As soon as the coronavirus pandemic started, the small business community instantly felt the blow. Now that all the new government and financial institution resources to help keep employees on payroll are rolling out, the waits are getting longer because of the high demand.
With this at play, some small business owners who have applied for the SBA loans are now forced to get creative with their next steps, due to their companies basically getting left "out in the cold".
Here's a little insight into some ways you can still survive this global emergency, should you plan to keep fighting for your business and livelihood.
Add An Online Store To Your Restaurant's Existing Website
The restaurant industry is hanging on by making deliveries, still operating their drive-thrus and taking walk-up orders but a large percentage of revenue is still being lost without the option to dine-in due to social distancing.
If your restaurant has tried all the above and is still not pulling in enough sales, you may want to consider packaging up your signature sauces, ingredients or other non-perishable items and start selling them on your website. Selling branded merch is smart too because it can also help keep your restaurant's name buzzing during the downtime.
Once things pick back up, you will have an additional stream of revenue that you may not have had before.
Showcase Your Special Skills or Techniques On Live Social Media Platforms
We've all probably seen the DJ battles on Facebook and Instagram Live by now. Why not use these same platforms to share your work process or showcase your product's features to a large audience for free? Doing this in the meantime will keep your brand on people's radar and it will also most likely grow your customer base. This will also let your customers get to know and relate to you more.
Make More Of An Effort To Connect With Your Competition Online
Reaching out through social media or email marketing to build an alliance with your competition during a time like this is one of the smartest things one can do.
Coming together with your competition to form a network has the potential to build a stronger community in the end. Offering support to each other when one company has too many orders to fill and needs another one to catch the overflow; teaming up only makes sense.
Working together to build new partnerships could have many rewards.