Opportunities In Coronavirus Economy

Over the last few weeks, I have spoken with hundreds of our business coaching clients about the coronavirus pandemic and what it means for their businesses both in the short and long term. Many business owners understandably have questions and immediate concerns, but many are already starting to look for the hidden opportunities within this crisis. 

So today I wanted to share with you some of the great ideas our clients have come up with thus far in the wake of Covid-19 in the hopes that it will help spark some ideas for your own businesses. 

Turning Opportunity into Profits

The first business I want to highlight is a retail janitorial service. It experienced a boom in clients thus far but were able to see an opportunity to expand its offering in terms of sanitization services.  

It immediately began offering shelving and store sanitation services as well as cart sanitation. And it hopes to continue to offer these services not just over the course of the next several months, but moving forward. Many businesses are just thinking about this as a temporary thing; however, you can now go back to your customers and explain this is now the new normal. This is the new standard expectation for your customers. What a great way to take a temporary boost and communicate and use that as an opportunity to make it a permanent boost to the business.

The Time Is Now 

Another thing that we have heard time and time again from business owners, is that they now have time to finish that project that they have been putting off for a while. Maybe it's a website overhaul, or putting together your systems and processes. As things slow down temporarily, you have the opportunity to upgrade and refine your systems and do some training internally in those areas that need to be cross trained on.
Or, for many in the restaurant industry, this time means a chance to try out a new product offering like "grab and go meals." The way in which we do business will likely change in the months ahead, but if you look for a way to stay relevant and meet your customers where they are, you will be ahead of the game. 

Another example of this was a company that does occupational therapy for school districts. Well, schools are closed. Most of the company's sessions were held on school grounds, which made it difficult for it to provide speech therapy and other things to its clients. So it changed its model and began to offer up remote services to the children that it worked with, so school districts would still be able to provide these services to their students even when distance learning. 

Taking Advantage of Remote

Another example is a law firm that took the opportunity to open up multiple satellite offices in its state to help with its particular niche of legal services. What it realized was, now more than ever, people are much more willing--not just the individual clients, but also the courts--to do more and more video-based meetings, which allow them to save on overhead and centralize their legal staff, thus allowing them to still serve the entire state. 

Recruiting and Prospecting

Another thing that I have seen a lot of business owners focus on during this time: recruitment. Is there a talent on the market that you could finally recruit that you never could before? Is there a customer that you could go after now that never would have been open, but now might take your call? Now is the time. 

So, what for you are the opportunities hidden within this pandemic? How can you double down by serving and creating value for your customers? How can you help your customers seize opportunities?