We are living in unprecedented times. The world has never seen anything like the coronavirus pandemic. The dreaded disease has already put the world to a halt, bringing to a close a lot of businesses and corporations.
While there are still some essential establishments that remain operational — such as pharmacies to get medicine from, supermarkets for food and other necessities, hardware and specialty shops for plough parts in NZ, and banks — most of the world of commerce and trade have been indefinitely suspended.
With jobs and lives on the line, smaller businesses have started to adopt certain strategies to adapt to the state of the world today. Here are some examples of businesses that have learned to cope with the effects of the virus:
Curbside Pick-Ups
Fear of getting infected with the disease caused a lot of restaurants and retail shops to adopt a curbside pick-up or delivery strategy.
A comic book specialty shop in Winchester, Virginia is right up in that alley. While their town has not yet called for businesses like them to close down or implement new strategies, the owners have decided to do take preventive measures as their service to the community.
The shop is still open to walk-in customers but is limiting the number to only 10 clients at a time with a maximum stay of 20 minutes per person. Most of their client base, however, are now patronizing their curbside pick-up and delivery services.
From Lap dances to Food Delivery
A popular strip club in Portland, Oregon was forced to shut down its operations due to the pandemic. Out of compassion for his employees, the club’s owner decided to transform the nature of his business and register it as a food delivery service.
His company now offers food delivery services courtesy of topless dancers (with pasties, of course) wearing surgical masks. Their bouncers and security are driving the dancers around, their kitchen staff still get to work their magic in the kitchen, and most of their staff are taking orders.
Transitioning to Online
Service-based businesses that require face-to-face and in-person interaction like gyms, seminars, and social work have all been forced to be creative to stay in business. Most of them have transitioned to providing online training and consultations.
A couple that owns a professional organizing company has followed suit when they saw that their clients have canceled more than 800 hours in a week’s time, which sums up to about $80,000 in revenue losses.
They have recently launched an online organizing service platform to still help meet their clients’ needs and keep their business afloat.
Providing Alternative Solutions
Events, conventions, and other crowd-gathering businesses are some of the hardest-hit industries. In light of the global health crisis, organizers have started to pivot.
Instead of fighting for their contracts, which would pretty much get them nowhere, planners and organizers are now providing their clients with alternative solutions for their events. They help their clients evaluate which course of action to take complete with marketing projections and financial estimates.
Most are turning to smaller projects which can be done online instead of in-person to help keep their clients’ businesses going and still provide for their personal daily needs.
During times of crisis, we all need to get creative for us to survive. You may not have the financial resources to start something new but all you need is a little ingenuity to keep your business afloat and help provide for families.
