Well, what can we really say about 2020, we certainly didn’t have pandemic contingencies built into our business strategy, and of course we’re not alone. None of us were truly prepared for the pressures a pandemic can place on a business.
We have been very fortunate that we are in a business where working from home, remotely, is actually an easy step for us. We have online systems in place to manage workflow, manage client communication in a centralised way and communicate with all staff. Like so many we turned to regular video chats to stay connected, made more use of online messaging and relied even more upon the systems we had already in place.
Many were not so lucky, I personally had friends in the nightclub industry who had only just opened a cocktail bar as the Pandemic struck, and lockdown rules came into force. But their story in many ways resonates across many industries. Whilst they had to close up the bar, they looked at different ways to attract business and grow what sales they could. They decided upon starting a home delivery business, delivering cocktails to people in the local area. The sales took off and they found themselves using several additional drivers to help keep up with the demand for cocktail deliveries, a true success story despite adversity.
They found new and creative ways to ‘do business’ – they turned to social media more to promote the deliveries and take orders and they have successfully managed to keep trading during what we all now is a difficult time.
And I suppose what this highlights is the need to continually innovate and think outside the box when it comes to how you run your business, whether this be a retail outlet, nightclub, new start up or consultancy.
You may have a business that is ticking over, or struggling during these strange times, but taking a step back and thinking about the direction you now need to take could be make or break as we head into 2021. Some rules and distancing guidelines are not likely to go away any time soon, and as a business we all need to ensure we are best placed to grow during this coming year.
So we took hard look at ourselves to decide what direction the business needed to go in order to maintain and grow a client base. Our roots were always planted firmly in the creative design industry, back when we first started out in the 90’s. Our support and design skills have always been something our clients’ reply upon, and whilst this for many years has been focused around ecommerce websites. We have decided to open this back out to a wider range of services to include more general website design and digital creative services.
Our website had a refresh in 2020 to reflect some of these service changes, and we are already seeing more conversations with more local businesses, meaning we enter into 2021 in a positive mind set.
If, like us and so many others, you are looking to re-think your business goals, looking to update your brand, try something new or just give what you got a make over. Then give us a call, so we can work together to make sure that 2021 is a year of growth for us all.