Fledgling companies are often thought of as fragile and delicately balanced. After all, around half of new businesses fail before they reach their first anniversary. This fact alone dissuades many would-be entrepreneurs from pursuing their dreams in times of national or global turmoil. However, there is a great deal that you can do to prep your business for difficult times ahead. If it is to survive, your organization needs to be dynamic, flexible, versatile and resilient. In this article, we look at how you might achieve this.
Rely on Your Premises as Little as Possible
It’s useful to have an official base of operations – it provides somewhere to store all of your key equipment, meet in person with employees and clients and direct post and deliveries. A headquarters has long given the strong impression that your company is well-established and successful. However, this image is gradually changing.
It is becoming more common for employees to work remotely – an approach that is gradually becoming a standard across all industries. If the majority of your staff can work from home for at least a couple of days a week on a staggered basis, you can afford to acquire a smaller office and fewer facilities – saving you money. It also means that your staff will be able to continue their work despite the threat of pandemics and natural disasters.
Practice Flexible Employment
Currently, more and more companies are experimenting with flex time and other more fluid approaches to the working day. Unless you employ a team that needs to be directly contactable by customers on a set 9-5 basis, there’s no reason why you can’t allow them a little flexibility when it comes to their work. If you adopt this approach, not only will your business be more adaptable, but you’ll also become more appealing as an employer. You can also take a more flexible approach to hiring.
Taking individuals onto the payroll on a full-time basis locks you into the promise that you’ll always have work for them at precise times. However, if you hire freelancers for certain roles, both your company and those you hire will enjoy greater freedom. For example, if you run a digital marketing company, you may wish to take on specialist SEO freelancers instead of full time SEO staff.
Of course, you’ll need to carefully vet these new hires – they should be experienced in driving revenue and influencing higher numbers of conversions using intent SEO. The term intent SEO refers to the processes involved in attracting relevant traffic instead of simply aiming for large volumes in order to make sales more likely.
Deliver as Much as You Can Online
You’ll always be more accessible with a strong online offering. Whether your company provides a product or service, the ability to take orders and payments online will make matters simpler and quicker, enabling you to ship the goods or start the process immediately. You can even shift your customer service provisions to the web using chatbots and instant messaging systems. Video chats can easily replace in-person meetings if you’re correctly set up to undertake them, and use of the Cloud will mean that you’re able to provide your services from absolutely anywhere with an internet connection.