Are You Prepared for the New Era After the Lockdown?

Are You Prepared for the New Era After the Lockdown?

by with No Comment Business

Are You Prepared for the New Era After the Lockdown?

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world to unprecedented levels. With the infection and death curve beginning to flatten, governments around the world are now beginning to plan their actions in the aftermath of this global illness-causing virus’s impact. As we steadily head towards defeating this virus and containing its advance for the good, we must also take a look at how this pandemic will impact the world as its leaves.

The black death had brought about radical changes in European society and so did smallpox. Similarly, we can expect some very important changes in the social structure and the economy. Not that the current economic system will become completely obsolete; it will go through some strong changes to help accommodate in future cases. 

At this point, all the countries in the world are focusing on how to mitigate the crisis and open the locked world step-by-step.

What will be the Exit Strategy

As new cases start becoming rarer, governments may consider reopening schools, colleges, educational institutions, semi-essential businesses at a distance of one or two days each. Doing this would ensure important social activities such as schooling resume in order to ensure children don’t miss anything further.

As a second step, as the recovery numbers begin surpassing new cases, we can expect a full reopening of all the places, including non-essentials businesses and sectors such as restaurants, travel lounges, hotels, spas, gaming zones and more. Somewhere in between the essentials & non-essentials and services, semi-essential products and services such as hardware, furniture, electronics etc. should reopen just a little while after the full-lockdown is lifted.

Effect on The Businesses Sector

The lockdown has severely impacted the business and retail structure of every country in the world. Barring food, grocery and medical, every other business is currently experiencing deep losses with the smaller players potentially never recovering from it.

From the looks of it, the worst-hit are the tourism and hospitality industries. Even after the lockdown, it appears difficult for businesses in these sectors to be able to recover for a long time as people would still be reluctant to go out.

As for semi-essential products and services are concerned, they are expected to suddenly face explosive demand before returning to normal in a few months. Prices are expected to rise due to a possible shortage of supply. Stocking up or making a detailed inventory chart of your business may be of importance right now. Ensuring that your inventory has a steady flow will go a long way to ensure your business doesn’t face glitches in the aftermath of the pandemic.

What to Expect and Do?

If you are a shop owner, expect more visitors and shoppers your way. Find and implement ways to manage crowds while urging them to maintain social distance. As you get more customers, ensure your suppliers are working smoothly and a steady flow of deliveries and your order placements are in place.

For businessmen whose business does not involve direct interaction with customers and clients, you can ensure your logistics and/or delivery methods are going on glitch-free. Craft your ERP software to keep a track of supply, demand, sales, and deliveries perfectly.

As money begins flowing back in the market, you may also begin making plans to clearing up dues and following up on pending payments which may have gotten stuck due to the lockdown. Checking your books for held-up credits and money-to-be-recovered may be in line with getting your horse back on its feet and running as soon as the lockdown is gone.

Let Your Customers Know

The world is currently in turmoil now. As governments open everything up, we can expect a frenzy-like atmosphere and your customers may not know what to do and in what order. Send out an email, SMS, broadcast or even a simple personal WhatsApp update could go a long way to get people back to doing business with you as soon as your reopen.

Make Some Changes

Cash is expected to be hard to come by, according to many financial experts. As the world stays indoors for a long time, most of the people have begun using cashless methods of payments as the primary mode over hard cash. As markets reopen for business, people may have gotten used to the hassle-free mode of payments. The days are already here when people don’t carry cash anymore while going out for shopping. Getting multiple cashless payment modes on-board would be the choice a smart businessman makes in the aftermath of the crisis.

Deliver Your Products Remotely

Another effect of the lockdown is that people would now prefer delivery services instead of going out themselves. Multiple delivery partners would also like to push their customer base and try to cater to a bigger audience. As more and more people become habituated to getting their stuff delivered home, they wouldn’t mind paying a fraction of their expenditure as a delivery fee, if they can get what they want without having to venture outside. 

Choosing to partner with these delivery companies or even starting your own delivery service would help you reach customers who do not visit you personally.

In a Nutshell

With this pandemic, the global economy is in the house for a drastic transformation, if not for a makeover. Businesses and institutions will now be able to work remotely on a greater frequency. Most people would prefer to still work from home for a long time after the lockdown is finished. While non-essential businesses will have to see a constant decline for some time, semi-essential businesses and shops are expected to find a surge in demand. Any business that can handle this is sure to rake in improved profits. Taking the help of technology in this upcoming era is also crucial as a cashless mode of payment is on its way to becoming the primary transaction tool for every economy.

Steps to Take To Avoid Panic During the CoronaVirus Lockdown

by with No Comment Business

The COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic has left the world as we know it in a state of deep turmoil. Businesses are affected adversely everywhere and the effect is serious. People have isolated themselves completely. In such a tumultuous situation, we only have our phones, PCs, laptops to stay connected with the outside world; and as such, it is imperative a lot of panic-based and false news might also circulate causing untoward frenzy and getting people unnerved. Here are some things you can do to ensure no panic and unwarranted/false information is not circulated around you.

Verify the Source of Information Coming to You

As we all know, WhatsApp University is the most dangerous source of misinformation. More often than not, unverified and false news is circulated in groups and spreads faster than the Australian bushfire. FACTLY and BOOM keep a tab on false news and alert people. During these perilous times, it is very important to know that forwarding one message in 5 groups will not grant a kid $5 for every 100 forwards.

This lockdown is also the golden period for scammers and fake businessmen to thrive. Beware of all the “Earn Money From Home – No Investment Needed” and “I have a great business proposal for you” emails and texts. It is far more probable that they are big-time scams asking you to pay upfront in order to continue working and then never contacting you ever again.

Make Contingency Plans on to Get Back in Business

This pandemic has created global unrest and has affected economies everywhere, with the business sector getting the worst beating. Barring essential things like food, grocery, and medicines, almost all other shops are facing a tremendous lack of customers. However, this is a temporary phase and once people are free to go out, there is a surety of more orders and people visiting other shops. 

Ensure your supply chains are not disrupted in this process. Getting more than one distributor on-board may turn out to be a good strategy. This applies to both sides of the distribution – the ones to take supplies and the ones who are the suppliers. 

Keep Yourself Busy During the Isolation

As the saying goes, “An empty mind is the Devil’s workshop”, doing nothing all day will get into your head. Keeping yourself busy during isolation is a sure-shot way of not panicking and also not becoming the cause of it. There is a wide range of things that you can do during the lockdown, closed by the walls; from binge-watching your favorite TV series to spending hours playing various games. Or, you can always visit our channels to check out our informative blogs, and other useful online activities to explore new waters.

Here are a few links to try out: 

  • The DBohra Blog is excellent to find out business ideas and teeny tiny solutions to tinier problems in day-to-day business life
  • For budding business folk, the DBohra Educational Series is an excellent way to make things smoother
  • DBohra Webinars are another amazing platforms to find out the latest trends and have your queries solved

 Keeping the mind busy is a great way to keep panic aside.

Trust and Subscribe to Government of International Organisations

The World Health Organization is constantly in touch with governments around the world, collecting data and publishing it for people to know. Also, for regular updates from WHO, you can add this number +41798931892 to your contacts and send a hi on WhatsApp.

For the Twitterati amongst us, Verified profiles have a blue tick. You can follow your local leaders and authorities for local updates and plans of action. Also, just a little bit of digging leads to the verified truth behind every ‘update’. Stay informed, not misinformed.

Stay Safe, Stay Home

At this point in time, the only thing that remains to be said is, “Stay Indoors and Stay Safe.” May God guide us through these tough times towards a triumph over this illness.

Don’t Miss Work During The Pandemic – Here’s What Technology Can Do To Keep Up With Productivity

by with No Comment Business

The latest pandemic the world is currently facing, the COVID-19 has left the entire world astounded. With the number of infected people on the rise constantly, we see how the world has come literally to a standstill. As people have begun avoiding venturing out altogether except for gathering essentials, it is becoming more and more difficult for everyone to keep their productivity up.

MNCs and other large companies have their solutions to keep up the productive work amidst all this, but small organizations may not be able to get their hands on mass communication tools for internal and external coordination amongst their at reasonable costs. We did come across quite a few apps, websites and online tools to get your work on track while staying indoors and safe from infections.

Zoho – For End-to-End Business Management

This tool is a great assortment of everything you need to manage in your business – right from CRM to HR. This powerful cloud-based management suite can make every type of management including finance, people, customers, IT and more a piece of cake. What’s more, you don’t even need to leave the comfort and safety of your home – all you need is a computer and the internet.

Trello – Keep Your People at Work Without Worries

This task management tool has an active dashboard where you can assign all your employees, colleagues and subordinates different tasks and then monitor them. You get timely and custom reports to keep a track of the way work is going on in your team. To add a cherry to the cake, Trello also lets you integrate any apps you may already be using with your teammates.

Slack – Your Handy Office Messenger

If you have independently working people in your team and need a simple and easy-to-use platform that can help you organize, assign and control the flow of work, slack is your go-to application. Available for Android as well as PC desktop app or even accessible like a website, Slack lets you collaborate with people and add a little bit of organization to your work. Like Trello, Slack can also integrate various apps to make your job easier.

Flock – For Birds of a Feather

Flock is a platform that is similar to slack and offers a wide plethora of features like instant conversations, video calls with multiple people at once, productivity tools, app integrations and more. You can even chat one-on-one or start a channel, add people to it and broadcast your message to your teammates. Flock makes conversations over long distances easier.

Microsoft Teams – For Easy and Effective Communication

If you manage a lot of people, having all of them working home is quite a task to manage. Microsoft is your dependable buddy when it comes to communicating and coordinating between teams and teammates. A chat-based platform in the basic sense, Microsoft Teams is much more than just that. Apart from the app integrations and clutter-free chat spaces, you can schedule, remind and conduct meetings remotely without people having to be physically present in a meeting room.

If your company has many employees and you use Office 365, Teams is an application easily accessible to you which you can integrate anytime.

Google Suite Apps – So That Your Business is Always As Usual

Google has recently jumped into the work management space currently ruled by Microsoft. Google suite gives you and your firm an amazing amount of freedom and easy-to-use platforms to get every task that can be done remotely, well remotely! Google Suite seamlessly integrates with Docs, Sheets, Presentations and other Google Chrome Apps to ensure your work keeps flowing smoothly. Calls, messages and conferencing are managed by Hangouts; be it home or office, Google Suite doesn’t even let you feel the difference.

HeySpace – Easy Task Management for Everyone

If you are looking for more than just a tool to chat with colleagues or more than just task assignments, HeySpace comes to the rescue. HeySpace brings 3 different salient features to the table – team (chats), spaces (channel-based communication) and cards (task assignments and management). HeySpace doesn’t only collaborate within the team, you can also communicate with your clients. In a nutshell, HeySpace makes use of Trello and Slack’s features to give you a fine blended experience.

In a Nutshell

These seven tools are great to keep a track of your and your employees’/colleagues’ work while working remotely. Staying safe and working at home while taking preventive measures can help in keeping the work going and you can always say, “It’s business as usual, just remotely.”

Stay Safe During the Pandemic

Governments of every single country are actively taking strict and powerful counter-measures to keep the spread of this extremely contagious disease away from their citizens. We, as responsible citizens, are also actively taking precautions by isolating ourselves from society temporarily. Let’s all avoid gathering in huge crowds and wash our hands thoroughly. Venture out only when necessary and wear a mask at all times when outdoors. The bad times are here to pass.