Preparing for the Future of Business

Business has always been an area of constant change, but there’s no doubt that the number and speed of changes have increased dramatically. COVID-19 is the most recent and farthest-reaching example of this trend.

What can business owners do to prepare themselves for the future business environment? Though no one has a crystal ball, there’s a lot you can do to make your company more agile, diversify your strategies, and get ready to take advantage of new opportunities.

Preparing for the future affects every area of your business. Here are a few strategies that you can implement now so that your growth and success continue in any environment.

Audit Your Current Processes

There’s no way to move forward with effective change unless you know what you’re doing now. You can’t afford to be complacent. Instead, take a look at how you’re doing things and where current obstacles exist.

Can your business operate more efficiently? Is your company digitally accessible to everyone? Where are your processes prone to disruption during a crisis? Answering these questions will help you decide what changes to make so that your company can grow and thrive in any future.

Review Your Production Process

If you deliver a service or software-as-service, you might not think your production process is much to look at. However, it can still be interrupted by emergencies.

How secure is your network? How is cybersecurity being handled if you have a remote workforce? How would you respond if someone hacked your systems? What if a disgruntled employee damaged the network or stole essential information?

If you sell physical products, you’ll need to look at your suppliers and inventory. Having a diverse set of suppliers was essential to companies that did well during COVID-19. You can’t afford to have a shutdown in another business cause you to cease operations.

Also, think about how you can balance on-time production with stored inventory. On-time production is lean and cost-effective when everything runs smoothly, but a kink in the line can completely bankrupt your business. Consider storing a certain amount of inventory to get you through slowdowns and shutdowns in the future.

Marketing

How can you prepare for the future of marketing? Although consumer platforms have changed, the good news is that consumer desires have not. Everyone wants to have convenient, easy ways to carry out their everyday tasks.

Take advantage of technology to deliver highly-personalized messaging through social media and other platforms. People want to feel like they’re the only person you’re connected with, and segmenting your audience can help you convey that sense.

Don’t forget the importance of the color scheme you choose for your marketing materials, either. Different colors evoke different emotions — and some color combinations are more aesthetically pleasing and eye-catching than others. If you want your marketing to be as successful as possible, put a little time into what your marketing visuals are actually saying to consumers. 

It’s also essential to diversify your marketing platforms. Don’t overlook email marketing strategies, and consider direct mail marketing as well. The more ways you connect with consumers, the more quickly they will become comfortable with your brand. You’ll also be less vulnerable to disruptions in any one area.

Build Excellent Customer Service Practices

Many companies make the mistake of thinking that customer service is “nice to have” but isn’t essential to growing their business. Nothing could be further from the truth! How you treat your customers not only impacts initial sales, but it affects your future profits as well.

When you have excellent customer service, you earn repeat customers. These customers are better than new ones because they spend more, are easier to convert, and cost far less per sale. Boosting your revenue through multiple sales to existing customers is more cost-effective and easier than any other kind of growth.

Furthermore, superior customer service allows you to create brand ambassadors that promote your company for free. These superfans help influence others to trust and buy from you and will stand by your company in tough times.

Whenever there’s a crisis, having a pool of existing, happy customers to draw on is a tremendous advantage. There’s no way to prepare for the future without focusing on your customers.

Improve Crisis Management

No one likes to dwell on worst-case scenarios, but doing so might save your business in the future. You never know when a crisis will hit, which is why being prepared will help you not only survive but take advantage of new opportunities.

Why not bring your leadership team together and brainstorm some scenarios? You can then work through what a proper response would be and identify the possible positives you could take away from the event.

For instance, stay-at-home orders had a big impact on how marketing was carried out. Certain technologies and tools became much more important, and companies that could sell directly to the consumer online thrived.

As a business, you could determine how you’d respond to future shutdowns and how you’d take advantage of the situation. For instance, many firms are finding that their newly developed websites are building engagement and boosting sales — and will continue to do so well after the pandemic passes.

You can only control so much, but listing potential threats and how you’d mitigate them can help bring peace of mind to your leadership team. Best of all, you’re better prepared for anything that might happen.

The Future of Business is Bright

Though we’ve weathered unprecedented adversity, it’s clear that overall the future of business is bright. New technologies are giving companies unmatched access to consumer preferences and allowing for personalized outreach in new ways.

Businesses are also learning to diversify their marketing and production to meet consumers where they are in any market.

There’s no reason not to dream big and build a great company. The future awaits — and you’ll be ready to seize every opportunity and thrive.