Will My Business Survive Coronavirus?
We know you are wondering will my business survive coronavirus (COVID-19). And I’m going to be brutally honest with you in this post. Let’s face it, with the way things are going in our world, you certainly have reason for concern. However, in this post we’ll go over some steps you can take to help your business in the long run.
Over the past few weeks we have seen coronavirus spread through our world like wildfire. The result has been devastating.
Additionally, employees have been laid-off. People have died. The economy has taken a terrible turn for the worst. How could you not be concerned as to whether or not your business will survive coronavirus?
COVID-19 Is Impacting Businesses Detrimentally!
COVID-19 is truly impacting businesses detrimentally and in many different ways. The healthcare system and its workers are overwhelmed. Businesses are closing temporarily (and some for the long term).
There’s a lot of uncertainty as we look toward the future and wonder how coronavirus might affect our livelihood.
AND THE BOTTOMLINE IS THIS: If you are a business, unless you are an essential business, you are probably not making any money right now. Not unless you are online, that is.
If you are a non-essential business, you still have huge opportunity during this time. So how can you make the most out of the opportunity you may get to see what’s wrong with and strengthen your business? In this post, I will try to explain.
Finding The Opportunity
In every difficult situation, there lies opportunity. That is what I personally believe at least. And perhaps that is what COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 will enable us to see.
Not so much the opportunity, but how much there is to be grateful for. Also, to work your butt off too achieve your dreams any way you can when you have the chance to do it.
Businesses and COVID-19
Right now, if you are a working individual or business, you might see yourself in one of these categories:
Category #1: You Are An Essential Business
If you are an essential business, you are probably in one of these industries:
- Medical and hospitals
- Food store
- Big-box store
- Discount supply chain
- Pharmacy
- Pet stores and veterinary clinics
- Transportation
- Banks
- Post offices
- Auto repair and gas stations
- Warehouses and distribution
- Technology
Now, if I’ve left an essential business out, please forgive me. I’m not listing every single thing because it’s really not the purpose of this article.
The essential business is generally experiencing a large amount of stress and increased exposure to COVID-19 by being open. Ultimately, although essential businesses are fortunate to be open and making money, this is not necessarily a cake-walk.
Essential workers and businesses have basically become our military. But without any other choice than to do so to survive.
Besides hospital workers and medical professionals, your average person working at a cash register didn’t sign up to be a hero, risk his or her own life, and put other people at risk in the process. The essential businesses and workers during COVID-19 outbreak are in a bit of a tough situation.
However, having a working business that’s able to operate is a positive thing. Let’s go through the other two scenarios.
Category #2: You Are A Non-Essential Business That Can Not Function
Category #2 is the non-essential businesses. Here are some examples of non-essential businesses:
- Gyms and fitness centers
- Sporting venues
- Theatres
- Salons
- Malls and boutiques
- Concert venues
- Recreation centers
Category #3: Other
Category 3 is for those businesses that are still offering services. However, many of these businesses have limited functionality and need to be more controlled.
For example: you probably have noticed many restaurants that are not open offering delivery and take out. Unfortunately, for many of these businesses, it will not pay to stay open.
You will notice some of the businesses in category 1 and 2 are also in category 3. Now a lot of this varies from state to state, but hopefully you will see my point.
This may include:
- Restaurants
- Delivery Services
- Retailers (online and in-store)
- Online services
- Other businesses and services
Every Business Is Impacted By COVID-19
The bottom line is that every business is impacted in some way or another by COVID-19. However, many businesses have an opportunity to do some homework during their time away from work.
Here are a few things to consider if you are a business affected by coronavirus:
- How are your competitors dealing with the current situation? Have they found a way to make it work?
- What would change if you had a better online presence? Would your business be less affected by COVID-19?
- How are you using social media to lessen the impact of coronavirus? Is it working?
- Is there a place online that people can find your business? Do you have an online presence?
DO THIS QUICK TEST: You can do this quick test to see if your business will survive or fail. Well, to be honest, this won’t tell you that exactly. But it will give you a good idea of whether or not your business is set up for the long term.
Go to Google. Type in your industry + the city you are located in.
Use this example: If you are an Italian restaurant in Parsippany, NJ type “Italian restaurant Parsippany” in the Google search bar.
WHAT THIS TEST SHOWS: What this test is doing is essentially establishing whether or not your business is ranking locally. It shows you whether or not people searching for you online can find you. And this is essentially the crux of whether or not your business will survive Coronavirus (or any other unforeseen disaster).
Now look at the page. Does your business appear?
You need local SEO in order to function as a business in today’s day and age. Additionally, you need a good online presence in order to survive in any difficult time. It’s crucial. Read more about what is SEO and how SEO works here.
Your Business Needs To Be Online
In order for your business to survive coronavirus’s impact, it needs to be online. I can’t stress this enough.
Here’s a great article on how to get a business online. Read it! It’s very important. Especially now with everything that’s going on.
If Your Business Is Not Online, It Won’t Survive In The Long-Term
Even if you are a non-essential business that has no way of functioning during COVID-19, getting your business online would change things for your future. Without an online presence, in today’s day and age, you’re just “scraping by”. You will certainly not see any major growth without an online presence.
Your Online Presence Consists Of The Following:
Social Media
Directory Listings
Other Media
And if you’re not online, how can you truly survive and make through times such as COVID-19? Not easily, that’s for sure.
Your Online Presence Is Vitally Important To Your Business
Whether you are an essential or a non-essential business, your online presence is vitally important. Sure, you may not be working or even open right now. However, your online presence will keep you in the forefront of people’s minds, maintain credibility and customer patronage, and entice customers to use your services when you reopen.
Ways Your Online Presence Impacts Your Company
There are many ways your online presence can impact your company. Below we will name a few.
- give important information to your customers about your business
- keep the conversation going
- keep your business in people’s minds
- offer higher credibility
- entice customers to come back
- show people where to find you
- help people looking for your products or services to discover you
Do You Want Your Business To Survive Or Flourish?
Now back to discussing the opportunity in all of this. The question you must ask yourself is do you want your business to survive or do you want it to flourish?
A business that is just surviving might look like this:
- Day to day work and drudgery
- Living paycheck to paycheck
- Not really making enough but just making ends meet
- Working long hours
- Tired and overworked
- No vacation time
- Panic and stress about the future
- No money for business updates (old machinery and equipment, etc.)
- Unhappy workers
A flourishing business looks like this
- Comfortable income
- More time to spend doing things you want to do
- Money to invest into the business and other things
- New equipment
- Happy employees
- Passive income
- Less stress
In order to have a flourishing business, you need to be able to acquire more customers consistently and easily. And the way that is done in today’s day and age is through business SEO and online marketing.
Takeaways
THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS: If you want to know if your business will survive Coronavirus, it’s really hard to tell. With over 6 million people having filed for unemployment, the world is experiencing a great time of uncertainty.
However, you can make the most of your time by using it as a motivator to encourage the growth and longevity of your business. Take this time and get your business online and in order.
Ask yourself these questions:
- With everything that is going on, are there any obvious shortcomings that I see with my business?
- Is there anything that would help my business stay afloat that I avoided doing previously?
- How is my online presence currently and should I take any steps to improve it in the future?
Perhaps if you’ve lost a business or job, you can use this time to find something else and realize not to ever take working or your health for granted. Additionally, if you have a business and want to increase your online presence, you can contact Bizmap LLC and request a free website analysis of your business.
Additionally, you can read this article on how to increase web traffic. Essentially, increasing your web traffic and thus improving your online presence is the key to your company’s survival.
We hope you have learned if your business will survive coronavirus and wish you the best of luck.
