There’s no doubt that Americans in general are feeling anxiety about Coronavirus / COVID-19. If you don’t believe me, go look for toilet paper or Lysol at your local Wal-Mart. But what about small businesses?
Small Business and Coronoavirus / COVID-19
The obvious effect on small business can be seen in business closures such as bars, restaurants, gyms, and so forth. It’s obvious things are crazy when IRELAND literally closes the bars on St. Patrick’s day. But what can small businesses do when they are forced to close or the amount of people out and about is down dramatically?
What your business can do during the pandemic
The first thing a business owner has to avoid is fear. If you’ve become a business owner, you’re no stranger to the creeping feelings of fear or doubt or adversity. Lean into your past wins and overcome this doubt and fear.
Practically speaking, if you are struggling financially the government is actually doing a phenomenal job at helping small businesses by offering Emergency Small Business Loans with extremely low 3.75% Interest Rates . These loans have late payment forgiveness, payments can extend for up to 30 years and may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that can’t be paid because of the disaster’s impact.
Don’t stop marketing
The easy thing to do in this economic downturn is to halt all marketing because of financial fear. As with most practices rooted in fear, this is one of the worst things you can do. Stopping all marketing may sound nice on the surface but you’re essentially handicapping your business even more during a time where people have more time and attention online due to the quarantine.
Instead, your business should focus on making smart choices with marketing. This is a great time to get on TikTok and build your brand online. TikTok is highly organic, easy to build an audience and perfect for bored customers sitting at home.
Make content that makes them choose you when the doors open back up. Don’t fall for the lie that you’ll start marketing once the “panic” is over…you’re only falling behind. Get ahead of everyone else who isn’t capitalizing on this slow time in society.
Another simple solution is to hire outside content marketing for your business to do it for you. Right now we’re offering small businesses discounts on video packages to help promote their business during the downtime.
Another easy thing to do during this slow time is get ahead on all the stuff you’ve slacked off on. Clean up your social media channels, content and brand across every platform. Write the SEO for YouTube videos. Start a YouTube channel and make a fun take on being stuck without customers.
Make the best of it
Glass half full, right? Take the time to make content that people will want to watch during this time. If you have to be stuck with slowed customers or business closing, showcase your brand in creative ways. For example, if you’re a restaurant make a series of videos about “Food to Cook While Quarantined – Day 1” Make content people care about, that puts the best qualities of your brand in front of the eyes who now suddenly have the time to slow down and find you.
