The Pandemic Is Almost Over. Now What?

The Pandemic Is Almost Over. Now What?

By Evan Hackel

For businesses that survived the pandemic, much opportunity awaits.?It is likely that?many of your competitors did not make it. If so, your opportunity to grow market share will be unparalleled.

Here are some trends that you should keep in mind.

• Real estate will be abundant and cheap, unlike before the crisis, when good locations were hard to find and expensive.
• A lot of displaced senior executives with capital will be looking for opportunities.??
• Finding qualified talent will be easier than it was before the crisis, when the labor market was much tighter.
• You will have less competition, because some of your competitors will have closed.
• There will be pent-up customer demand.

You need to be ready though. That is a challenge because before the crisis, we didn’t realize that things were about to break.

Here are some new realities to think about:

• Get your onboarding systems ready, because now is the time to think through the process and revamp.
• Look at your leader-led training and see what can be shifted to lower cost virtual lead training.?People will be more open to it and at the start of the recovery, people will still have fears of flying.
• Look at upgrading your staff. You will find that experienced people will be available who worked in other companies. Look to hiring and training them now.
• Train your employees in new ways. Doing so will give you a competitive advantage just when you need it the most.
• Look to help your more successful locations grow.?Support your known top performers as they add units or buy up weaker players.?
• Make sure your supply line is in place. Not all your suppliers will be recovering or coming back strong from the crisis.
• Develop new marketing. Focus on making people aware that you’re back in business, better than ever, and ready to do business.
• Look for new efficiencies. During the crisis, you might have found out that working remotely works.?Therefore, this may be a chance for you to reduce overhead and enable more staff to work from home.?And offering good employees the option of working from home can help improve employee satisfaction and retention.

A New Beginning . . . Where Do You Want to Go?

Planning is key. Start with the end in mind and focus on where you want your enterprise to go.?Now is a great time to be bold, because people will be more open to new ideas than ever before. Tap into the collective knowledge of the whole enterprise.

No one wished for this pandemic. But there is now light at the other end of the tunnel - and opportunity.?

Evan Hackel,?Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, Podcaster

As author,?speaker and entrepreneur, Evan Hackel has been?instrumental in launching more than 20 businesses and has managed a portfolio of brands with systemwide sales of more than $5 billion. He is the creator of Ingaged Leadership,?is author of the book Ingaging Leadership Meets the Younger Generation and?is a thought leader in the fields of leadership and success.

Evan is the CEO of Ingage Consulting, Delta Payment Systems, and an advisor to Tortal Training. Reach Evan at?[email protected] , 781-820 7609?or visit?www.evanhackelspeaks.com