For many retailers, the COVID-19 pandemic was a wakeup call that their current business plan just isn’t going to cut it. Most of us may think that our business is prepared for a crisis, but then when a crisis on the scale of the pandemic happens, we realise that there are actually many things we need to improve upon.
When lockdown was first introduced, it’s fair to say that no one knew just how long it was going to go on for. Shutting the doors of your business not once, not twice, but three times is bound to take its toll on any business, and small retailers were definitely hit the hardest by the lockdown restrictions.
While we’re hoping that nothing as drastic as the COVID pandemic happens again, it’s best to be prepared for whatever crisis may happen in the future. Here’s how you can move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic:
Assess Your Finances
Your finances are likely to have been hit hard over the past year, so you might have to bring in some cost-cutting strategies if you want to make back the money that you lost. If you’re in a tricky situation with your finances but you’re not sure where to begin, then you could benefit from hiring an accountant.
Milton Keynes based N-Accounting offer high quality small business accounting services with a focus on integrity, sustainability, excellence, and empathy, so you’re guaranteed to be in safe hands. Whether you want to create a solid financial plan for the future or are in a spot of bother with your finances, the team of professionals as N-Accounting will be more than happy to help. To find out more about what they can do for your small business, click here: n-accounting.co.uk.
Review Your Old Crisis Plan
It’s time to take a good long look back on 2020 and decideexactly what you should be taking with you into this new year, as well as considering what needs to be improved. You may have found that you weren’t sufficiently prepared for the money lost during the pandemic- but remember to not be overly critical of yourself, since this review is all about how to move forward.
While the pandemic might seem like a time of absolute chaos for your business, take some time to consider which parts of your old crisis plan worked well. You can then hone in onthese as part of your new strategy.
Create A New Crisis Plan
Now you’ve figured out what worked well and what needs to be improved on, you can move forward into creating a new, pre-pandemic business plan. After the experience you went through last year, what would you do differently going forward? If something on a scale as large as the pandemic happens again, then you’ll want to be best prepared.
Try to make your plan as specific as possible and use your experience to note down every different angle that needs to be addressed in a crisis. The more detailed your plan is, the more prepared you’ll be.
