There is no doubt in the minds of business leaders around the world: we are heading into a tough winter with weaker consumer spending, record investment and record unemployment levels. With the world still expecting a major recession due to the coronavirus pandemic, now is the time for businesses to prepare for a winter when demand for their products and services could drop significantly. Read on to find out how you and your business can best prepare for an unprecedented winter of disruption and low sales. Mapping and modeling Mapping and modeling is a great place to start your preparedness journey, which will help you predict how your winter might go and what you will need to do if you don’t hit your expected sales for the month or quarter. . For many businesses, that means having your spreadsheet gurus model a number of different revenue scenarios. From there, you’ll be able to make quick decisions that will help you overcome obstacles on the road.
Here are some examples of contingency plans you should consider making for the upcoming winter: The likelihood of receiving state or federal support — in the form of tax breaks and other subsidies — in the coming months. Where you are able to reduce your overhead and whether this will mean laying off some staff. How much cash does your business need to Ghana Phone Numbers List continue generating profits, at a minimum. What sales incentives and changes you can make to your products and services to get a boost at a time when you anticipate low sales. This is high-level planning you should be doing in the boardroom and with your senior executives and managers – helping you prepare for what could be one of the toughest winters in memory. man. Remote work Whether or not your company requires your staff to work remotely, it is quite possible that you are facing difficult circumstances in which it may be preferable for your employees to work from home.
This will be the case if there is a spike in infections in your area, or if you decide that your business will have to hand over its offices as an overhead reduction in the coming weeks or months. Either way, it’s your digital assets that will support your work and work or your colleagues and employees as you implement remote work in your business. And here it’s crucial that you can manage your digital assets wisely – so you don’t have to worry about wasting time and files with multiple separate and disparate digital work platforms. A digital asset manager (or DAM) will help you centralize this work; check out this helpful overview of DAM to kick-start your research and preparation for remote work this winter. Digital Marketing With fewer and fewer people visiting stores – and with winter a time when shoppers tend to spend more time indoors – 2020 seems like a smart time to invest in digital marketing. When you market online , you are able to specifically target local consumers if you are a local business – or you are able to sell globally, to a large audience, if you are able to ship your products internationally or to provide your services around the world. With all of that in mind, it’s worth considering how you can ramp up your digital marketing output for the coming winter. Is it time to invest in agency support – with an expected return on investment far greater than the investment you have invested? Talk to your current marketing arm about increasing your digital marketing budget – one of the surefire ways to generate additional sales this winter. Budget adjustment Your finance team will have been involved in the modeling for your business suggested above – but it’s time to get your CFO and other finance modelers around the meeting table to think about how you can adjust your investments and your financial commitments for a winter in which you may struggle to turn a profit. It’s with these financial experts that you can create a plan that will help you weather the worst economic impacts of the coronavirus this winter. During these discussions, your main goal is to decide what measures you need to put in place to get you into the spring and summer – where a vaccine is likely to have emerged to help bring the economy back to some semblance of normality. Whether it’s reducing your production cycle or ordering less stock, your financial advisors – or the consultants you bring in to advise you – will be the people with the answers. Due diligence It’s not just your own business that will be preparing for a long and difficult winter, it’s also all the businesses you do business with. Some may face incredibly difficult times – and others could close in the coming months.
As such, it is extremely important that you carry out a revised due diligence check on all your suppliers, customers and partners. Everyone will suffer in different ways from the economic situation we are going through – and you need to know if your partners are still reliable in the months to come. Due diligence is about planning for the worst case, and it’s in this sense that a plan B option, should a major supplier or partner go out of business, is essential this winter. Look for alternatives to help you maintain your supply chain this winter and connect with local businesses you may be able to partner with if you are disappointed with your current partners. Remember that the failures of other businesses can negatively impact your own business – and you have a responsibility to conduct due diligence and mitigation planning for these scenarios. Preparing your business for a harsh winter will be at the forefront of your mind as we head into the colder months of the year. This guide aims to help you prioritize your response to the threat of a global recession and the impact it could have on your business.
