COVID-19 has left several lives in shambles. The economy was brought to an abrupt halt, and many businesses were forced to shut down or move to an alternate work-from-home structure.
After almost four months of complete shutdown, businesses around the world are preparing to reopen after the lockdown is beginning to be relaxed by governments. The future of the businesses relies heavily on the reopening strategies adopted by them.
If you are a business owner uncertain about the path to take in the reopening process, we have a guide to reopening your business after COVID-19. Take a look below at a few of the most important measures you will need to take.
Staying informed
The first and the most critical measure to take before reopening your business is to stay informed on the latest regulations and restrictions imposed on your industry of business. For example, the strict requirement of facemasks for employees and customers.
Check with your government’s websites for any industry-specific policies that might have been introduced during the lockdown. Take a serious note of the best practices recommended by public health officials and any other specific guidelines to reopening businesses of your industry.
Assessing losses
When planning to reopen your business, you must count your losses. Determining just how deeply your business has been affected by the pandemic will give you the required data for future planning and budgeting. These practices should include updating financial statements, profit-loss margins, etc.
If you think your business will take up from where it was left off, it would be an unrealistic expectation. Having hard facts in the form of numbers will help you in figuring out the minimum and maximum resources your business will need to keep things going.
Reorganizing workplace structure and planning a new normal
Reopening your business will require you to completely restructure your workplace to cater to the health guidelines and to make your employees and customers feel safe. If you have a business model that allowed your business to go completely online, following the work from home order, then you should consider adopting this method of operations indefinitely.
However, if your business provides services that require a physical presence, then we have a few recommendations that you could adopt while planning to reopen:
- Put in place a strict social distancing policy and limit the number of employees and customers allowed in a closed space
- Establish sanitizing stations and make their use mandatory
- Plan and divide pre-opening tasks to make your business customer-ready
- Reach out and coordinate with your vendors, supply chain managers and plan a system of operations
- Do not expect your employees to feel comfortable coming back to work. Introduce flexible hours and practical work from home policies
- Reconnect with your customers online or via newsletters to keep them updated about the dates of your reopening
Consider reopening an opportunity to reinvent your business
Reopening your business should not just be a pursuit of the old normal. This is an opportunity to reinvent your business and prepare it for any future crisis. The period followed by the reopening needs to open up a new era for your business.
The crisis should make you more determined to adapt quickly and catch up. Adopting online and digital approaches for future strategies, shifting operations to more automation, and building the capability of your business in e-commerce and financial security need to be up on the design of your reinvention.
