The playing field for small business owners has drastically changed since the start of COVID-19. Businesses have been forced to take a pause, move outside, or even close indefinitely.
The good news? With the new vaccine rollouts and positively changing state laws, small businesses are feeling more optimistic than ever about bouncing back from such a hectic year. Not only do business owners feel more prepared to handle the next industry-shaking extremity, but 52% believe they’ll recover to pre-COVID profitability in as little as half a year.
Business models have changed as plenty of innovative ideas were implemented during an overarchingly difficult period. By now, 79% of small businesses have either fully or partially reopened.
Will yours be one of them?
Find out by taking the post-pandemic readiness quiz!
Did you ace it? If so, congratulations! If not, don’t sweat it. Here are four steps to improve your readiness score and get those doors open.
One of the best things you can do right now (and always) is offer different payment options for your customers. People have varying levels of comfort when it comes to COVID-19 and contactless payments are being sought out as a result.
Contactless payment, and don’t be afraid to survey your customers to find out what they prefer.
Undoubtedly, people will go to your website first to see if your business is open or not due to COVID-19. Now is prime time to make sure your site is up-to-date and that your Google My Business account has the correct information displayed for your business’s:
Whether you run a restaurant, contracting business, or lawn care service, it’s important to let your customers know where you stand with reopening.
Along with providing baseline information, we recommend you put time towards enhancing your business site with any or all of 2021’s leading website trends—including adding a chatbox. This will allow your customers to ask questions in real-time and avoid any delays in communication.
Depending on the size of your business, it may also be helpful to contact your current customers to let them know the status of your reopening plans. A tool like Messenger allows you to send a quick update, confirmation, or reminder to your customer base to keep them notified on the status and availability of your services.
While constant changes to business regulations are understandably overwhelming, it’s necessary to stay in the know about industry, state, and city mandates. Refer to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID page for recent information about school and work reopening regulations and recommendations.
Stay tuned with GoSite as well for daily news, tips, and small business advice to best ready your business for opening.