Managing your business through the coronavirus pandemic

Let’s face it the world is changing forever since the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit us in 2020. As we all know by now, this has had a huge impact on businesses, and we have seen this unfold right in front of us, especially being a web design company that works with hundreds of businesses across the UK.

Luckily as we are a purely online digital company, we are well set up to handle an unexpected pandemic and can adapt quickly to change. However, we know many businesses who this has hit hard – to the point of not being able to function their businesses whatsoever. The impact of COVID-19 on businesses includes my own family members, whom one of them operates a mobile entertainment service and which COVID-19 has essentially temporarily shut down their business completely. There does not seem to be any return for them, until Weddings, Events, and other venues reopen.

Even though being a digital company, we have been much luckier than others who work in different industries. Nevertheless, we have still had to adapt many of the ways we operate, especially with the new normal ‘working from home.’

Do not stop your marketing (yes, we know this is harder than just saying it)

You might be thinking we being are biased here – as we operate marketing campaigns for clients, and we know that businesses need to save every penny they can. However, you could be taking advantage now of outranking your competitors. While your competitors are panicking and disbanding all their marketing services, you could be thinking one step ahead and taking advantage of that.

Stopping services (especially SEO) can harm the progress of your campaigns. One of the worst things you can do with a monthly SEO campaign is suddenly bringing the campaign to a sudden halt. Google organic rankings are extremely fragile, and if you go from having a nice wave of link building, content optimisation, and other SEO related tasks and then suddenly go to nothing – this can have a major impact on your ranking position.

If your business is in a position where it cannot function at all, we recommend putting all your marketing efforts into Search Engine Optimisation. Make sure you are ahead of the game for when your industry goes back to normal, remember many of your competitors will be making decisions based upon panicking short-term decisions. Why not focus on your marketing efforts, while you may save some more time to spare than usual?

Working from home productively with a positive mindset

Everyone works differently and working from home is the new normal for many industries, like in our industry of Web Design. There can be many distractions at home, which means you could end up working more hours than in the office!

To ensure you keep up productivity, simple things like setting out a schedule of what you would like to achieve during the day, set fixed hours you work, and exercise like cycling and running can help you stay motivated.

If you are managing staff remotely, ensure you are having regular meetings, which can help everyone stay on track. Working from home has its benefits, but bad habits can occur.

Having a positive mindset and taking breaks is important, even though you may feel working long hours will help you be productive. You can often burn yourself out by taking that approach and end up becoming less productive.

Be a forward-thinking business and adapt to the changing climate

The coronavirus pandemic has changed people’s perceptions of the way we work, especially our work/life balance. For years we have just gone to our places of work on auto-pilot (which usually means going to the office) but many businesses who have been forced into adapting to a ‘work from home’ model, and have since discovered it can work well.

Even here at Ubie, we have learned a lot from this pandemic and will be reviewing the way we work, even after the pandemic. Traditional office-based working is becoming something of the past, and a work-from-culture is slowly becoming the new normal after businesses have realised staff productivity doesn’t have to go down. Technology can solve the communication issues of the past. Even if the work from home model is just part-time, this will truly revolutionise the way we work in the UK.

If you run a business from an office, it might be worth thinking about how you can increase staff morale and adapting new working models, such as working from home. Talk to your team and debate opinions, as you could transform your work culture for the better.

Conclusion:

The coronavirus pandemic has been one of the most challenging times businesses have ever faced in the UK and around the world. It’s easy to get disheartened by the challenges the current climate that presents to businesses.

Changing your focus and try and stick to looking at the positives. Start new marketing and outdo your competitors while they are cutting back. It is important to invest in your business, so you are ready to take on the market, as companies are allowed to reopen.

Unfortunately, it does seem there is a long way to go before we return to complete normality, with the uncertainly regarding a second wave of the virus looming. It’s important as business owners that we adapt to the ever-changing climate and keeping a positive mindset and focusing on improving ourselves.