What do you do when your business is suddenly much slower than you anticipated? When you now have time on your hands that you hadn’t planned on having?

Well, this week our landlord took the opportunity to start repaving the parking lot surrounding our offices. With most people in our building working from home, it was the perfect time to tackle the work. And when the pandemic eases – and it will – we’ll all return to smooth pavement and freshly painted lines outside our building.

Repaving the parking lot was a great way to take advantage of the slowdown. So how can you use your newfound time as an opportunity to catch up on projects and plan ahead? If you’re Rudney Novaes Photography of Washington, DC, you collaborate with some of your partners to come up with an inspired list of 30 Ways to Stay Busy During the COVID-19 Crisis.  All the ideas may not be relevant to your business, but there are plenty that apply to us all. Things like organizing our files or taking an online class or webinar to improve our skills.

Here are a few things we would add to the list:

• Reevaluate your website. Will your post-COVID-19 communications still be relevant? Is your website underperforming at a time when focus on digital is heightened? Use this time to plan and post new content, improve your SEO and check all of your links. Is your site in need of an overhaul? Start work now while you have the time to dedicate to planning.
• Consider a brand evolution or rebrand. This is a perfect time to consider your positioning and how you present yourself to your target audiences – especially since the way your business operates may be forever different after this pandemic.
• Do cross-promotion with your trusted partners. Contact the brand and businesses that you’re aligned with and prop each other up! Promote them on social media. They will remember the kindness. Rebel Rebel wine bar in Somerville, MA seized upon the Zoom boom and is hosting online Zoom wine classes. They are collaborating with a local wine importer, Violette Imports who will deliver the wine for the classes directly to the attendees. What a great way for them to evolve their business model to suit the times and the needs of your customer base.
• Evaluate your communications materials. Do an inventory of your sales tools. What works? What needs updating? Create a strategy for what you will tackle now and in the coming months.
• Evaluate your work from home model. Is working remotely during crisis time a good long-term option for your business and employees? Evaluate whether this is a good long-term strategy from a business, lifestyle and profitability standpoint.
• Streamline your operations. Has the COVID-19 crisis brought to light some operational shortcomings such as a lack of digital work processes? Make the shift to permanent cloud-based working. If it works under crisis times it may be a perfect permanent solution.

However you choose to spend this unexpected time, spend it wisely. Be healthy and take extra care. And remember, making smart choices today can pave the way for a smoother, brighter tomorrow.

We’re here to help in any way that we can. Contact us at 603-658-1600 or email josh@creativeco-op.com.