9 Ways to survive the crisis

Lets face it, the fear all around us right now is palpable. COVID-19 is one viral transmission we didn’t set out to achieve!   It threatens our health and challenges us with change and change is scary. But as with everything, it is only scary if we focus on the negatives so lets stand back and take a long hard look at what is happening here.

The Universe has been telling us for years that we are getting stuff wrong. Its pelted us with fire, flood, bloodshed, famine & locusts to try and get its message across and now – maybe because we didn’t listen hard enough, its decided to legislate by throwing in a plague.

The first thing to remember is that we have been here before. Oldies like me can maybe put some perspective on the whole situation because we lived through the Polio Pandemic in the 50s, an awful time that left over 400,000 people worldwide with some degree of physical paralysis. Today medical science has progressed in leaps and bounds, we have the benefit of the internet to support us as a community and we are going to have to wait maybe one year for a vaccine instead of the 20 years it took way back then to come up with something effective that would work against Polio.  

The biggest challenge for most of us now is keeping ourselves healthy and surviving financially from day to day and our ability to stay afloat is about tapping into the huge resources we have both as inventive, creative human beings and by using the tools the internet has provided us with. Panic gets us nowhere so we need to stop worrying about all the things we cannot change and look at the actions we can take and how we can market our products to fit the needs of our customers.

We all want to help our fellow man and I know many of you will feel squeamish asking for money for anything during this crisis but the bottom line is that it is our responsibility to ensure our businesses get through this so we can take care of our families and be in a stronger position to create jobs for people going forwards so lets have a look at what our customer's challenges are right now and see how as skincare entrepreneurs we can best serve them. 

 ·     Boredom and Isolation:  Historically when any national or international depression takes place the crafts industry booms. This is because making things is both comforting and time consuming. If you have any element of ‘mix and make’ in your products this is the time to promote them 

 ·     Toiletries: If anything in your range relates to cleansing the skin your business should be booming right now. It might be that you need to tweak a soap or cleanser by adding an anti-bacterial essential oil such as tea tree but Oh Boy, do I wish I still had my soap factory right now !!

·     Hand cream: Do you have a heavy cream or balm in your range. If so, re-label it as hand cream. With all this hand washing going on your customers are going to really need that.

·      Create Joint promotions: with other businesses who might want to offer bars of soap to their customers as incentives to buy their own products.

 ·     Internet Sales:  Shift your focus entirely to your online sales, use Social Media to promote specific products with offers attached and don’t waste energy trying to sell to stores right now.

 ·     Messaging:  Here are some key messages you should be putting out right now: ‘Back To Basics” “You are stronger than you think” “Nature’s remedies’, ‘Good health inside and out’, ‘Because we care’.

 ·     Brand Loyalty: With everyone working from home this is a great time to build relationships both with buyers and your customers. Get on Linkedin and keep the conversation social.

 ·     Random Acts of Kindness: Two huge pluses that came out of the Polio Pandemic were philanthropy and community. If you can afford to give stuff away then do so now. It will make you feel good makes great business sense. Don’t forget to leverage any gestures you put out there by making them visible in your Social Media, it isn’t tacky, its about sustaining your business and getting the most from a bad situation. If you can create a supportive community online that is another way to help people .

 ·     Brand Promotions: How about getting some T-Shirts printed with your brand logo and a positive or fun message like ‘Consider yourself hugged’ better still, if you know anyone who is handy with a sewing machine create some humorous or couture fabric face masks !

 See you on the other side.

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