operations. This can be more beneficial for them but there are some things to be considered before making the move to ensure that the business will thrive.
Upholding Pandemic Safety Precautions
Safety is the most important factor to consider when making plans to go back to a physical store. Even though many people have already been vaccinated and are protected against the virus, there are still chances of contracting it and getting dangerously ill. Before setting up your shop once again, try to find out the trend of COVID-19 cases in your area whether the numbers are at a low or are growing indefinitely. The latter should discourage you from opening your physical shop as you would be endangering the lives of your workers, your customers, and also your own.
But if little to no cases are being reported, it is recommended to uphold pandemic safety measures that will keep us all safe and well while doing business. Regulating the wearing of masks and following social distancing rules should be enforced inside your store to ensure good safety practices.
Hiring a Business Coach
Before making the decision of returning to the location of your business, you should consider hiring an experienced business transformation coach. A business coach will help you decide the best strategies to keep your business running. Their advice will include whether you should stick to an online store or go back to a physical shop depending on the current situation both in the social setting and in your specific industry.
After that, they will provide you with strategies on how to make your business better than before. These are professionals that can help with all of your business needs including the complete assessment of business structures and development of plans of action.
Planning How to Resume Business
After having consulted with the experts, you can then commence your plan on going back to your location. As mentioned before, safety is very important so it should be the primary factor in your strategy of resurrecting your store. Your plan should include everything from how much of your services will be resumed and how many employees will you ask to work onsite to what safety measures will you put in place to make your business an efficient but safe place for your customers to be in. Contact early all the parties involved in your operations like suppliers and other service providers to make sure that they are prepared once you resume your trade.
Creating New Marketing Methods
Once everything is ready, you should then start planning your marketing strategy to invite customers back into your store. This is a necessary step in the reopening of your business to inform people that they will be served once again but now in a safer environment than before. You should think up new ways of marketing your products and services because you now have two working gateways to reach your customers: your online store and your physical store. Both of these should be utilized and made to work to your advantage.
There are many ways to increase and widen your reach to your customers. Online marketing strategies have evolved to become easier, more cost-effective, and more focused on content creation and refinement. Offline marketing, although generally more expensive and time-consuming, can provide you with a direct connection to your audience and can ultimately be a more successful way of reaching your market. No matter how you choose to go about this, you can definitely unify your offline and online marketing strategies to make the best of both worlds.
Having a Backup Plan
Lastly, a backup plan should be in place. Once you’ve set up shop, you may be facing unforeseen challenges brought by these seemingly endless lockdowns. Availing of different kinds of insurance for your business should help you to better prepare for these unanticipated problems.
Your decision to open your physical location once more should be done with the intention of keeping everyone away from the risk of contracting the deadly virus. These are difficult times after all, and we should always look out for unexpected situations that can put our businesses in jeopardy.
