COVID-19 is impacting the world of business in countless ways, both from an internal perspective as well as an external perspective. As such, many companies are finding new and different ways to approach the way they run their business, taking a good, hard look at their business operations as a way to find new outlets for growth and revenue. If you’ve yet to spend some time thinking about how the events of 2020 might impact your company moving forward, now’s the time to start considering the different ways that you can revolutionize your business model in 2021 and beyond.
When it comes to rethinking your business model, there are a variety of approaches you may want to take. Of course, different strategies have different pros and cons, so it’s a good idea to weigh these as you consider which path forward might make the most sense for your industry. The following four strategies are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding a few new ideas to try out as you revitalize your business approach for 2021. Keep reading for a quick overview of a few of the different strategies to employ as you continue to evolve your company’s mission and methodology.
1. Get your business prepped for the digital revolution.
While you might think that the digital revolution is already upon you, it’s important to note that these sorts of events go in waves. You probably already have a website and social media channels from previous shifts in digital trends over the past decade. However, e-commerce is becoming more and more important to doing business in 2021, and so it’s critical that you have things set up properly in order to manage an influx in buyers looking to shop online rather than in-person. A dedicated IP can be an integral component of setting up this sort of infrastructure since a dedicated IP address ensures that you’re not flagged by a regional internet registry with an IPv4 block. You’d assume that IP addresses, regardless of if they’re IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, are all clean; however, a surprising amount of IP addresses are flagged on different lists. As such, you may want to do some research and buy IP address space that is clean and clear.
2. Become more aggressive in your outreach campaigns.
With more companies doing business in the online marketplace, it makes more sense to get bolder in your outreach campaigns and advertising. 2021 should be the year that you get over the fear of cold calling customers and start to dip your toes into the water of social media marketing if you haven’t yet. Outreach and direct marketing are a crucial component of any marketing ecosystem, and this is even more important as people are spending more and more time indoors during quarantine and habits are changing.
If you’re worried about being able to fund your marketing campaigns, it may be a good idea to take a look at consolidating your business debts. It’s not unheard of for companies to have lines of credit and some debt in order to be able to cashflow different aspects of their business. Especially after 2020, though, your finances may be in a bit more trouble, in which case speaking with a consumer protection lawyer can help you fend off any nasty debt collectors. Debt collection agencies must follow certain guidelines in order to try and collect on debts owed to them, so finding a lawyer with experience in handling the consumer protection division of legal affairs can help you determine whether or not a lawsuit makes sense in your situation.
3. Use downtime during the COVID-19 pandemic to upgrade your offices.
While you can’t gather together safely in your office space, this is the perfect time to work on improving your offices. Workplace morale is often connected to the environment that your employees work in. From upgrading your offices to offer coworkers a place to unwind from work in a break room with a ping pong table or foosball, to switching to a more open concept setup instead of cubicles, the coronavirus is giving many businesses a chance to do some much-needed renovations to take their company in a new direction.
While some of these upgrades will need to be cosmetic, it’s also a good idea to look into ways to improve the safety and security of your business. If you use a lot of electrical power or have data servers that must always run, for example, it’s a good idea to ensure that your air conditioning is reliable and will be able to properly cool your business. This may even involve investing in a mine spec generator if you have a fear of failure since electricity is so critical to your company’s day-to-day operations. Before the vaccine is completely rolled out, it’s also a good idea to service other aspects of your offices beyond the HVAC system, since reliability and safety go hand-in-hand for many large-scale systems in your building, including plumbing and electrical components.
4. Survey your customers or clients to learn what they look to your company for.
If the above strategies aren’t sparking many ideas for a new direction or strategy to take with your business, it’s not a bad idea to survey your existing customers to see what they would be interested in seeing your business do. Asking a few common questions to both existing as well as potential customers can give you a good idea about what sorts of services your business could branch out into. Many people think that the only way to go about doing this sort of planning is to listen to industry experts; however, if you want a true growth mindset, it’s just as pivotal to listen to what your consumers are saying. A simple survey being distributed to different customers whose email addresses you have, can help you learn about common problems that individual consumers have as well as the benefits of your services or products. This kind of information allows you to take the appropriate next steps in order to execute a new vision for your company.