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4 Ways COVID-19 Will Continue to Impact Businesses in 2021 and Beyond

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StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article | 4 Ways COVID-19 Will Continue to Impact Businesses in 2021 and BeyondNobody likely knew what to expect when news of the newest coronavirus began popping up in December 2019. For many people, the reality probably didn’t sink in. After all, Europe and the United States remained mostly unaffected by most recent pandemic concerns. By January 20, 2020, though, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were singing a different tune. Nearly one year later, the pandemic shows no signs of ending, and business owners and consumers alike are wondering what to expect in 2021 and beyond.

1. Financial Technology Will Be in Higher Demand

As more businesses move to virtual formats, the need for financial technology will continue to increase in 2021. The problem is that despite popular belief, many financial institutions have barely experimented in fintech and aren’t ready to take on digital financial formats on a larger and more permanent basis. However, according to an article by Donald Gayhardt, this is likely to change quickly.

Gayhardt states that Hong Kong is already increasing its use of advanced fraud detection, biometric facial recognition, and other innovative AI technologies due to the pandemic. Financial technology won’t just take hold in banks and credit unions, either. It’s becoming increasingly important for grocery stores, restaurants, and even cosmetics retailers who now offer no-contact pick-up and delivery services. When retailers do not see customers face-to-face, it becomes more important than ever to offer a variety of safe and secure virtual payment methods.

2. Survival Entrepreneurship Will Become More Prominent

Businesses that are already centered on technology have remained mostly stable during 2020, but small family businesses haven’t been so lucky. Although unemployment in the United States decreased one percentage point to 6.9% in October 2020, the rate is still nearly double what it was before COVID-19 entering the U.S. Unemployment is even higher among minorities, as well as among Millennials and Gen Z, meaning an increasing number of people are turning to starting their own businesses.

People who once worked in pet stores and veterinarians’ offices are walking dogs and feeding cats while people are out of town. Preschool teachers and teachers’ assistants have turned to online tutoring. People are turning the jobs they used to do for someone else into businesses they work for themselves. History has proven that people who venture into the business world during tougher economic times often have more willpower to stick to it and decide they’d rather not re-enter the traditional workforce. This means you can expect to see more people creating startups in 2021 and beyond.

3. Logistics Will Continue To Move Slower Than Before

All types of industries are experiencing delays in manufacturing, distribution, and shipping due to the need for social distancing. Fewer people building products, packaging them, transporting them, or selling them means fewer products on the shelf. In the entertainment industry, for example, TV production has slowed, movie release dates are being pushed back, and major video game launches have been delayed as well.

It isn’t just entertainment, either. Clothing retailers, restaurants and grocery stores, and even some pharmaceutical products have all seen delays in 2020 as well. Some people must rely on companies that move products nationally and internationally. However, restaurants and some other small businesses have found they’d rather start relying on local supply chains than on global ones. More people are contracting with nearby farmers, fiber artists, and more, creating a better local economy and strong community along the way, something that will decidedly keep occurring in 2021.

4. Social Distancing Will Continue

Whether your company works with other businesses or caters to the public, expect to continue to follow social distancing regulations as the clocks move forward to 2021. If your company relies on business meetings and brainstorming sessions, expect to continue to host them via Zoom or another online video platform. Those who own restaurants will need to continue to follow social distancing guidelines both inside and outdoors and may need to follow curfews or earlier “last call” laws if they serve alcohol. Retailers will still need to limit how many people are in a store at a time, maintain social distancing in checkout lines, and enforce mask regulations as well. Vaccination trials are happening rapidly. When one becomes available to the public, social distancing will likely start to relax. Until then, though, expect to remain six feet apart.

Just a few months ago, nobody was sure when scientists would find a vaccine. Now, experts believe one will be widely available by mid-2021. The pandemic may be raging on, but it won’t do so forever. Until then, consider what you can do to help your community fight off COVID-19. If you can afford to, cut your business hours, switch to pick-up and delivery only, or close your doors altogether. If you run an essential business or must keep operating as normal for some reason, practice good social distancing skills. Train your employees well, check in with them often, and remember, everybody is fighting this battle. The kinder you are now, the better you will feel, and the better your company will be remembered when the pandemic does end.

Creative Ways to Market Your Business

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Creative Ways to Market Your BusinessWhen opening a business, the one thing that any budding entrepreneur wants is for it to be as successful as possible. Marketing your business to a wide variety of audiences and maximizing the number of people you will be reaching is undoubtedly one way of promoting success. However, as a business owner, you probably understand that the market is saturated with the traditional methods of branding and marketing a business. How can you beat your competitors and get to potential customers first, but vibrantly and innovatively? Fear not, for we have devised a great list of creative ways to market your business. Let your artistic flair go wild and read on for more!

Social Media

The top dog of marketing and branding in the present day! When you understand how to use social media to your advantage and its fullest extent, you are sure to be successful in your attempts. Everywhere you look, businesses are using social media as one of the main ways to connect with their audiences and truly allows you to be creative in what you post. Ensuring that the content is relevant to your services and products and linking to your website – if you have one – will make sure that those visiting your social media accounts go on to visit your website. Social media is also a great tool to use when promoting other marketing avenues that you might be using, leading us to our next suggestion.

Podcasts

Podcasts are certainly something that has increased in popularity in the last few years. There is no right or wrong way to record your own podcast. Knowing what you want to talk about on your podcast and how it will fill a gap in the market while linking to your business will encourage success. The only thing you would have to ensure is high-quality is the audio levels; no-one wants to listen to a podcast where they cannot hear what is being said! If you are interested in learning more about podcast production and how you can make it work for you, consider contacting companies like Jelly Marketing. Experts in all things related to podcast production, you are sure to be in the right hands here.

Using a Mural

Not the most convenient method of marketing, but one that has undoubtedly been successful for some businesses out there and is one way of letting your artistic flair free! Commissioning a mural near your business is sure to brighten your local area while promoting your business to potential customers. Something so bright will catch the attention of those who are passing, without you needing to say much. If you are contemplating using a mural for marketing purposes, make sure that it is short and snappy; you don’t want people to read into it too much. Murals also work well in tandem with social media; if someone has seen a vibrant and beautiful mural, they are likely to share it on social media. In turn, more people will see your mural and know about your business.

What’s more, when looking for other routes into marketing your brand, it is all about trying and testing the methods to see which one works best for you. Marketing and branding your business are not a one-size-fits-all; what might work for someone else is not guaranteed to work for you. Furthermore, you will want to relax! This is meant to be an exciting and creative time in your life. There is a suitable way of marketing out there for you; you just have to find what you like and what works first. There is no rush!

How to Make Your Emails More Professional

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StrategyDriven Business Communications Article | How to Make Your Emails More ProfessionalRegardless of who you’re conversing with and who you’re having an email exchange with, it’s important you conduct yourself in a professional manner when using email. Making your emails professional looking will help you attract clients and keep existing ones and will also help your communication be far clearer and easier to understand when conveying information between team members.

There are many things you can do to keep your emails looking professional. Here are a few ways to do just that.

Use an Email Signature

An email signature is a great way to sign off on an email and make it appear organized, professional, and important. To make a great email signature, you can either create one yourself, or use many of the wonderful templates available on this email signature software for Office 365. A good signature should provide all the information an email recipient will need to contact you and connect and may include a name, job title, office number and business address.

Signatures can also be a good way to display a bit of personality and to display your brand in a better way. You can do this by making use of awesome themes, color schemes and fonts that convey your business or your own personal brand.

Avoid Grammar and Spelling Mistakes

There’s not many more worse email offenses than having spelling and grammar issues within the body of your message. This gives off the impression that you’re not professional and that you haven’t put enough effort into your correspondence to make sure everything is in order. A simple typo can easily be offensive and could make whoever you’re emailing with view you in a worse off light.

With tools such as Grammarly, making sure your emails are spelled correctly and formatted well is simple, as the application will scan through your email as you type it, highlighting potential issues. The premium version can also help you write to fit a certain tone of voice, which can be helpful when you’re dealing with different clients and people of different seniority.

Keep Things Short and Sweet

A professional email is one that gets straight to the details and isn’t overstuffed with pointless sentences and phrases. This is because saying the bare minimum will help to avoid misunderstandings as it keeps the content and the instructions within the email clear.

Of course, you’re allowed and are encouraged to ask how people are and be friendly, and it’s critical that you include all the relevant information, but you shouldn’t be writing essays for your emails. In addition, it’s also a good idea to have a line break between each paragraph, to make it even easier to digest.

Make Sure Your Email Address Is Suitable

If you’re using an email address that you created back in your early teens, then it might be worth evaluating it and making sure that it gives off a professional vibe. Too many working adults are using addresses like ‘[email protected]’ and it’s sending off a bad and childish impression. To ensure that you’re professional, change the email to simply your name.

How to Successfully Make the Switch from Brick and Mortar to E-commerce

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | How to Successfully Make the Switch from Brick and Mortar to E-commerceThere are many advantages to either adding an ecommerce store to your business to compliment your brick and mortar store or making the switch completely, closing the brick and mortar outlet to focus purely on online sales.

High streets are struggling more than ever thanks to a very challenging 2020, and many shops are looking at alternative ways to sell to their customers. Ecommerce gives you options. When you sell online, you can sell 24/7, without actually needing to be online all of the time. You can even continue to trade during lockdowns and forced closures. Online, it can be easier. It’s often easier to encourage people to click on a link than it is to walk into a store, it’s also cheaper, both for you and your customers. Online also has the massive advantage of taking you out of your local area. Even very small home-based businesses can use the internet to sell to a much larger area, instead of relying on local footfall and loyalty.

Selling online can be cheaper, easier, and a fantastic way to expand your business. But, making the transition isn’t easy. If you’ve never sold online before, or have only ever done so in a very small way, there can be a steep learning curve. Here are some tips to help you.

Prioritise User Experience

In a brick and mortar store, user experience is everything. With every decision you make, you’ll ask yourself how it affects your customers, and if it enhances their shopping experience. The same should be true online.

In store, you might carefully position shelves, take your time to find the optimal heating and lighting settings, and even consider the volume of your in-store music. Online, you need to think about how easy your website is to use, how accessible it is, how easy it is to find products, to add to basket and to check out, and how customers will get in touch if they need to. You’ll even need to consider how easy your font is to read, and whether the colours that you use are pleasant to look at.

Don’t Neglect Customer Service

New ecommerce sellers often make the mistake of skipping customer service. But, it’s at least as important as it is in the real world. Make the effort to engage with your audience on social media, reply to emails and messages, and send personalized notes with packages, or emails on dispatch. For a smaller business, relationships are crucial to success, whether on or offline.

Get Visual

One advantage that real-world shopping has always had over online is that you can see and feel the products. You can check for quality and better judge how much you like something.

But, thanks to the development in online visuals, this is changing. Great photos, 3D visualizations, and explainer videos mean that you can offer your customers a much clearer idea of what they are buying. Using a 3d visualization and rendering service from Cadesign form means that you can show consumers exactly what they are buying. Cadesign form can also offer videos explaining even the most complicated products, which are ready to use on your ecommerce store directly, but also on social media, and in your email campaigns for the best effects.

Filming live videos, and Q&A sessions on social media can also help your customers to learn more about your products and business. Excellent visuals give you the best chance to advertise, educate, and build relationships, and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Start Email Marketing Straight Away

Email marketing gives you a great way to form personal connections and keep in touch with your audience. Emails have a much higher conversion rate than social media posts, and give you an easy way to offer a range of content.

But, many businesses neglect email marketing entirely. Perhaps because it takes more effort to build an email list than it does a social media following. It’s worth it, however, and should be part of your marketing strategy from the start.

Get to Grips with Analytics

In store, you can see what is working. You look at sales to monitor conversions, and you can feel how busy your shop is. Online, initial impressions are harder to make, but if you study your analytics you won’t just get a conversion figure. You’ll know how old your customers are, what gender, how long they spend on your site, where they come from, and what kind of content they engage with. Analytics give you a great chance to build a very clear customer persona, which can be a big boost to your marketing campaigns.

With an incredible online store offering great visuals and an easy use interface, as long as you optimise digital marketing strategies and continue to build relationships with your customers, just as you would in the real world, your switch to ecommerce should be a complete success. But, it may take time. Don’t be disheartened if you make mistakes, or it takes you a while to find your audience online. Keep going, learn along the way, and take some risks, monitoring analytics to see what’s working, and you will never look back.

Tips To Help Save Money In Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Save Money In Business|Tips To Help Save Money In Your BusinessSaving money in your business is never really a bad thing. It’s good to always have a bit of extra cash lying around when you need it and for many businesses, an emergency fund is in existence for a rainy day. If you’re looking to save money for your business, then here are some helpful tips that you might find useful.

Control Department Spending

Departments are likely to have individual budgets that you’ve distributed out at the start of the financial year. However, that doesn’t mean you should simply let go of that responsibility or just let them spend as they please. It may be useful to have more than just the one person signing off on a bigger expenditure than normal to ensure that the money is being spent wisely. It’s also good for all departments and their staff to have good communication about what’s being spent and what can but cut down on.

There’s always going to be the odd spend here and there that can be avoided and so it’s good to monitor the departmental spending where possible. If there are opportunities to reduce or cut back when needed, then make sure you let the departments in question know beforehand. It’s critical that you’re not pulling the rug from under them, especially when they may need the money for something else. This can be particularly important for smaller businesses who may not have the sizable cash flow that bigger companies have.

Monitor Your Finances Overall

There’s no harm in monitoring your finances overall as a business. There are lots of expenditures that will be happening in your business and it’s good to look over them every once in a while. There’s also always the risk of falling victim to fraud and that could result in a lot of money coming out of your bank account. It might also be money that comes out in small amounts and is therefore not noticeable, especially if you’re not checking receipts against what’s being spent. It’s important to have someone do this regularly and if you can’t get it done in-house, then it’s worth outsourcing where possible.

Don’t allow your finances to become something you push to the bottom of the to-do list because they matter more than most things.

Ensure Your Finance Team Aren’t Overwhelmed

Looking after your staff is a must and the last thing you want to do is to make them feel overwhelmed. This might lead to a lack of productivity else and that’s only going to hinder your business directly. Look at your finance team and how much they’re taking on. It might be that the work processes involved in their day-to-day activities are too much and it’s something that you may want to streamline. Consider what can be streamlined and what needs to be outsourced.

All businesses outsource certain things that need doing and it might be that you need to do the same in your finance department. Make sure that your financial team have all the relevant training they need to, whether it’s a course to help learn more mathematics like how to calculate percentage or a course on dealing with taxes. There’s always learning to be done!

Spend Money That’ll Go Further

Spending money is important because it helps grow the business in different ways. If you’re trying to make your money go further, then it’s important to consider what you’re spending it on and where you might want to change when it comes to your tactics. For example, traditional advertising has worked for many businesses over the years but to an extent, has limited the amount of companies who can financially afford it. It has also proved to be quite inferior thanks to the birth of the online world. Digital advertising therefore has become a lot more popular, and a lot more affordable.

Not only has digital advertising become more popular there’s also more opportunity to expand your reach as a business. So, you might be thinking about spending your money through digital advertisements, rather than the traditional route to save money.

Try to be more smart with your money and how you spend it. There are lots of ways to spend your money that will only do so much. The best way of spending your money is to spend it in places that are going to double or triple the ROI. The more you can get out of it, the better. Start looking at where you could be saving money and where else to spend it to get more out of it.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Save Money In Business|Tips To Help Save Money In Your BusinessCollaborate With Other Businesses

Collaborating with businesses can be a great way to save money because you’re cutting down the costs. For example, if you wanted to create a new product and that product had the opportunity to be combined with an existing business, why not partner up? There’s something that can be gained by both of you financially but also there’s the potentially to cross-promote on each other’s channels, which opens up the potential for new customers on both sides. As much as you might not want to partner up with other businesses for fear of the competition, it can actually be more beneficial to you both, to collaborate where you can.

Be Wary Of Taking Financial Risks

All businesses can come with their risks and there are many occasions where some risks will be taken and others will be avoided. Any risk is usually financially driven and you should be wary about which ones you take. When considering a risk, ask yourself whether or not you can bounce back? If you don’t have the money to risk or you can’t afford to do the risk twice, then you may want to step away from the opportunity itself. There will be many more that come along but it’s important to spot those risks that might be financially detrimental to the business.

Saving money in business can be something that helps keep you going through the tough times, so try to be active in your methods of saving money.