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Our business closed as a result of COVID 19 Lock-down. The question top of our minds is, how do we restart the business after close down for COVID 19? Is there a way to reboot our business for success?

Over the recent past weeks, I had several discussions with small and medium-sized business owners. Everyone was worried about their business, their staff, and their income. The biggest worry, however, is how do we restart our business for success after this COVID 19 lock-down?

Economists, politicians, and business people all agree on one thing: When we restart after COVID 19, the world and business will NOT be the same. Nobody seems to know how it will be different. This Uncertainty in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) world is taking its toll on our business people and entrepreneurs.

Lots of speculation and general statements are made about life and specifically business after COVID 19. Their value is limited in the sense that the articles do not discuss the required practical steps, methodologies, or procedures.

The purpose of this article is to identify the practical steps that one can follow to restart a business successfully after COVID 19 Lock-down.

Practical steps to restart a closed business:

1.     Work on self.

Before you can focus on restarting your business, you first need to take care of yourself by looking at the following:

  • Are you mentally ready? – Do you know and understand your mental state? What emotions are driving you? Emotions drive people, and people drive performance and results.

The first step is to understand yourself better. What is driving you at this stage of your life? If you are not in the right state of mind and prepared to change your paradigm, successfully restarting your business is going to be a dreadful experience.

  • The next step is to start changing your paradigm and mental state. Using a good business coach who understands Emotional Intelligence can be of great assistance.
  • Work on your whole person. – Keep your body healthy, and then your brain will stay healthy. You keep your body and brain healthy by what you put into your mouth. Is it healthy food and liquids feeding the body and brain or toxic food and drinks? – Keep your body functional by continually moving. You can do that by walking, jogging, cycling, or any other physical sport. Some people enjoy going to the gym, which is excellent. Going to the gym is not necessary to keep yourself fit. Just move and breathe with purpose. – Keep your spiritual side healthy by daily working on it. It does not matter what practices you follow; do what you believe. – Keep on working on your state of mind and practice Emotional Intelligence.
  • Continuously develop yourself. You can do that by installing a value of continuous learning. You can do that through regular reading, listening to podcasts, attending webinars, and make use of coaching.

2.     Short term business strategies.

Do a comprehensive analysis of your business and then implement short term quick win strategies like the following:

  • Evaluate the market you are operating within. Determine whether your customer needs are still the same as it was before lock-down? The chances they are, are slim. The majority of people will change their buying behavior based on financial realities and a change in needs. There are different tools and techniques available to do proper customer analysis.
  • Look at the products/services you are offering. Do they still address the needs of your customers? If not, we will have to decide how to deal with these obsolete products/services as well as what new products/services we are going to offer. Use a proper product/service evaluation tool.
  • Manage cash flow. One of the most challenging aspects for many business owners is cash flow, especially in the short term. There are several ways to look at cash flow issues:
    • Obtain a loan from a financial institution/government if possible.
    • Renegotiate payment terms with creditors.
    • Negotiate lower rent from landlords (payment holidays)
    • Evaluate your stock and convert as much of your older stock into cash even at heavy discounts. Use a proper stock evaluation tool and techniques in making these decisions. This action will provide quick short term cash.
  • Look at cutting costs. Here it would be best if you cut deep but creative. (I always say use a scalpel and plan and do the surgery as careful as a surgeon). Depending on the unique circumstances of your business one need to look at the following areas for potential cost-cutting:
    • Staff. Here the owner must now, for the short term, look at working in the business before moving back to working on the business. (Both stays important). Cut salaries and make non-key positions redundant. Look at changing salespeople to commission-only remuneration packages if possible at all. Those administrative support activities can sometimes be carried out by the owner’s family and even outsourced at a much lower cost. This area offers a lot of cost-cutting opportunities. Be sure to do it correctly, not only in terms of the law but also in being empathetic and humane. 
    • Move to smaller and cheaper premises if possible.
    • Let people work from home where possible to save travel time, travel costs, and office space.
    • Stop luxuries for the short term – (entertainment, subscriptions, memberships, etc.)
    • Postpone maintenance and improvement projects as far as possible (be careful, however not to be penny wise and pound foolish in this regard).
    • Look at all other areas unique to the specific business where you can eliminate costs.

There are great methodologies to use in determining the potential areas for cost-cutting, the timing there-of as well as the effect it can have on the business. Use these and do not cut costs for the sake of cutting costs!

  • Carefully plan your marketing strategy. Marketing remains one of the essential areas in generating sales. DO NOT STOP marketing. Digital marketing is a cheaper but effective way to market. It is crucial to know that digital marketing needs specific knowledge. Facebook adds – it will not do the trick; you need a comprehensive social media strategy.
  • Digital transformation is a reality for the last few years. The business was just not willing to adopt it. Now is the time. Look at how you can digitally transform your business to perform more effectively and efficiently. Change your mind around Digital technologies and your business and develop and implement a proper Digital Transformation Strategy.
  • Adapt operating procedures to the needs of the “newly restarted business.”
  • Revise the business’s functions based on the change in services, products, customer needs, and operating procedures.
  • The Key Resources, other than staff and premises already discussed, also needs to be revised. Identifying these unnecessary resources might enable the owner to sell some assets which are not needed anymore. The income generated by selling these assets will assist in generating some short term cash flow.  
  • Remaining staff and teams need to be prepared and motivated for the “new business” in which they are going to function. Proper change management can make or break the successful restart of your business. There are well-proven methods and techniques available to manage such change successfully.
  • Relook at your key business partnerships. Do not hesitate to end partnerships (in an amicable way as far as possible) where such alliances do not serve your business anymore. It might also be time to enter into new partnerships. These new partnerships include suppliers, channel partners, and all other operational partners.
  • Strong leadership and leadership styles are crucial in restarting your business. Staff and customers will be critical against what is happening, and the owner and leadership team have to lead them through this tough time of business change.

3.     Medium to longer-term business strategies.

You restarted your business successfully. As a result the next phase now is to plan for the future in creating sustainable, profitable growth by looking at the following:

  • Establish what your medium to long terms goals for your business are.
  • Develop a strategic plan utilizing best practices. In developing a strategic plan, relook at the purpose and values of your business. Do a comprehensive internal analysis as well as an external analysis. Do not forget to understand your competition, but be careful to focus on the competition, first concentrate on your own business.
  • Understand the future of your industry and market, including your future customers.
  • Are your present products and services going to provide you with your sustainable growth goals?
  • Do you have the right partners to support you while striving towards your longer-term goals?
  • Implement an operational strategy through which you will restructure the business and adapt the operating procedures to support your strategy.
  • BE SURE that you continuously involve your staff in the process to ensure their buy-in and support.

Summary: How to restart a closed business.

There is a minimum of three phases which a business owner can look at when they want to restart their business after the COVID 19 lock-down successfully:

  • Understand and work on self.
  • Analyze and change the business for the short term (generate quick wins)
  • Strategize, plan and implement new longer-term strategies

It is also essential to continuously work on one-self from a whole-person perspective while focusing on your business. The mind, body, and brain with the soul are of utmost importance.

The above is a framework of guidelines that many other entrepreneurs and I successfully executed in starting and restarting our businesses.

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