Winter is always a time for reflection. As we’ve recently rung in a new year, it’s been a time to be grateful for how far we’ve come. It most certainly hasn’t been easy and as business owners, we’ve each had to face our own challenges with COVID-19 and its continuing effects.
Over the course of the pandemic, our country was forced into survival mode with entire communities putting all group gatherings on hold, families sheltering in place at home, and the majority of small businesses forced to shut down for months without warning. In fact, in many places, businesses have had to close their doors more than once.
There are three things that business owners want most coming out of the COVID-19 crisis: businesses wish to be whole, healthy and in control again.
How do we accomplish each of these goals while the effects of the pandemic seem to be sticking around? Let’s dive into each one to discover how your business, no matter how small, can triumph.
To Be Whole
When we consider what small businesses want coming out of this crisis, the first thing we think of is to once again be whole.
2020 was a time of loss for everyone. We compare everything now to 2019 in terms of lost sales, lost profits, lost opportunities. And as this crisis continues to drag on, lost jobs and lost businesses are frequent.
We read news stories almost every day, informing us that small businesses have lost thirty percent of their sales due to the crisis, some even up to fifty percent. To be whole means to be back to 100%. To be back at that starting point again and regain all lost profit.
In short, to be whole means to be back at that place you were before the crisis began.
Another way to look at this is in terms of time—the weeks and months it will take for a business to redeem those lost sales. It’s important to look forward in terms of time and not backward.
We haven’t made it through the crisis yet, but in the new year, many small businesses are starting along the path forward to becoming whole once again.
To Be Healthy
Business owners want to be healthy in the direct sense of the word. It falls on their shoulders to see their employees and customers remain healthy as they all return back to normal life, or at least back to how life was pre-2020.
As a customer, it can be easy to overlook this. Keeping everybody safe from the virus is just one more thing business owners are responsible for behind the scenes. Just as they attend to every other aspect of their business without us being aware of it.
There is also an emotional aspect of operations during the crisis that has been overlooked and this may be the most difficult part of the entire crisis for business owners.
To be healthy also means having everything on track again within the business. This includes growing, pursuing new opportunities, anxiously anticipating sales picking back up and welcoming employees back to work.
To be healthy means getting back to providing quality goods and services, meeting the needs of communities, following their dreams, and most importantly, remembering why they’re doing all this in the first place.
To Be In Control
During this crisis, business owners have felt powerless like never before. Reversing this situation and regaining some sense of control is what business owners want most as they welcome in the new year with high hopes of some peace and quiet.
COVID-19 is unlike anything that we’ve faced in our lifetime and with it, brought many unknowns.
During the pandemic, business owners didn’t have a say in whether or not they would stay open. That choice was made for them. Owners were left to navigate the constantly changing waters of program rules, struggling to get the assistance that was promised to them.
Under normal circumstances, business owners are the ones in control. The fate of their business rests in their hands, for good or bad. Of course, even in the best of times, there are many things outside of our control. Whether it be problems with a supplier, that big customer, a competitor, or the ups and downs of the local economy, outside forces always impact small businesses. However, these are the types of problems business owners are accustomed to, and over time, they learn to manage these situations the best they can.
Regaining that control is the most defining measure of recovery.
At myfinalytics, we are focused on helping small businesses achieve control once more by providing them the tools necessary to make right-minded decisions, navigate finances amid the unknown, and more. To learn more about our new set of tools created specifically for small business owners, visit our website.
