Back To The Drawing Board

 Right now, many small businesses are facing a dilemma – they have cut staff because of slow business performance and uncertain futures, they are waiting for the market to reopen fully and they are re-examining their business model and value proposition. Can they continue to offer the same product or service they used to, will there be a buyer for it, and if not, what can they pivot into to stay afloat?

These are the kind of questions that keep small business owners up at night. Not to mention the possible guilt of asking employees to leave. However, it’s also an opportunity to really reset and go back to the drawing board. Sometimes in the course of doing business, things get away from us – we keep moving and working, without having the time to think about the direction we’re going in and that’s where we want to continue. For companies who are going through this right now, I salute you and would like to help. Here’s a few ways you can step back and take stock of what’s happening and how you want to move forward.

1. Explore new work arrangements

Right now in this climate, a lot of people are willing to hold on to some form of employment maybe at a reduced compensation, instead of being let go completely. Without taking advantage of this situation, explore together with your employees what arrangements may work for them. Part-time, project-based work, or even job-sharing (where two employees with the same profile share responsibilities for the job and split the remuneration) are some ideas.

2. Engage your competitors

This may be a controversial one but desperate times call for desperate measures. Speak to some of the other players in your field or in complementary activities, and see if there is a way to pool resources – if you are using the same logistics/supply chain partners, if you can cross-market for each others’ services, if you can bundle your offerings and even use the skills of each others’ employees for the time being without hiring for new roles. You get access to a wider customer base, get another perspective on business and can be more creative with your product, services and business model.

3. Evaluate where to cut the fat

This is a good time also to step back and take a look at everything you’re offering. Did you have one core product when you started, and you branched out into a few other product lines, sub-services or additional products? Sometimes introducing multiple products can take away focus while also increasing unit cost of production. Can you scale back what you offer your customers now, and focus on offering one or a few things really well? This would also help you stand out while reducing cost of business potentially and thereby allowing you to extend your runway a little more as well

4. Empower your employees

It’s high time we moved away from a management style that requires frequent checking-in on employees, and moved to one where we give them the time and space to deliver their work, and judge them solely based on their outcomes. Even when things get back to normal, consider lessening the burden of “how” work has to be done by allowing your employees more flexible work options (to manage childcare, households, elderly or ill), by reviewing your benefits & policies to see what would be most useful right now, and by fully engaging your employees in key business aspects. If there isn’t a lot of current work from customers, ask your team to help you with projects you’ve kept on the back-burner: redesigning your website or filing system, paperwork or documentation that’s been incomplete or reaching out to customers just to check in. It’ll get work done and give a sense of purpose to all.

5. Communicate – and listen

Speak to your employees often about the changes you may have to make, and seek input, and listen. Sometimes employees can have better ideas about how to go about things, or suggestions about what can be introduced to weather the storm. Speak to your oldest or longest clients to understand what sort of products/services they would be happy to pay for, and then see if you can introduce those at minimal cost. Use the community and networks around you to get insight – don’t just rely on your own understanding of what needs to be done.

In these crazy, challenging and uncertain times, the more value you can offer your customer, the better you’ll be able to ride out the storm. If you’d like to speak further on how you could start doing this for your small business, get in touch and we can chat!