With the COVID-19 crisis raging on, every aspect of our lives is going berserk. While business owners like portable power station suppliers are trying to cope with uncertainty, the coronavirus outbreak has become exceptional due to the widened scope. What had worked in the pre-COVID-19 world will no longer go in your favor during this crisis. According to health workers, the world might take a year to come back to the ‘old normal’. Here are some of the significant impacts of COVID 19 on these students.

When roughly calculated, coronavirus outbreak has cost nearly US$40 billion in the US alone. Now, if we keep the global economy in perspective, economists are of the view that COVID-19 has cost about 3-4 times as much. With the global economy hitting an all-time low, it is expected that the pandemic has disrupted businesses: regardless of sizes and shapes. 

As an entrepreneur, you, hence, need to consider different approaches to continue your business while guaranteeing worker government assistance and a steady ROI. To curb the menace, you will locate a couple of measures each business should take to counter this deadly crisis:

1. Review the welfare of your workforce

Always remember this: Your business will smoothly run if and only if your workers are going alright. Therefore, your priority must be to save your staff. Evaluate their living conditions and observe how many of your employees inhabit vulnerable or affected areas.

Keep a check on them. Also, ask them what percentage of the staff can travel easily to the workplace and how many need to work from home. Make them comfortable and feel that they have the choice to opt. Similarly, you can arrange mandatory pick and drop facilities for them. For the workforce working remotely, ensure that they have the needed infrastructure installed at their homes.

2. Revise policy on working

You cannot remain in the state denial that leaves policy cannot be the same before the pandemic. So, before you let misunderstanding reach to employees that can make employees disgruntled, revise your working policies. These guidelines must address how the business will tackle absences due to caring or sickness for relatives.

Be extremely lucid and vocal about the reporting protocol for illness. If your organization spans globally, find out the workers' policy that is stuck in foreign regions longer than expected. Considering the uncertain situation, make sure the working policies you adopt are flexible enough and are close to reality.

3. Create a Centre for Global Crisis

When the world has gone upside down, generic plans are no longer reliable for you now. You have to be flexible enough to customize every step so that you can cope with the wrath of the pandemic. If the majority of your workforce is working remotely, inspect whether your organization is using the technology bandwidth which is extensive enough to serve the purpose.

Evaluate the functions that will be affected when offshore employees cannot come to the office. Devise a plan that can address sudden failures. Unexpected failures may include various modes of communicating with employees, policy on travel, and the flow of data during this corporate crisis.

4. Examine the supply chain

Disruption in the supply chain can dismantle the foundation of any business; whether small or big. So, you are required to assess each vulnerability possible to disrupt the supply chain process and its effect on your business. This suggests you will need to go beyond the suppliers of first and second-tier. Your focus must be on the root of it, i.e. is the raw materials.

For instance, if you need a raw part from a country that is in disconnection, you have to sort out an option for auxiliary supply. With a sickness that spreads via contact, you should understand that nonexclusive contingency courses of action can be applied very quickly. 

5. Identify possible points of failure

Amid the global pandemic, you have to expect that everything will not go right as per your plan. Locations may become containment areas; individuals might get sick, and shipping might be delayed. So, you need to consider the lacking of every strategy. 

Evaluate which crucial process depends upon which individual or teams. Inspect whether you get other employees who have the skills desired to take up a crucial role when needed. If you have a call center, bring some measures to restrict the level of mutual interaction using methods like partial workplace occupancy or staggered shifts.

6. Keep your Communication Right

With lockdowns and quarantines becoming a new normal, you need to strive to keep every channel of communication proper. This suggests you can’t have a mere one communication method. Try Google Duo, Skype, StreamYard, or Zoom for video communication. Using Slack and Zoho Sheets for updates on assignments can aid you in better tracking. 

To avoid confusion and disinformation, keep your workers informed all the time. Re-ensure your employees and other stakeholders about how your organization is prepared. Most importantly, try to make them realize that “welfare is paramount” while your company is ready to take every measure to protect them.

7. Use Situation analysis

Since unpredictability is in the air, you have to understand that COVID-19 has all the potential to affect business for weeks. To combat the impacts, you should go towards scenario analysis in planning and testing preparedness. Ascertain a few of the best and worst-case scenarios.

Consider aspects like your working capital, rents for office space, and so on Talk with your finance department to understand what hardware would you have to fight such crucial sensitivities. If you are a brand that offers task help administrations, you may observe a significant rise in demand. All things considered, be set up with raw materials suppliers to deal with the surge.

8. Don’t ignore other risks

While the pandemic having a significant threat, it is not the only threat. So, don’t keep COVID-19 in your mind as the only threat. Currently, many portable power station suppliers are susceptible to risks that they fail to focus on because of the looming crisis. Therefore, consider risks such as Cybersecurity threats that remained unaffected by the pandemic. 

Make sure all your data is secured while fighting the global epidemic at hand. Furthermore, with individuals working from home, protecting data has become crucial than ever. Invest in security software and ensure your workers have them on the gadgets they use for official work.

9. Boost Digital Campaigns

Your business struggles for the customers. Without consumers, it is as good as nothing. Therefore, change your patterns in reaching out to them. People working and staying at home are increasingly consuming digital content. Use this pandemic as an opportunity for your brand to tap into the world of digital marketing for better results.

Use Google ads, Facebook ads, Instagram for Business, Twitter for Business, or LinkedIn Ads, to boost the online traffic to your web offerings. Utilize this opportunity to improve the online media presence of your image. Impart and draw in with clients and guarantee them that your business is taking each preventive measure.

Final Words

These are unprecedented times for everyone including the corporate world. However, even in such adversity, only a business, prepared for the worst, can survive in terms of profit and saving workers at the same time. So, investigate every possibility to protect your organization and ensure smooth functioning. Consider this pandemic as your test of determination and patience. If you go through this hurdle and adopt t the "new normal", you would know you are prepared to face all challenges and emerge victoriously.

Stay safe. This too shall pass!