Business Growth tips from the best digital marketing company in Alexandria VA

Accept the new normal for doing business

To be successful during covid-19 quarantines and lockdowns, businesspeople must first accept the fact that the current environment will not be changing anytime soon. We must accept the fact that the current business environment will continue for a very long time. We cannot afford to view the world with rose-colored glasses. Businesses that bury their head in the sands waiting for things to go back the way they were will find themselves out of business. This is the new normal. Accept it and move on.

Challenging times offer growth opportunities

18th Century British nobleman has been quoted saying, “the time to buy is when there’s blood in the water, even if the blood is your own.” This statement is a universal truth. The bad news is you are experiencing challenges that you never envisioned. The good news is everyone in your industry is having the same problem. Industry-wide challenges level the playing field. Your larger competitors will usually find it more challenging to respond to these types of difficulty. Their size and complex infrastructure make it difficult for them to make the right adjustments fast enough. The larger the company, the harder it is for them to change. Through the ages, smart businesses have found ways to make their most significant growth during times of economic distress.

“The time to buy is when there’s blood in the water, even if the blood is your own.”

Practice the fundamentals

Challenging times do not change successful business fundamentals. Know your numbers inside and out. Cash flow and net profit is still the most important part of finance and accounting. Revenue is a nice thing to discuss at cocktail parties, but it says nothing about the health of your business. What matters most is how much money you keep after expenses. Marketing continues to be about viewing the world from your customer’s point of view. Understand the value proposition that your service is offering to your customer. Have the best people in the right positions. Strategic planning must be grounded in being in the right market at the right time. You must have the right people on your team. Have a plan and a systemic approach to doing business. The fundamentals remain unchanged regardless of the circumstance. Never forget it.

“It’s not about how much you earn. It’s about how much you keep. “

Identify the need

Regardless of the circumstances, it is important to understand the needs of your customers. In challenging times businesses must reevaluate their customer’s needs and identify how the current conditions have affected those needs. In most cases, the foundations of your customer’s needs will remain unchanged. However, there will always be certain aspects of it that are different in challenging times.

Adjust your business model to fulfill that need

After identifying the need, determine what changes are needed to fulfill your customer’s needs in the current environment. Never fall in love with your business model. Like it but never love it. Across the country, we see examples of businesses adjusting their business model to meet their customer’s needs. Distilleries are using their alcohol to create hand sanitizer. Security guard companies that provide on-site security guards protecting office buildings are offering alarm response services. Hotels are donating their unoccupied rooms to first responders and healthcare workers…and using it as a tax write off. Coin-operated laundromats are offering wash and fold services in which customers drop off their dirty laundry and pick it up later. Whoever makes the best adjustments to the needs of their customers will earn the most.

Make it super easy for customers to buy from you

So you have identified the need and adjusted your business model to fulfill that need. Now it is time to make is super easy for your customer to do business with you. Your customer is going through difficult times. The last thing that they want is to make extra effort to buy from you. The easier it is to do business with you, the more your customers will appreciate it. That appreciation will manifest in the form of increased sales and customer loyalty. There are many examples of businesses that are changing their model to make it easy for their customers to buy from them. Dine-in restaurants are adding in-home delivery services in addition to curbside deliveries. A strip club in Las Vegas is offering drive-through strip shows. Always ask yourself this critical question. How can I make it super easy to for my customers to do business with me?