9 STEPS TO….. RE-THINK, RE-INVENT, RE-OPEN

Re-opening your business after lockdown will be like the first time you opened. You need to think about how you do business going forward as re-opening is tougher than shutting down.

How will people walk through your business?

Before you start reading decide you are no longer going to be a victim.  Once you decide you are no longer going to be a victim of the economy by blaming others, making excuses and living in denial you can move forward and take a proactive approach with regards to the success of your business. Read my blog ‘Having a ‘Positive Attitude is Always a Choice’  and my video Re-Open Mindset

1. RE EDUCATE AND PREPARE

  • Walk through the buying process
  • Use common sense – you need to be seen to be cleaning continually
    • Put up barriers/screens/perspex between tables/desks.
    • Obtain PPE and use where necessary.
  • Think about how you can make people feel safe.
    • Use directional arrows and mark up the floor to show 2m spacing.
  • Adjust and adapt as you go along – have a flexible approach.
  • Think about when you first opened – how many times did you make changes?!

2. RE BUILD YOUR TEAM

  • Your Team consists of colleagues, customers, suppliers
  • Communicate to your Team (staff) what is happening and what is expected of them. Remember they may be scared of coming back to work and entering an environment of potential ‘harm’.
  • Demonstrate and communicate to them about what facilities they can expect when they come back to work and how they will interact with customers.
  • Have flexible hours available for staffing
  • Re-build your community and communicate
  • Think about how you will work with your staff around meetings/safe distance working/capacity/toilets
  • Expect reduced productivity at first – increasing as you ease back into working.
  • You need new protocols and standards.
  • Productivity may take time – everyone is ‘new’ again so you’ll need to think about retraining.
  • Install a doorbell so you can keep your office/entrance door shut and people enter with distancing and capacity needs.

3. RENEW WITH DEALS FOR DAYS

  • Think about deals for different target audiences – Read Instant Advertising by Brad Sugars for ideas.
  • Make sure you focus on getting your top 20% of customers back – those that generate 80% of your revenue. Make them feel special.
  • Give NHS and Key Workers a special deal.
  • Existing customers – think like them/what sort of offer would bring them out. People will be hesitant first to step out of the safety of their homes.
  • Don’t lose the great things that were happening.
  • Unfortunately, some businesses won’t have survived so look to help potential new customers – ‘Come and try us out’.
  • Have deals on for a month at least, if not 90days – not necessarily discounting but adding value.

4. RE-OPENING ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Build up the excitement to your re-opening. ‘Can’t wait to see you’.
  • Announce every step on social media and local radio/newsfeeds etc.
  • Announce Team Members – welcome them back.   Give them applause and make them feel welcome and safe.
  • Announce deals/dates.
  • Photograph and post on social media screens and other safety preparations that you’ve put in place.
  • Get people excited about re-opening.
  • Make a list of announcements.

5. RE-DO YOUR CELEBRATION

  • Ribbon cutting – something memorable. Get the press involved. Take lots of photos.
  • Celebrate surviving:
    • Team photo
    • Customer photos
    • Community photos – tag and nominate for social media
    • Make sure your business neighbours know you’re re-opening
    • Make it memorable and news worthy.

6. RE-RUN THE NUMBERS

  • Do the numbers stack up for re-opening? You need to know what the business is going to make and what it’s going to cost.
  • Review your numbers regularly (weekly if not daily) and keep testing and measuring.
  • Identify your break-even point and profit break point.
  • Use money wisely – how can you turn the money you have in your bank account into future money?
  • Keep extra cash on hand.

7. RE-THINK MARKETING AND SALES

  • Re-do your marketing plan with your coach.
  • Complete a SWOT for your business.
  • Re-view your competitors – what are they doing? What is their pricing and offers, what’s on their website?
  • Look at your customer buying habits – these will have changed during lockdown. How can you pivot to meet them?
  • What do you need to purchase/produce in the new norm?
  • Help and educate your customers more on benefits of using you.
  • Remember ‘Fear and Worry about your marketplace vs Excitement and looking forward’.
  • Test and measure different marketing messages and platforms – Facebook, Instagram are low cost.
  • Make sure your marketing messages are meaningful and generate business. Marketing messages are shifting fast so adjust yours as you go along.
  • There may be more steps needed in your sales process and it may take longer to secure new customers.
  • Use video especially for testimonials. These can simply be taken on a mobile and edited using iMovie.
    • Think about different locations for your videos.
    • Have a good microphone to capture verbal content
  • Use questionnaires for customers or feedback cards to ensure you are achieving the safety levels your customers are seeking.
  • Lose the ‘pushy’ sales person technique and replace with empathy and sympathy for customers.
  • Build a database of customers to create/maintain relationships going forward.

Remember: The World has ‘virtualised’ itself in 8 weeks, whereas it would have taken 5-10 years.

8. RE-THANK EVERYBODY

  • Send hand written notes to your customers and Team members, suppliers, bankers, accountants.
  • Let people know how important they are to you.
  • Remember also to thank the media, politicians, fellow business owners. Remember it’s good to be ‘alive’.
  • Drive your business forward.

 9. RE-WRITE YOUR PLAN

  • Create a 90 Day Plan if you are still in survival mode, create a 90 Day plan to Thrive.
  • Think of positives and negatives in re-opening.
  • You can’t afford simple mistakes around the safety of your team and your customers and suppliers, so plan ahead to get this right.
  • Get help – speak to your ActionCOACH.
  • Take a few days off in preparation for your sprint forward.

Please feel free to contact me for a pro-bono call to help you kick-start your business or book onto one of my webinars via hastings.actioncoach.co.uk details

ActionCOACH Simon Marshall – 01892 234200

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Simon Marshall is a Business Growth Specialist at ActionCOACH Hastings – part of a team of Action Coaches globally who mentor 20,000+ business owners every week and are the UK’s No.1 franchised business coaching network.