New found confidence during tough times

In January, my husband had surgery to remove a brain tumor. Following his successful surgery, Sam experienced a series of complications due to infection in the hospital. Three additional brain surgeries left him unable to move his right arm or leg and the ability to communicate and he remained hospitalized for almost two months. My business was placed pretty much on hold as I navigated unfamiliar territory as his advocate.  Sam was moved to acute rehab in late February and began the arduous work of regaining strength and letting his brain heal. At the end of March, amidst COVID-19 visiting restrictions and uncertainty, Sam came home to heal. He made great progress in regaining speech, learning how to stand and now can feel his right arm and leg.  We continue physical therapy at home and he amazes me every day as he becomes more mobile.  While the corona virus has certainly added additional concerns about his safety, it has also helped us find ways to be creative and more confident in our abilities.   

My clients are all small business owners and I know many of you are worried about whether your business will survive. Will your customers come back to you after being closed?  Can you  recoup lost income?  

I don't have all the answers to these questions, but I can tell you that you have a tremendous ability to get through this AND come out on the other end more nimble, more creative and more resilient.  Rather than feeling that you don't know what to do to withstand the hardships during the next couple of months, here is what I am learning about our Western Mass small businesses.

1. Gather your resources - Massachusetts Small Business Development Center is a wonderful resource for free counseling and access to the latest COVID-19 resources for your small business, including low interest loans from SBA. Find out more.
2. Connect with customers - Your customers are looking for real relationships, especially now when most everyone is living in isolation.  What you do now to really connect with your customers will help them decide whether they continue to value your relationship. By connection, I don't mean sending them desperate promotions or coupons. I mean helping them to connect with you on a more personal level.  If you don't have a good mailing list that is segmented to your customer's needs, now is the time to work on it.  Connect through social media as well. Be sure your message is heartfelt.
3. Connect with each other - Check out your professional organizations for guidance and local organizations for support.  I joined a WBOA (Women Business Owners Alliance) virtual Happy Hour last week on Zoom that was very helpful. Our session leader, Julia Mines, asked us all to share one thing that went well today and how we helped to facilitate it.  This is a good daily exercise every day, but especially now.
4. Clean up - By all means, clean up your office, computer, files, etc., but you can also clean up your marketing goals and systems so you are ready to roll when the "all ok" is given.
5. Expand your knowledge - Take some time to hop on a few webinars, download helpful books 
6. Try something new - If you don't have an e-commerce presence, or you do but it needs more love, now is a great time to pay attention to building an online income stream. One local business owner shared that he had an online store, but prior to corona virus only put on stuff that he didn't think would sell in his store. He has since rethought that decision and made some adjustments with his inventory. He now has a new income stream!

​We will get through this and you may find yourself stronger, more innovative and resilient than you thought possible.