Welcome to Modern Net Solutions! We're here to help you build a smarter website. No matter where you are in the process, from beginning to end and everything in between, we are here to build your dream.
Follow us:
An online presence is even more essential than ever before. Now that vaccination programs are starting, people are looking forward to a post-Covid world, but running a successful business in that world will entail some strategic thinking by business owners.
Not only are people more used to shopping online for all sorts of products, but many have found it extremely convenient, and it seems likely that some people will not return to shopping in person at all, while others will return for some items but not necessarily all products. What this means for business owners is that those businesses with a strong online presence, making it easy for customers and potential customers to find the business and purchase items online, will be more successful. You might have the best product, but if your customers can’t find you easily online, you won’t make sales.
Not only does your business need a good, easy to navigate website, but businesses need to ensure that the website not only enables customers to easily select products, including any options for colours, sizes, or alternatives, but that the checkout procedure is safe and secure, as customers want to be assured that their personal details (names, addresses and credit card details) will not be accessible to others.
Even businesses that do not offer retail products but offer customer services or business to business services will need to have a stronger online presence than prior to Covid lockdowns. The way people do business has changed, and the online presence will ensure your business is not lost in the crowd.
Once you have a good website, the next step to building and maintaining your website presence is to ensure that search engines such as Google or Yahoo will find your website and put it high on page one of the search results. This is called search engine optimization (SEO), and can include marketing strategies like updating your website regularly, linking your website address in social media posts and comments and having a continually strong online presence for your business.
When considering your staff, you may want to rethink the mix of people you employ. As you’ll need a strong online presence, it is possible that you may employ a few more people in online marketing and less with other traditional marketing skills. You may need to strategically re-train current staff members, or to review the skill sets of people you employ in the future.
An online presence for your business could also mean expanding or entering new markets, such as different states or countries, especially for product-based businesses. Since people can access websites from all over the world, your business can sell products in new markets. This could mean you consider employing people in different areas and allowing remote work to build your business in new markets, rather than having staff work from one central office. You might need to strategically consider how you will get products to customers in more distant locations than you previously dealt with, which could entail accessing warehouse or storage space in different areas, or changing the logistics of transport, as well as marketing to new areas.
Working remotely is becoming a preferred option for employees, especially if they can work from home at least some of the time. This could mean major changes in the structure of businesses, with some businesses reducing their required office spaces. Leasing a smaller office space can reduce overhead costs for the business, so if people are willing and able to work from home some of the time, you could take the opportunity presented by Covid to permanently reduce your overhead costs.
If you do allow people to work from home, you do need to ensure safe working environments and consider paying costs for the employees of essentials like internet and increased electricity usage, so it does entail a review of working conditions for employees to work remotely. However, restructuring your business to allow people to work remotely either full time or part time rather than in a central office could reduce costs in the long term for your business.
While there are some jobs which cannot be done remotely, such as construction, manufacturing, caring, and hospitality jobs, these businesses still need administration work completed, so it might be possible to restructure for some staff members to become remote workers.
For those who cannot possibly work remotely, you will have to consider cleanliness and space requirements, especially if returning to work before all the vaccinations have been completed in your area. Ensure you provide hand sanitation stations, and you may need to review workspaces to ensure each person can be separated from colleagues or customers for appropriate social distancing. This may require restructuring the factory or facility layout or working in shifts.
With so many factories having to shut down for some time over the world, you will need to ensure you can access supplies of whatever your business needs for success. This may entail some changes and research on substitutes if some of the components of your products are no longer available. Successful businesses in the post-COVID economy will need to be able to ensure supply of their products and services to their customers.
Make a list of all of the components your products require, and double check each of your pre-COVID suppliers to ensure that they can still supply your business. If not, you’ll need to research other suppliers of the same or similar products. You could also consider researching if some products or components can be changed to different but more readily available alternatives. Consider too where your supplies are coming from, as some countries have been harder hit than others by the pandemic, so will have experienced longer lockdowns, preventing production. With factories around the world stopping production, supply will be a key factor in business success in the future.
There are many factors that will contribute to your business success in the post-COVID world. Considering the supply of goods or services you need, setting up safe work environments, rethinking how you use your staff strategically and ensuring your business has a strong online presence will all help you to run a successful business.
