Well hello, and we hope this blog post finds you well. It’s been a tough few months in business hasn’t it?
The 23rd of March 2020 will be a day this little agency will never forget as clients were forced to close their doors and therefore no longer required our services. This hurt a little as we knew their online world needed to be fabulous to survive this, but sadly with no money coming through the doors, they simply couldn’t afford to keep us.
So we battened down the hatches. Took wage cuts and tried to keep smiling. Thankfully JobKeeper arrived and we were able to feel more positive again. I am sure you can all relate.
During this time we have noticed some very interesting things and it will make all in small business very happy. So without stealing your time any further…here they are:
- People are loving spending locally with small businesses they know are benefiting from purchases
- Takeaway food is building customer rapport and positively affecting brand loyalty with people reviewing their meals on socials. Even for businesses that have never done takeaway historically.
- Shoppers are not wanting to enter big shopping centres for products and services and happy to utilise small shops which also means we are often knowing we are spending local and contributing to local families livelihood.
- Followers are loving seeing local business owners faces on socials and hearing their stories of how they are going.
- We seem to have better attention spans. Blogs and articles are actually being read to the end.
- We have a holiday bucket list and searching for places to visit within that 150-250 km distance is actually the first thing we did after dropping the kids back to school today.
- Alcohol has been important but we have realised how much we value and miss the establishments we used to once visit to consume it.
- At-home dinner parties/fire pit catch-ups is the new going out with friends while under the current restrictions.
- An online store even for small business has become profitable as people turn away from in-person shopping experiences. (We have actually created 3 on existing WordPress sites in the last month.)
- Musicians doing gigs online is THE BEST.
- Artists doing workshops via Zoom and videos make us see how important having creative outlets is important.
- While we know we need all of the new infection control procedures of handwashing and in some industries, masks… we are needing business owners and staff to be gentle with us because it is confronting. There is nothing worse than grumpy staff who bark orders to handwash as you enter premises. In actual fact, it is a moment to say hello and ask how the customer is going, all while offering up the handwash measures you have in place.
- Personalised online workouts are going like a wildfire and we have one client unable to take any more people on her PT journey at this point.
- Since job keeper arrived… the intense pressure if off us business owners. We know it won’t last forever, but it has allowed us to become creative and smart in the way in which we have planned our business going forward.
- Humans now understand the meaning of RESILIENCE.