Small Business Tips: Escape the Tentacles of COVID 19

Small Business Tips are beginning to emerge from the nightmare of many COVID-19 restrictions. Some of us feel a little like lethargic bears emerging, blinking, from nightmarish hibernations. Bullhorn Media knows a small business is filled with trepidation, wonder, and confusion.  As business creeps out of the Coronavirus restricted zones, Bullhorn Media know you are facing a bizarre landscape.

Plain Talk about the Virus and its Grip on Business

Let’s face it, small businesses have taken a hard hit recently.  And the landscape ahead is like another planet:  We do not know whether the pandemic will end within a month or two or extend its medical, financial, legal, and social tentacles many months into the future.

Like many of our clients, we are also a small business. Often times in the course of modernizing media output for a company, we specialize in helping small businesses and friends strategize much more than their media.

Therefore, as we all gear up to face the changing world of the COVID-19, we know small business owners feel the pressure. Bullhorn Media is amplifying the fact that small business needs to reassess, re-boot, and to disengage from the entanglement of the coronavirus experience.

Thus, instead of directly speaking of videography and photography, we turn to vital business tips as our topic for the week. These tips are specifically related to small businesses in the time of the Coronavirus.

Getting out of that experience might mean making changes in business strategy. By this, we mean changes that are necessary to escape those tentacles and survive in an uncertain future.

From the pages of Chief Executive, online, Athan Slotkin states you should first fight your burn rate. He says, “Many businesses run with lots of excesses. And this is the perfect opportunity to get a leg up on them by running more efficiently.

1. Number 1 of 6 Small Business Tips:  Know Your Burn-Rate

Although we know you can profit from the power of our professional video and photography, we would not want you to jump into it without first considering how you are spending money.  We want you to find avoidable expenses.

Likewise, just as Athan Slotkin advises, we want you to view your reboot expenses in “both normal scenarios and ‘bear-bones’ scenarios. Here’s our list of thought-provoking fat you might cut off your expenses. This could help loosen the tentacles of COVID-19 restrictions on your small business.

• Look at your rent.
• Should you re-open the same size as you were, pre-coronavirus?
• Can you reduce expenses and still maintain a high-quality business?
• Are you as efficient as your best competitors?

Entrepreneur Magazine also applauds this tip.  The report, “Every small business usually has the same key expenses, which include employee salaries, office rent, and utility bills. Further expenses range from industry to industry.”

They add, “Speak to who you need to pay in the next three months (landlord and suppliers.) And find out what options you have to spread out the costs. Chances are they may already have options in place or will be understanding, as it’s in their interest to keep your business.”

Likewise, many consultants are advising small business owners, “Look at your personal finances and speak to people you may support. This can lead to a realistic discussion on how to control your personal spending for the next three months.”

Number 2 of 6 Small Business Tips:   Adapting to Current Market Trends

We all know stories of businesses that have converted from making bedding to making masks. Likewise, we saw the liquor industry develop new hand sanitizers.  Your story might not be so obvious, but can you find a way to adapt to the changing needs of your consumer base?

• It’s time to discover the nuances of current market trends, whatever your business is. We have seen real estate move from open house parties to virtual reality tours.  How can you reoptimize your business’s positioning? Automobiles now feature a touchless delivery.
• Can your business provide its product or services more remotely than you thought?
• Bullhorn Media can help you reposition your brand. Capitalize on this now, and after quarantine disappears, you might have a whole new revenue stream for your small business.  (And our video can help market it.)
• As the future unfolds, we could help you transform your business from a single focus exclusively on in-person services and sales. For example, change to one to a two-pronged approach: in-person and online. (But you have to let clients know about it and that is where Bullhorn can help.)
• Look at your competition. What are they doing and what can you learn?

Number 3 of 6 Small Business Tips: Using Time Now for Profit Later

Bullhorn Media is family owned and we have a lot of heart. We sincerely think that the most critical part of your life right now is to stay healthy.  We want to make sure that friends, clients, and potential clients practice social distancing and protect at-risk individuals.  The most important thing you can do right now is to listen to medical experts. Keep yourself healthy. Make sure you practice social distancing. Keep at-risk folks protected. Now we know if you follow such guidelines, you will have free time you to use for doing business.

One luxury many small businesses have had recently is time. We hope you used some of that time to find “areas where you can reduce spending by increasing your own effort levels.

At Bullhorn Media, we know that CEOs and owners only have so much bandwidth, time, talent, and money.  Reducing the burn rate at this critical time means learning to run a lean organization but it does not mean reducing quality.

Time to Do Your Homework!

Let us use this time as an opportunity to level-up our entrepreneurial skills.

• Do some reading. Find some advice from experts.
• Let’s research what other businesses and entrepreneurs have done.
• Let’s dig into the data and find “a better understanding of your market and the competition you face.” Some small business owners do this anyway. However, right now, for many businesses, it’s the first time you could do it at the beginning of a day instead of after hours. It might seem like a terrible thing to say, but you could leverage this downtime to your advantage.

“Many of your competitors will be using this time purely as damage control and downtime. You should seize the chance to get ahead and make yourself into the best entrepreneur you can be. If you can, leverage this opportunity so that when the world starts moving normally again, you can fly past the competition.”

A Terrific Take-Away from Disney

Meanwhile, as we face the changing world around us, let us take a lesson in optimism from a familiar Disney movie, Finding Nemo:  “When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.”

In the next blog, Bullhorn Media will bring the final 3 Small Business Tips to help “creep out of the Coronavirus restricted zones” and get back to business.

In spite of all the stress, depression, and panic, brought by the writhing, reaching tentacles of the coronavirus and its restrictions, we believe small business is made of survivors. Bullhorn Media sends you messages of optimism and calm.  Together we can face whatever the future brings. We can “keep swimming.” Thank you for reading the Bullhorn Media Blog, and we will bring you some more fine tips for small businesses next week.