Covid has resulted in many business transformations. While some small businesses found themselves shifting their offerings, others moved online or found new niches. If you’re wondering how to continue moving your business forward following Covid, you’re probably not alone.

Here are some important tips for navigating the business landscape following Covid.

1. Explore your remote options

Having a business model that enables you and your staff to work remotely gives you incredible flexibility in how you run your business. That doesn’t mean you have to move to an entirely remote work-force, although you can if you want to, but it does mean that should your staff have to work from home, they can still access the information they need to do their jobs.

Where information may have been stored on your computers’ hard drives, consider moving to cloud-based options, which allow for secure remote access. If you have documents that need signing or require collaboration, look into tools that allow staff to do so from wherever they happen to be.

2. Create an in-person experience for people purchasing from you remotely

Where possible, shift your business so your customers or clients get a remote experience that comes close to matching the experience they have when they visit your store or office.

You can explore offering telemedicine either online or through phone calls. If you have a retail store, consider offering virtual reality changing rooms, so people can see how the clothes they want to buy online look on them. Furniture stores can enable customers to upload pictures of their rooms so they can see how the furniture they’re considering would look in those rooms.

While a remote experience won’t ever be exactly the same as an in-person experience, there are things you can do to give customers and clients similar services that make their purchasing decisions easier.

3. Talk to your customers and clients about their needs

What your customers and clients needed from you before Covid may now have changed, and it’s important for you to identify those changes and shift accordingly. Many households have changed their routines and developed new habits, some of which will persist for years.

Is there a new product or service you can offer to help them? Are they concerned about being in your office in person? Are they more eager than they used to be to get out of their homes? Have they shifted to online shopping enough to justify you having an online store?

Don’t guess at the answers to these questions, reach out to your customers to ask. Ask them how their habits have changed, what they’re looking forward to buying from you and what concerns they have about returning to in-person transactions.

4. Explore your data

While it’s important to talk to your customers and clients about how their lives have changed, take note of how your market has changed. If you run a hospitality business that thrived on tourism, have you made up for it by marketing to locals? Are more of your customers coming from a different market segment than they used to? Did a service you provide suddenly take off during Covid?

Look at what your numbers and data are telling you. Although not all changes will be permanent, how your numbers have shifted can indicate new paths for you to follow and new ways to market your business.

Final Thoughts

The post-Covid business landscape will most likely look different from pre-Covid. By following a few steps, you can make the transition smoother for you, your team and your clients.