If your small business has experienced a decline in turnover recently – you are not alone. Nine out of every 10 small businesses in South Africa have reported a decrease since the Covid-19 restrictions began.
Instead of giving up, or simply accepting the downturn, now is the time to fight back. Depending on the availability of your resources, we recommend considering implementing several of the 7 strategies listed below.
7 strategies that can assist you to gain momentum in your business:
1. Build your own Website
Are you online yet? If yes, now is a good time to update and improve your website.
If not, build a cost-effective one yourself using professionally designed templates. It is quick and fairly straight-forward, e.g. Domains.co.za’s Site Builder offers hundreds of templates with a Drag & Drop functionality, so you can have a professional website live within hours. From just R100 per month (domain name* & monthly hosting included) you can reach a wider network of people searching for what you sell.
2. Create a Marketing Plan
Whatever marketing you are doing, ramp it up. Prioritise your efforts and plan for success by creating and implementing a marketing plan.
Use social media to help create awareness about your product, or service, and build relationships with new potential customers. Try sending out a monthly newsletter to your current ‘opted-in’ customers, in order to nurture and grow the relationships you already have. Consider outsourcing this leg of your business if it is not something you can manage internally.
3. Use Analytics
Using Google analytics on your website allows you to start tracking your social media efforts, which can assist you in gaining insights as to:
- Who your potential customers are,
- How much traffic your website is getting and
- Where they are coming from.
Tracking statistics like these can help you measure what works and what doesn’t.
4. Update your Mission & Vision
When things don’t go as planned, it is time to go back to the drawing board and revise and update your goals.
Forget about what you wanted to achieve previously, as circumstances have changed and it may be demotivating. Regroup your thinking and take a realistic look at what is attainable, and go for it!
5. Support a cause
The pandemic has been difficult for the majority of people, especially charities.
This is a side of your business that your customers may be interested to learn and know about. So, once your business is back on its new track, perhaps consider supporting a cause… businesses need to have a heart too.
6. Grow your talent
You can’t know or do it all; with the right people at your side, you can steer your business where you want it to go. When the time comes to build a team, do it!
The right team players can help you improve your service and build relationships. Before you employ anyone, take the time to formulate and create a sustainable company culture that will help you attract and retain the right talent that will strengthen the business.
7. Implement Hosted PBX in the Cloud
During these restrictions, remote working has become the saving grace for most small businesses. However, for many others unproductivity, miscommunication and a lack of team spirit have become daily challenges.
You can improve internal and external communications, as well as productivity with Hosted PBX in the Cloud by Domains.co.za. Not only can you make UnCapped* crystal-clears calls from anywhere to anywhere, but you can also use the solution for web conferencing and Live Chats, etc. to ensure every member of your staff, even the remote ones, are 100% on top of things.
Domains.co.za is a local domain name registration and web hosting company offering SMEs multiple value-added solutions.
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