To increase the chances of prosperity, businesses need to consider specific points that would help them flourish even during the worst situation. COVID-19 is a very important economic event. Businesses that is not ready for it will fail due to a lack of experience with such disasters. People will lose their jobs, and those companies will not continue operating because they won’t have enough resources. Because of this, we made a list of the top 10 mistakes business should avoid after COVID-19 so that they don’t go into bankruptcy or close their doors permanently:
1) Not hiring temporary workers – If you expect the crisis to pass quickly, you might think about avoiding hiring any temporary or part-time workers. If your assessment is different and you think COVID-19 will last longer than expected, then it would be a mistake not to hire any temporary workers because the lack of employees in your company will lead to poor performance.
2) Not preparing for skilled workers’ scarcity – After the crisis, businesses might face a shortage of people with the necessary skills, which means some jobs will go undone. If you already made plans to hire additional employees or consultants specializing in specific fields before COVID-19 happened, then such issues won’t be as critical. But if you failed to make appropriate preparations when labor was abundant, it could result in logistical problems down the road.
3) Focusing on short-term growth at high costs – During COVID-19, companies need to increase their revenues and limit their expenditures. Businesses that are not ready will try to achieve short-term goals by spending more money than necessary or hiring people they don’t need. You can avoid this if you already made up your mind about the direction your company will take after COVID-19.
4) Not investing in marketing – Many businesses don’t invest in marketing even when needed to promote products and services because of budget constraints, poor ROI, or a general lack of knowledge on how to use advertising as an effective tool for attracting new customers. Unfortunately, all these mistakes will get exposed during tough economic times like after COVID-19, so you’ll either need to start investing in marketing right now or risk losing clients/customers to your competitors.
Even if you don’t think that COVID-19 will result in an increased number of complaints, then you can still improve your customer service. 5) Not focusing on customer service – Many business owners and managers are already aware of the importance of good customer service. However, they tend to forget about it when they are not pressured by minimum wage laws or competition from other companies which offer similar products or services. Thus existing customers would remain loyal even after COVID-19 ends. New clients/customers would be more willing to give your company a chance instead of choosing a competitor known for offering excellent service.
6) Neglecting IT infrastructure – Everyone knows that technology can make businesses much more effective. Still, many businesses don’t invest in the latest IT infrastructure for numerous reasons, including high costs, poor ROI, or a fundamental lack of understanding about how new technology can help them increase profits. However, ignoring IT infrastructure could lead to reduced productivity, repeated downtimes that cost you money and damage your reputation, and data loss, which means you’ll also have substantial financial losses.
7) Not thinking outside the box – Sometimes, business owners forget that their company is only one part of a bigger eco-system, so they don’t think much about what other businesses are doing and what changes might occur after COVID-19. Because of this, many companies go with the flow instead of trying to innovate and find better ways to do things instead of following others’ footsteps all over again.
8) Not preparing for monetary inflation – If the government decides that COVID-19 will last longer than expected, they might choose to increase the money supply, reducing the value of your savings and investments. It means that it would be a mistake not to find safe havens for your assets so that you could protect them from potential monetary inflation after COVID-19. Preparing for this scenario can also include finding ways to transact business more efficiently or opting for alternative currencies with stable purchasing power over time.
9) Focusing too much on short-term performance – Some businesses focus only on achieving short-term goals, which mean they are ignoring important long-term issues like future cash flows, ROI, etc. That’s why some companies go bankrupt even if they had good profits in the past year or two before COVID-19. Some of these companies are still around today but with fewer assets, poorer IT infrastructure, and less experienced personnel, which is why their performance is lower than it used to be in the past. You can avoid this mistake by developing a long-term strategy instead of focusing on short-term KPIs (key performance indicators). Seek professional help from RemoteDBA.com
10) Not looking for alternative sources of income – Last but not least, businesses often fail because they don’t have enough cash reserves or other forms of alternative income to remain afloat even after several years of poor revenue growth or unexpected drop in sales. However, many business owners forget about this possibility, so when something bad happens to them, they cannot do anything except watch their company getting shut down. That’s why it is imperative to think about alternative sources of income while your company is still doing well to have some future secondary plans if something goes wrong.
Although it is evident that COVID-19 will cause many problems to businesses in every industry, there are some precautions they could take to reduce their chances of failure and increase their chances of surviving COVID-19 and continuing business as usual even after this event ends at some point. If we look closer at these mistakes, we can see what businesses can do right now so that they would be ready when COVID-19 begins or if it lasts longer than expected, which seems likely given all the negative consequences of this event for businesses.
As you can see, implementing some new business processes or technology after COVID-19 could help your company to survive this crisis. You can keep doing well even if they are affected by the fallout from COVID-19, but only if you do it right now before COVID-19 begins, which is just around the corner.