Supporting small businesses through COVID-19

Helping small businesses to keep their doors open and to fight the economic downturn battle caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic.

A global crisis such as natural disasters or public health pandemic can have a significant impact on your business, employees and its supplier partners.

Keeping your business running during these economic hardships comes with a vast array of challenges.

Small business owners or management are not necessarily equipped to deal with such a crisis and are often left to make serious decisions that will ultimately shape the future of their business and its employees.

Don’t stress; there is help available!

rev Branding has already been working with a  range of companies to help them adapt their business operations, marketing and sales to meet the changing trading conditions and needs of their customers.

We’ve put together some practical steps designed to help small to medium-sized businesses to review and improve the way they are operating during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

• Has the Coronavirus shutdown impacted your business?
• Is your business fighting to get sales through the door?
• Are you struggling to understand the changes you need to make?

EVERY business WILL need some help to change the way they operate during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Get a plan in place FIRST!

Build yourself a Coronavirus Business Contingency Plan to help you adjust your business process to scale up your marketing, communications, sales, and operational requirements to deal with the changed conditions from the Coronavirus.

Adapt your Business

Don’t just keep on doing the same things, HOPING that business will improve!

It’s absolutely critical that you step back and re-evaluate your customer’s needs (current and future), and also how you may now need to transact with them.

Here are a few items that we’ve used in our own business and for our clients:

• Create a COVID-19 compliance plan for your business and communicate this to staff, customers and vendors
• Adapt your brand marketing message to be more empathetic
• Increase your staff engagement and communications
• Evaluate your costs and streamline processes to be more efficient
• Review your sales pipeline and evaluate how to close any sales opportunities
• Adjust your sales plan to become short-term-focused
• Change up your marketing campaigns and communications
• Evaluate your supply chain and distribution processes
• Engage more with your suppliers and vendors
• Ramp up your online sales channels via eCommerce
• Plan an Omnichannel marketing and sales program
• Make an effort to speak with highly-motivated people more often
• Organise financial support via government grants and deferred loans
• Give back and offer more help to others…

Activate a Brand Crisis Plan

The way that you manage your brand and its marketing will need to change over the next 6-12 months.  In these uncertain times, consumers are a lot more fragile and less forgiving when it comes to sales or marketing flaws.

There is no golden rule book for how you should manage your brand marketing through a crisis.  We do, however, have a framework which contains many of the best-practice steps to help you to manage your marketing and measure the brand perception of your customers.

Change up your Marketing

If you’ve read our brand crisis framework, you’ll quickly understand that your marketing message during a crisis needs to change and become more empathetic and personal.

Learn how to adapt your business marketing and communications to suit pandemic conditions using our brand marketing framework.

Plan for your Post-Covid World

Think about putting together a post-coronavirus plan to kick-start your business recovery and its reinvention. Use our Post-Coronavirus Business Recovery Action Plan to ensure that your business recovery will be fast and sustainable!

Get your Mental Health in Check

When you are outside your regular routine and restricted in the things you can do personally, it’s VERY easy to fall into a rut. Here are some tips that I’ve used to help me deal with working from home and its isolation (and no travel).

• Keep up some exercise and movement
• Stay in touch with people via the phone or video call
• Establish a good sleeping pattern
• Eat well
• Put some structure around your day
• Create a to-do list each day
• Connect with your team through a series of fun activities
• Find things that help you to relax
• Get around your friends network more
• Limit your social media and source ‘trusted’ news channels
• DO NOT work on weekends!

Surround yourself with Support

You are not alone.
There are many support services designed to help businesses through these tough times who can help in specific areas of your business e.g. sales, marketing, business strategy, business mentoring.

Australian Government: https://www.business.gov.au/Expertise-and-Advice
Robert Durrant Business Mentoring: https://www.robertdurrant.com.au/
Access Government Grants & Funding: https://revbranding.com.au/business-grants-and-support/

There are also specialist support groups that you can talk about how you are feeling.

Beyond Blue:  https://www.beyondblue.org.au/
Heads Up: https://www.headsup.org.au/
Lifeline: https://www.lifeline.org.au/

Related Support Articles

How to build a brand crisis management plan and framework
How to adapt your business marketing for customers during a pandemic
How to keep positive and in Good Mental Health during the Coronavirus
Understand the Government support packages
How to build your Post-Coronavirus Shutdown Business Recovery Action Plan
Are you eligible for any Small Business Grants & Support

Ask for help!

Are you worried about keeping your business operating?
Are you struggling to know what to do and when to do it?

Whether your business has closed or is still operating, we are here to help you through the toughest of times. 

rev™ Branding is a specialist digital brand agency helping companies to develop and market their brand to drive sales and growth opportunities.

Our 20+ years’ experience providing high-performance brand optimisation solutions allows us to create brand stories which are strategic, creative, and connect with your audience to inspire actions.

We’ve helped numerous companies to adapt their business to deal with the economic conditions driven by the Coronavirus. 

Schedule an online meeting with me personally by emailing me [email protected] or calling me direct on 0413 476423