The Small Business Care Package

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https//blacksheepdigital.ca/
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Take the lead and navigate your business through
the COVID-19 crisis.
We hope that first and foremost that you and your
loved ones stay safe, fit, and healthy. These are
truly unprecedented times where everyone needs to
come together and help one another. As business
owners ourselves we realize the threat that
COVID-19 presents to all types of businesses.
Many businesses may never recover from this but
we hope that the information included in this
package will help you navigate the situation and
come out on top when the dust settles.  Given
that each company has its own way of dealing with
business disruption and degree of preparedness to
react to these situations we should take a moment
to evaluate whether these 3 actionable steps have
been implemented. Before we get to these 3 steps
make sure that the needs of your employees are
met. You should anticipate and create an
information hub that your employees can access to
find all of the requisite information they will
need during this time.
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1. Keep yourself and your employees informed
Stay up to date with the latest developments from
official sources such as government sources and
the World Health Organization. Doing so will
allow you to make nimble changes to your business
while also keeping your customers informed. Try
and update yourself on a daily basis! New events
are unfolding every hour and each day presents us
with another set of challenges. For example, what
we initially thought of COVID 19 being contained
to one part of china drastically changed in a
matter of days.Creating and sharing a regularly
updated set of facts and implications with your
employees can be invaluable. Time is precious and
wasting it on the deliberation of what is true
and whats not doesnt prove helpful to anyone.
As you absorb news daily take the time to assess
the validity of the source before acting on it.
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2. Stay in touch with your customers
Are you utilizing every available platform to
keep your customers informed? Leverage every
single social media platform your business has a
presence on. You can reach out via email,
Facebook, or Instagram. These are all free and
immediate ways to inform customers of any changes
to your business, your hours, or the measures you
are taking to keep your premises safe.  Is your
business able to provide a service to its
customer base through live-streamed events on
Facebook or Instagram? Get creative with the ways
you can keep your business engaged with its
customer base.
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3. Prepare a standardized procedure for customer
service
Time is of the essence.Quick response and
transparency with customers are essential during
these trying times. There is no doubt going to be
a lot of confusion so be prepared to handle an
influx of inquiries and requests. Extending
another line of communication with your customers
will mean the world to them. Consider setting up
your email for auto-responding to inbound
messages or set up a new Frequently Asked
Question page on your website/social media
profiles that will speak towards your customers
concerns. Post this up everywhere, it does not
matter if its redundant use every channel of
communication that you have. Incorporating these
measures will pay huge dividends in ensuring your
business operates at maximum efficiency while
also providing transparency and a sense of
calmness amongst your customer base. Once you
have these measures in place you can begin to
look towards incorporating these measures that
take into account the future of your business.
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BE RESILIENT.
What does that mean? The ability to adapt and
survive through unpredictable conditions and
facing unfavourable events. All too often the
emphasis is put on business efficiency, without a
second thought to overcoming unforeseen problems.
We as business owners need to be prepared to
handle the inevitable changes in the world. Take
note of these attributes when reflecting on
crisis response. ModularityHighly integrated
systems are efficient, very efficient but when a
wrench in the plans affects this sort of system
it completely collapses. There is no room for
error. In contrast, a system that can work
interchangeably, or combined in different ways
can offer greater resiliency to disruptive
events. What can you do in your business to
increase modularity? EvolvabilityInternal systems
can be built to fulfill many different purposes.
Most commonly they are in some way built towards
reaching peak efficiency or optimization. What
they should really be built for is evolvability
relentless improvement in light of new
opportunities, problems, or information. While
most learning will be done in retrospect this
time around, you can still make improvements now
see what works and build upon those
results.EmbeddednessRarely are business alone in
their industry. If you think you are look at
your supply chain, your stakeholders, and your
ecosystem as a whole. Solving problems for your
own company is great in the short term, but if
your industry partners are left behind it will be
detrimental in the long term.Food For Thought If
your business is able, let it be part of the
solution. If you have the means to contribute and
support others in terms of the supply chain,
industry, or at the community level join in.
Helping in a time of adversity creates trust and
lasting goodwill.As bleak as it sounds, be
prepared for the next crisis. Be resilient.
COVID-19 is not going to be the last of world
pandemics. Preparing for the next crisis or the
next phase of the crisis will be much more
effective than a reactive response. Sometimes we
forget how fragile our society actually is we
should be better prepared for when a global
crisis hits and not get caught in a state of
frenzy and panic.
What does that mean? The ability to adapt and
survive through unpredictable conditions and
facing unfavourable events. All too often the
emphasis is put on business efficiency, without a
second thought to overcoming unforeseen problems.
We as business owners need to be prepared to
handle the inevitable changes in the world. Take
note of these attributes when reflecting on
crisis response. ModularityHighly integrated
systems are efficient, very efficient but when a
wrench in the plans affects this sort of system
it completely collapses. There is no room for
error. In contrast, a system that can work
interchangeably, or combined in different ways
can offer greater resiliency to disruptive
events. What can you do in your business to
increase modularity? EvolvabilityInternal systems
can be built to fulfill many different purposes.
Most commonly they are in some way built towards
reaching peak efficiency or optimization. What
they should really be built for is evolvability
relentless improvement in light of new
opportunities, problems, or information. While
most learning will be done in retrospect this
time around, you can still make improvements now
see what works and build upon those
results.EmbeddednessRarely are business alone in
their industry. If you think you are look at
your supply chain, your stakeholders, and your
ecosystem as a whole. Solving problems for your
own company is great in the short term, but if
your industry partners are left behind it will be
detrimental in the long term.Food For Thought If
your business is able, let it be part of the
solution. If you have the means to contribute and
support others in terms of the supply chain,
industry, or at the community level join in.
Helping in a time of adversity creates trust and
lasting goodwill.As bleak as it sounds, be
prepared for the next crisis. Be resilient.
COVID-19 is not going to be the last of world
pandemics. Preparing for the next crisis or the
next phase of the crisis will be much more
effective than a reactive response. Sometimes we
forget how fragile our society actually is we
should be better prepared for when a global
crisis hits and not get caught in a state of
frenzy and panic.
What's next for your business?
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That is a great question. You should take the
time now to address any issues or projects that
you have always wanted to start or solve but
could never find the time. It is so important
that you do this now because when this is all
over the way society functions and interacts will
never be the same. How do you think society will
be conducting most of its shopping after all of
this? How many times have you heard remote in a
sentence lately? This pandemic will define the
transition to online advertising and e-commerce
whether you like it or not. The writing on the
wall to adopt these changes is staring you
straight in the face are you finally ready to
get your business ahead of the pack? Two of the
most frequently neglected projects we see from
business owners are delaying the transition to
digital marketing and the development of an
e-commerce platform for online fulfillment
(remember resiliency?). If your business is in a
position to leverage the circumstances at hand
this is actually the BEST time to start growing
your business online. Many businesses arent
thinking strategically of how to turn these
unfavorable events around and make it work in
their favour. People are afraid (rightfully so)
and they are afraid to spend money. This is
mirrored in the digital marketing space right
now. Everyone is pulling back their advertising
budgets because they are afraid. So what does
this mean for everyone else who is staying the
course? Simple. More bang for your buck. Your
advertising dollars are never going to be more
effective than right now. There has never been a
more important time for your business to start
marketing and get ahead of the pack. The cost to
reach thousands of people through marketing
platforms such as Facebook is dropping
dramatically. On a global scale, fewer businesses
are spending money on advertisement meaning the
competition is dropping. This is leaving a large
chunk of ad space unclaimed.  Think of the
current circumstances, more users are spending
more time at home on their phones flicking
through their feed to stay up to date or just
plained bored quarantined at home and on social
media. There are more Facebook daily users but
fewer people spending money on advertisements,
which means that drives the price of
advertisement down. It is going to cost less
money to reach more people and obtain lower costs
per purchase. In the near future when the dust
settles And it will if you want to hit these
low marketing costs and get a head start on your
competition you need to get your digital
marketing plan in order yesterday. Cause when
that time comes and world goes back to normal you
need to hit the ground running.
That is a great question. You should take the
time now to address any issues or projects that
you have always wanted to start or solve but
could never find the time. It is so important
that you do this now because when this is all
over the way society functions and interacts will
never be the same. How do you think society will
be conducting most of its shopping after all of
this? How many times have you heard remote in a
sentence lately? This pandemic will define the
transition to online advertising and e-commerce
whether you like it or not. The writing on the
wall to adopt these changes is staring you
straight in the face are you finally ready to
get your business ahead of the pack? Two of the
most frequently neglected projects we see from
business owners are delaying the transition to
digital marketing and the development of an
e-commerce platform for online fulfillment
(remember resiliency?). If your business is in a
position to leverage the circumstances at hand
this is actually the BEST time to start growing
your business online. Many businesses arent
thinking strategically of how to turn these
unfavorable events around and make it work in
their favour. People are afraid (rightfully so)
and they are afraid to spend money. This is
mirrored in the digital marketing space right
now. Everyone is pulling back their advertising
budgets because they are afraid. So what does
this mean for everyone else who is staying the
course? Simple. More bang for your buck. Your
advertising dollars are never going to be more
effective than right now. There has never been a
more important time for your business to start
marketing and get ahead of the pack. The cost to
reach thousands of people through marketing
platforms such as Facebook is dropping
dramatically. On a global scale, fewer businesses
are spending money on advertisement meaning the
competition is dropping. This is leaving a large
chunk of ad space unclaimed.  Think of the
current circumstances, more users are spending
more time at home on their phones flicking
through their feed to stay up to date or just
plained bored quarantined at home and on social
media. There are more Facebook daily users but
fewer people spending money on advertisements,
which means that drives the price of
advertisement down. It is going to cost less
money to reach more people and obtain lower costs
per purchase. In the near future when the dust
settles And it will if you want to hit these
low marketing costs and get a head start on your
competition you need to get your digital
marketing plan in order yesterday. Cause when
that time comes and world goes back to normal you
need to hit the ground running.
What else can I do for my business right now?
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If you have any questions feel free to reach out
to us and we would be more than happy to
help. Stay Safe! The Marketing Agency In
Vancouver