As someone who enjoys writing things down on paper, I’m struck by how much of my home and work life has become online more than ever before and requires a lot more organization and planning. Adapting to working online, in particular, can be a challenge.
The challenge from a personal level is that things just take a bit longer (scheduling groceries, cleaning, and taking turns with online classes).
From a business level, the challenge is keeping pace with a new set of expectations that come from clients whose requirements haven’t changed, but may not have the same money to invest or the resources to execute tasks.
From the countless conversations I’ve had over the last few weeks, I wanted to share some insights on what it takes to adapt.
1) Make time to plan.
The first realization is that you need to spend the time to figure out what it takes to be organized at home as well as determining what is a priority at work.
I’m sure everyone will agree that the last few weeks have felt like taking a ride on the “crazy train,” not knowing what to expect from one day to the next.
If you don’t spend the time now figuring out what to focus on and get hyper-organized, little things like taking out the trash are going to feel like really big tasks.
2) Embracing technology - you just have to.
In our previous economy, it was pretty easy to let things slide that we all knew we should be doing, but put off because there were more important things to do.
Having fewer resources now makes you focus on programs that will help retain and keep your customers happy, as well as continue to sell to clients who feel your product or solution is critical to their operations.
Now is the time you need to do your spring cleaning and all those tedious little chores that you put off for months so that you’re organized enough to use technology to execute things that you no longer have a sufficient number of human hands to do. (Data normalization, chatbots, alerts, lead qualification models, standardized inside sales process.)
3) Check your tech.
I’m sure many of you are getting some pressure to evaluate your technology investment and see what tools are actually being used and generating value for your organization. It’s amazing to discover how many users you might be paying for, but not utilizing, and how many tools you are unaware you have. When every dollar counts, reviewing what tools you have could free up money to invest in other programs or even save someone on your team.
4) Reality check.
Now that you’ve come to terms with what you need to change, it’s time to take a hard look at the activities you’re doing and see if they’re pointed in the right direction.
You may need to do a little bit of shuffling in terms of industries you service or want to focus on as well as your delivery model for services. In sales, a fundamental shift from being able to physically go to someone’s office to having a meeting virtually can be a big undertaking all by itself.
Take stock of which one of these items you need to change before jumping in and running programs. They may not ultimately generate the revenue and awareness a company needs.
5) Stay positive and optimistic when working online.
The clients we talked to that have a positive attitude and are seeing this as an opportunity to change either tactics or their business itself, seem to be performing a bit better.
Capital to invest in businesses or even shifting your model is less expensive than it has been for quite some time. The availability of SBA loans, private investors, and other vehicles for under 4% is pretty unheard of and there are lots of programs like that now. Take advantage of what is available to you.
All of this can seem pretty overwhelming and complicated. Now more than ever your most precious resource is time.
We want to share our time with you so that you too can adapt and see all of the opportunities available based on all the changes that individuals and businesses have to make in rather short order.
Please contact us if we can help you talk through and solve the challenges above. At times, it helps to just talk it through.
