5 things to do to help your business to stay successful during lockdown

Creating a vision should be a fun process, where you can let your imagination go wild, remove the fear of those who may judge and ultimately help your dreams become a reality. Tips for creating your vision, think about: • Be emotive, make sure your vision connects and resonates with you. It needs to be emotionally charged and you need to resonate with it. • What does year 1, 5 and 10 look like in the future – set the direction of your vision. • A real vision will depict a desirable image of the future. • A vision is not fixed, it will evolve and change over time. • Your vision should create value for the community as a whole, remove any personal benefit and think about how your vision will improve someone’s life. It should be an improvement on the current situation. Tip Two: New Financial Year, time for a new Budget Regardless if you’re in lockdown or not, every business should have a plan of what sales and expenses they budget for. Budgeting might be foreign to your business and might be something you have never thought about, which is almost the same as you walking around with a blind fold over your eyes. In summary, a budget is a plan to: 1. Monitor the inflow and outflow of cash, usually sales and expenses. 2. Making sure the business can continue to fund its commitments, for example loan repayments. 3. Enable the business to make financial decisions and any goals. Have enough cash to fund all business activities and enough surplus for any unexpected expenses (such as equipment upgrades) Most accounting software, like Xero, has the ability to help you create a budget and also compare your actual results to the budget. Tip Three: Stay Educated Reading autobiographies or ‘how to’ books on and from well-respected authors is a good way to get inspired and to implement changes that will help improve your business. With all the spare time we gain during a lockdown, it the perfect time to get educated on things you normally wouldn’t have time to do. In addition, it can also help you create or maintain positive thoughts and actions. Here are some titles of Books we’d recommend: Losing My Virginity: Richard Branson (Autobiography). Entrepreneurial Leap, by Gino Wickman. Profit First, by Mike Michalowicz. Traction, by Gino Wickman. Podcasts and You Tube channels we recommend: Leadership Unlocked, with Craig Bulmer and Human Interactions Australia Daniel Tolson, Accelerate and Multiply (on you tube    / danieltolsonbusinesscoach   ) Tip Four: Advertise and let the world know what you are doing. The worst thing you can do (especially during a lockdown) is staying silent. Communicate with all of your stakeholders (customers, staff, suppliers, referral partners) about what it is that you’re doing. If your business has been affected by this lockdown in terms of sales or services, it is not the time to back off and take lockdown as an excuse to do nothing. This is also a great opportunity and time to create or review a marketing and advertising strategy. Take this time off as an opportunity to work on aspect of your small business that may be neglected during a normal working week. Tip Five: Keep on top of your Mental Health … and don’t forget your staff As seen in the last lockdown, isolation for many individuals can be detrimental to mental health. Take this time to not only check on yourself but also your employees. This is a stressful time for all, especially as COVID cases increase these circumstances can cause higher levels of stress and anxiety, especially for many business owners. RU OK has published on their website a few simple steps when talking to a staff member who’s not OK. When getting ready to ask, you need to: Be ready: make sure you yourself is in a good headspace, are willing to genuinely listen and have enough time to listen. Be prepared: You won’t have all the answers, and that’s ok, but one of the most important thinks you can do is listening. Also be prepared that the conversation may get personal, with your staff member getting emotional, embarrassed or upset. Pick your moment: It’s important that you keep such a conversation private and informal, so don’t ask questions in a group setting. Start a conversation: Be relaxed and ask “Are You OK?”. Simple questions to open the conversation include “How you going”, “What’s been happening” or “I’ve noticed that you’re not quite yourself lately. How are you travelling?” Listen to the conversation, take what they say seriously and don’t interrupt or rush the conversation. Encourage them to explain how they feel and if they get upset, don’t take it personally. Encourage action, ask them what they think would be a good step and suggest that a good option is to speak to their doctor, family or a trusted person. Finally, check in with your staff member and find out how they went, the course of action they took and ask if there is any additional support you can provide.