How to help your business survive a gap in customers – tips for a small business owner 

(I wrote this initially as a positive blog at the beginning of the pandemic, but I think many of the ideas work well as something to do to keep you going during any break in your business or when you're between customers or clients, so I've still transferred it from my old website). 

This blog has some ideas of things that you could do over the next few weeks whilst we are likely to be stuck at home, and unable to carry out some or even much of our normal work - to help your business to survive the coronavirus and these strange times, to maybe even build a stronger business, and to come out the other side ready to thrive again.  (Though these ideas will also work at any point when you have a quiet patch and have some extra time).

I’m hoping it will give a positive outlook to who knows what will happen over the next few weeks / months.  It is to help other small business owners with ideas of things to be getting on with in our businesses, to keep things ticking over, to maybe make some sales still, and so that we are ready to get back to it stronger and more resilient than before, once this thing is over.

We may not be able to get out and about and meet people in person for a while, but there are lots of other things you can be getting on with.  (I realise that once the children are off school it may not be quite so easy, but hopefully we can still get some bits done whilst they do their schoolwork/watch telly/make a mess/whatever they end up doing!).

How to help your business survive a gap in customers #1: Get Organised

Things to give you a head start when we can get back to work, or things that you just never found the time to do:

– De-clutter, sort and tidy your desk

– De-clutter, sort and tidy your office space

– De-clutter, sort and tidy anywhere else in your house that needs doing!

– Catch up with all your accounts, so you’re ready to do your tax return in April this year (or to send it all to your accountant early)

– Update your website

How to help your business survive a gap in customers #2: Personal/Business Development

Spend some time on you:

– Read some business books, listen to podcasts, watch business coaches on YouTube

– Catch up with any online training you are in the middle of or haven’t started yet, and/or find some new online training to do

– Learn a new skill just for you

– Learn new skills that will help your business

How to help your business survive a gap in customers #3: Business Planning

– Take a look at your goals list for this year (or write one if you haven’t yet), get planning, and see what you can get done right now

– Have a look at your strategy for this year (or write it if you haven’t yet), see how you are doing so far, and see what you can do to prepare in advance for what you want to do next

– Plan and write your social media posts ready for the rest of the month, and then next month too

– Plan some blog posts, and get writing

– Plan and write your emails for the rest of the month, and the next few months too

– Create a freebie/lead magnet for your audience, and write and email nurture sequence to go with it

– Plan your next branding photo shoot!

How to help your business survive a gap in customers #4: Social Media

Stay visible:

– Keep up with posting on your social media accounts.  If we can’t get out to meet in person, online communities will be so important

– Do some fb lives on your page to keep in touch more personally with your audience

– Keep growing your brand, sharing value, showing up as the expert in your niche

- Keep growing your audience, nurturing them, and building relationships with them, so that they are ready to buy from you when they can

How to help your business survive a gap in customers #5: Get more visible!

Think about anything else you can do to up your visibility even more:

– Write some guest blogs and see what you can get published

– Write your bio and story and create a media page for your website so you are PR-ready

– Write a talk you could give – and get booked as a speaker once this is over

– Start a you-tube channel or podcast

– Write a book!

How to help your business survive a gap in customers #6: Take it Online

How much of your business can you move online? This might be where we all have to try and go with our businesses if the pandemic carries on for long.  

Get brainstorming what you can do via emails, zoom, pdfs, YouTube etc.  Fortunately there are a lot more tools and tech available to us now that will help us do this.

So what parts of your existing business can you do online instead?  How can you deliver what you do online instead?  Can you have online meetings with your clients instead?  Can you sell online instead of in-person?  Can you run your workshop online instead?  

And what new income streams can you add to your business that will work online?  Can you create an online course or webinar or workshop to share your knowledge/skills?

What can you create to give for free to your audience to add value, and what can you create that you can sell to help them?

Think low or mid-cost, not too high an investment as people won’t be able to afford that necessarily right now – get that one planned for the future.

So there we have my ideas of things we can do to help our small businesses survive the coronavirus, and hopefully get our businesses stronger and more resilient if we can get some or all of it online instead.  Or at least just keep it going until we’re back to ‘normal’, and come out the other side ready to thrive again.  I’ll be doing all of these along with you.  But I’m sure there are more I haven’t thought of yet, so do post a comment below to add your ideas.

Stay ethical, stay authentic, don’t try and make money out of the situation by hiking your prices up.  But think rather what can you do to help more people by doing something online.  It’s an opportunity for growth and development, and moving your business online where you can. Don’t panic, keep the momentum going, keep working on your business – you know it’ll be harder to get back into it if you stop!

Hopefully we can all work out how to help our businesses survive this, and come out ready to thrive when it’s over 🙂 Stay positive, wash your hands, and stay safe. 

And I’ll still be here ready to take you some lovely new branding photos once we can go out and about again.  Get in touch if you’d like to book for the summer hopefully, and then we can start spending some time planning it – the more we plan the more we can make the most of the session and get more useful and effective photos for you to use.  See info and packages here. 

Next Steps:

- Would you like some more help with planning your year and becoming more strategic with everything?  Take a look at my From Frazzled to Focused: The Big Brand & Business Strategy Bundle – lots of workbooks so you can keep all the info in one place, have it to hand, and have some help filling them in.  How to Review Your Year, Your Big Business Vision, Your Business Goals, and Your Business Strategy.  Plus a bonus one for keeping you on track with achieving your goals. These aren’t time specific, you can start at any point during the year, and they are perfect for both product or service-based business owners.  

- Ready for more personal mentoring, brand, visibility and marketing strategies that work for you, a community of fellow ambitious introverts, training, and accountability to put it all into action?  Come and join my Brand Plan membership, and get support to show up, stand out, and sell more🤩

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Blog topics / categories: 

#Strategy and Planning

[This blog was first written in March 2020, and transferred to this website and updated, January 2024]