The effects on businesses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented. With so many unknown variables affecting the way we move forward into the future, many feel increased levels of anxiety.

In order to maneuver our businesses through these interesting times, we must safely navigate our way through this challenge and trust that this health crisis is being brought under control.

Before you make any major changes to your business strategies, take action to make sure that your business is secured with appropriate insurance. You have worked hard to create and launch a business so make sure all your hard work is protected.

Comprehensive Business Insurance

Your company needs to be properly insured to protect all that you have built. Comprehensive business insurance should be established to focus on each aspect of your company, to move it forward and make it successful.

BizCover has access to a network of insurance companies and can quickly provide you free, multiple quotes so you can compare policies without the need to ring around or visit multiple websites. Within minutes you will have options to choose from and can obtain coverage immediately.

Obtaining several quotes from different insurance companies will allow you to see not only the different coverage levels but also the cost of each policy. BizCover can make this process easier and faster. For more information regarding the benefits of comprehensive business coverage, please go to https://www.bizcover.co.nz/business-insurance/.

Reviewing and purchasing insurance is one of the most important areas to safeguarding your business. As you grow your business, be prepared to revisit your insurance coverage needs to find the right solutions. In doing so, you can rest easy knowing your hard work is protected from life’s many uncertainties.

You also need to plan a roadmap to recovery for your business. In order to do this, you need to break down the steps into different categories. Reviewing where we’ve been, Resetting how and where we want to take our business, and Regrowing our business and steering it to a successful future.

Where You’ve Been (Review)

What changes have you had to implement to make it through COVID-19? What insights have you gained into your customers, your people, your operations, your product offering?

Taking what you have learned so far, how are you going to use this information and implement it moving forward? What things do you want to leave in the past? Can you use this information to help with your future success?  

Review your business strategy, your business model, your operations, and how you go to market. Take into consideration what makes sense going forward into this changed business environment.

A few key things we have witnessed throughout this year include the fact that retail will not be the same moving forward. Online sales will continue to grow in terms of how we purchase items and how we run our own businesses. Consumers will probably become more frugal in their purchasing and more thoughtful in how they buy. After all the necessary distancing and being quarantined, consumers will most likely search for experiences that allow them to reconnect.

Look outside your own business and industry, to seek to understand how your customer segments have been impacted and how that may play out.

Also Read: 70-761 practice test

Where Do You Want to Take Your Business (Reset)

This is a great time to refine (or completely overhaul) your strategy and your capability to deliver.  

How do you bring your product or service to market? What will make you successful in the future? Consider the strategic choices that will set you up for success in the future.  What will be your competitive advantage? What should your key customer segments be in the future? What value will you deliver for them?

Given those choices, it is time to reset your operating model and determine where you want to take your business into the future.

How will each of the components that enable you to deliver value best work together in the future — activities, resources, partners, people and your revenue drivers and cost base?  

A critical question for all businesses is the role technology will play in your go-to-market delivery and the configuration of your operating platform. 

Retailers, such as supermarkets, are already changing how they go to market given the digital delivery and contactless success they experienced over the last few months.

This may well be painful, in terms of having to let people go but achieving a sustainable cost base as soon as possible is key for future viability.

Cash is king so you need to ensure you have adequate cash to trade over at least the next six months.

How Do You Want to Move Forward (Regrow)

Prepared with a new and refreshed strategy and a fit-for-purpose operating model to support that, it is critical that growth is your focus. How will you drive product and market development to deliver your future growth?  

After reviewing where you have been and how you want to move forward, think innovatively on how you want to regrow your business based on a deep understanding of your customer segments and their needs.  

Additionally, develop a marketing strategy that supports future sales growth. Brands that invest in marketing during recessions grow market share. Also consider looking into reinvesting a portion of any additional revenue you earn above your base level to create positive momentum.

With all these suggestions considered, are all the strategies you are excited about realistic? Will you be able to follow through?

Are you able to implement the changes needed to grow? Do you have the capability to drive change — both organisationally, and from a people perspective? Are the leadership team aligned, and have the energy and motivation to step forward and truly lead in challenging times?

These questions need to be asked and answered.

Then, take action. Start by developing a simple one-page plan for the next 90 days.

Identify the key actions that enable you to listen and understand the market and customer signals, reset the key elements of your strategy and business model and, of course, implement your marketing and sales plans.

While it may, for some businesses, feel like you are still in the eye of the COVID-19 storm, it is time to look ahead to the road to recovery. 

Many companies are already taking action. Yours should be one of them too.