A NEW NORM
We all have felt this impact. Small businesses, parents, and friends. It’s no surprise that times are changing. None of us know what the new norm will be. Do we continue to do business how we did before? My answer is no. It’s time to grow and adapt. If you’re in business for the long run it’s time to GROW and it is time to adapt. Chances are you have hit road blocks along your entrepreneurial journey and you broke through it. That’s why you’ve made it to where you are today. You put in the extra blood, sweat, and tears, and would grind. Just because we’re in a global pandemic it doesn’t mean that stops. As Eric Thomas says “ everyone wants to be a beast until it’s time to do what beasts do”. Now is your time to shine. Hit the drawing board and get creative.
TIME TO ADAPT
In the month of March opake completely changed gears as soon as the pandemic hit. We had to act fast and efficiently. A good friend of mine Ryan Moore asked us about cutting material with our sign plotters to make face shields. We quickly hopped on in hopes we can keep business moving forward and help our community where we can. So the second week of March we switched the sign shop around to do an assembly line for face shields. We invested over $1000 in materials and were able to yield enough profit to keep our lights on for another month. We were able to ship out over 500 emergency face shields to the front line workers that had a shortage in PPE. The response was awesome. I hit the phones and did some cold calling. I first started with the local sheriff, small health clinics, then retirement and ended with dentist offices. Not only did we get the face masks sold, it drove traffic to the website and informed the purchaser what all we have to offer. This later locked in some other sales for printing.
GET CREATIVE
Moving forward, we decided to take all orders online. If customers request physical samples, we drop ship them. We offer local delivery, practicing safe distancing. I completely changed my marketing strategy. Working on supporting my community, I decided to start posting my favorite spots to get tacos, ice cream, beer etc. We tag them in the posts and give them content to share. We have been getting some awesome responses. Not only does it bring attention to our favorite local businesses, it drives new potential clients to our page. Aside from this, I decided to pay it forward to my favorite local spots, buy gift cards and have them keep it on hand for those X amount of people to come in and use. Why not invest into keeping your local spots afloat. We’re all in this together.
WE ARE ALL GOING TO MAKE IT
I must say there have been many challenges presented to all of us during this time. I will also say that the amount of love and support I see from one business to another, one family to another is truly heartwarming. The innovative entrepreneurs adapting to change is truly inspiring. Wrapping this up, ask yourself these questions: Are there things in my business that I’ve wanted to implement but never found the time to do so? Is there a way to bring my business to be more online driven? Is there a new product or services that I can offer to existing customers?Feel free to share your thoughts! I look forward to the growth and the journey it brings. Stay focused, innovative, be willing to adapt, and you will make it through
