By Do you have a small business that you are struggling to manage because of the pandemic? Are you seeing a constant decline in the number of customers you take care of every day and month? Well, this has been happening for more than a year now. People are constantly panicking because they are all seeing the first pandemic in their lives. Businesses are struggling the most because they don’t know how to keep their customers coming and survive through the pandemic. However, Israel Figa has some great solutions and tips for small businesses to stay afloat despite the tough circumstances.
Also read: Israel Figa – Governments Need to Work Together to Battle Economic Crisis
Let’s take a look at some of the best solutions that Israel Figa has to suggest for keeping your small business running throughout the global pandemic, which we hope will be over soon since the vaccination has started.
Use Services Like Foodpanda
There is no reason for you to stay away from services that can help you sell more. If you are a restaurant, you should consider signing up on services like Foodpanda. They can help you make your meal reach the places where you haven’t delivered before. Not to mention, people are becoming more and more interested in ordering online. However, they like to check the new deals in town before they can place an order. Your website is a great place for your existing customers, but for people who don’t know, an app on their phone that aggregates all the best deals is the best place to go.
You will be missing out on a huge opportunity to serve thousands of customers every month if you don’t sign up with a service like this. There is no reason to fight off the current changes. There is no reason to let small egotistic issues to come in the way of you and your business’ progress. If you have had issues with how Foodpanda or other similar services operate, keep them aside for now.
Offer Discounts on Takeouts
Not everyone wants to order their food online. Some have to be outside for their business, job, or something else. They want to bring their food and other items home while returning. You have to provide them with great services. However, it would be a huge error on your part if you don’t offer them something special on takeouts. Let the people who are still looking for a dine out opportunity have a reason to go for the takeout option. There are people who prefer to sit with friends and eat outside. However, if you offer them some good discount on their takeout, they will definitely consider that option.
You don’t have to take the word “discount” literally. You can offer something small from your menu as a free add-on to their order. Just let them feel comfortable with the idea of having their food at home. Avoid dine-ins as much as you can no matter how much you are tempted to do them.
Offer Free Masks
If you have a retail store, you can’t really offer everything online. You have to offer things in-store and for that, people will have to come in the form of crowds. Now, within those people, you have some who might not be wearing a mask at all. Some think to this day that the Coronavirus is just a hoax. You don’t have to confront them in any way. You don’t have to interact with them in a way that would cause them to wreak havoc inside your store. That’s going to hurt your business. To make things easy, you can just offer free masks at your doorstep. Masks are not that expensive, and offering them for free to your customers will not add too much to your cost.
If you think about the cost of losing even a single customer, you can figure out that multiple boxes of masks will not cost you that much. At a very small cost, you can allow all your customers to walk into your store. At the same time, you won’t have to fight with anyone who does not want to wear a mask. Ask them politely to wear a free mask and introduce it as a store policy, if not for the pandemic.
Offer Only Deliveries
This decision might sound very harsh because you might have to get rid of a few employees, but it is best for everyone in the long-run. You can rehire the people who work for you right now if you are in the business in the coming days. However, if you think the dine-in option is not pulling as many customers as it used to, there is no reason to continue with it. It will only eat into your revenue and profits, and that is something you don’t want to see happening. Not to mention, if your business shuts down due to those reasons, it will be a failure of decision making.
If you want to make things better, now is the right time to reduce your costs. Offer only deliveries. If you want, you can hire your current employees to deliver for you. This way, you will be saving a lot of money on the staff as well as the rent that you have to pay for the current space. When you are only delivering food, you only need enough space to accommodate your kitchen. Many businesses have already switched to this model. However, switching in time is what matters the most here. If you wait too long, the damage will have been done by the time you make the decision.
Final Thoughts
According to Israel Figa, it is not as hard to tackle the pandemic for businesses as it may seem if they are willing to adapt. The biggest reason that causes many businesses to fail and lose track is when they are not willing to track. They keep operating in a manner that really does not bear any fruit in the current circumstances. In other words, sticking to the old ways will only cause you to lose businesses.
