Businesses are facing unprecedented hard times ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 — a highly contagious virus that has taken the whole world into its grip. The biggest challenge before them right now is Business continuity. Unless you’re a caveman (for quarantine time, doesn’t sound like a bad idea), as a business owner, you probably have felt the turmoil of the corona pandemic on your business.

Since people across the world are panic about the Coronavirus spreads, businesses are taking every measure to minimize its impact.

Should they panic like everyone else or come up with a fool-proof plan?Here is how Designhill — A Creative Marketplace, has come up with a backup plan and what you can learn from their Coronavirus Preparedness.

• Ever since the virus broke out in the vicinity, the company has been taking severe preventive measures to not only safeguard its business but the employees as well.
• The management sensed the severity of the pandemic well in advance and released an advisory that forbids, restricts, and urges employees to stay home and work remotely during the epidemic.
• The company canceled many in-personal meetings and took the online route for conferences, meetings, and events through implementing several tools.
• The employees have been asked to maintain personal hygiene and social distancing for preventing Coronavirus to spread.
• Now, business-functions are smooth like they were a few weeks ago.

“It’s working fine,” says Rahul Aggarwal, Co-founder, Designhill. “Everyone joined the WFH policy without any issues, and now the company runs its operations as smothly as it used to do earlier”, he added.

Here Are Three Ways To Safeguard Your Business As Coronavirus Spreads

While washing hands frequently, companies can follow these three tips to protect themselves from downward spiral:

01. Talk And Work Together With Your Suppliers

It is already known that the COVID-19 outbreak has a significant impact on demand-supply chains worldwide. It’s because China has a large part of the global manufacturing units. If your business happens to depend on supply chains,

Here Is What You Can Do:

• Talk to your suppliers over the phone and discuss how you both can work together to minimize the disruptions.
• Your suppliers must be busy in finding the same solutions you seek. But they cannot know what your expectations are until you tell them.
• Delay all the deliveries for some time and tackle it at full pace later.
• Make your suppliers know your priorities. Also, give them the solutions whether they should deliver specific parts of your order or can wait for the rest of it.
• Be frank and have an open discussion alleviating all the confusion.

02. Assist Your Clients / Customer With More Generous Terms

One of the biggest worries of businesses today is that the virus has affected customers as well. This is where you may find yourself in the shoes of your suppliers. Based on the situations, your business might not be capable of fulfilling the orders, or customers might be incapable of getting the expected quantities.

The Best Things You Can Do Are:

• Notify them of the product shortage, or you’re halting services for some time.
• Figure out how your business can solve their problems, including the existing and expected ones.
• If you can produce and deliver products on your own, it’s quite helpful (witty too) to offer some discounts.
• Bring in more generous terms to make sure your customers do not get stranded and run onto other brands.
• Make sure your cash flow situation is under control. Introduce discounts or generous terms as a remedy to improve your cash inflow.

Remember, cash flow problems are like termites that eat up startups from within.

03. Protect Your Organization

When you streamline the two most significant aspects of your business — supply and demand, it’s time to focus entirely on your organization’s internal issues. If you think the production will be slow for some time, you can:

• Ask your employees to work from home — full-time or part-time.
• You may also temporarily close your office if required. This lessens the risk of COVID-19 contagion from those who are exposed to it.
• Do not send your employees home without pay. Many of them might not have a rain-check plan in place.
• Consider stretching the work from home policy a bit longer. Take it as an experiment. If it works out in your benefit, why not exploit it further in your favor? Make remote working mandatory and cut off half of your expenses. Consider this guide to help your employees stay productive when working from home.

Conclusion

Believe it or not, but coronavirus pandemic is most likely to affect your business directly or indirectly. The best way you can handle it is — be prepared for it, both internally and externally. If you aren’t, it’s time to act and talk to your stakeholders — suppliers, customers, etc. Don’t forget to discuss the impact with your employees as well.

Remember, this is not a time to panic or run in distress, buckle up for challenges instead.

Are you prepared to handle the potential impact COVID-19 will have on your business? Do you have a strategy in place to safeguard your business? Feel free to share your ideas in the comment section.