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There is a question that many ask themselves at this moment: Will my business still be here 2020 and beyond?

Even during the best of times, running a small business can be challenging.

Nearly everyone running a small business will tell you that it is tough. During difficult circumstances, running a business becomes an even greater challenge. Throughout the years, many incidents have occurred that placed a squeeze on businesses:

During these challenging times, many small businesses folded under the pressure. They simply were not able to keep their businesses standing. However, many businesses have survived these incredibly challenging circumstances. Some of them have even thrived.

This demonstrates that your business can make it through hard times. You’ll need to get creative, take decisive action and make tough decisions. But with focus and determination you can do it!
The 2020 and Beyond survival tips for Small Businesses will guide you on this journey.

Control Your Mindset

It all start with thoughts. If your business is going through a tough time, it’s absolutely essential to control your mindset. When things get tough, it’s really easy to enter a downward mental spiral.

As you work to stabilize and turn around your business, it’s critical to maintain a positive mindset. Having a positive mindset also means that you are determined to not give up.

Just about every great business leader has endured struggles such as yours. They are successful because they persevered and were resilient. If you are serious about the success of your business, you need mental toughness. 

Follow these steps to control your mindset:

​As you push through problems and challenges, keep in mind why you started your business in the first place. Seek to tap into the emotions and desires that originally pushed you to create your business.

Implementing these survival tips for Small Businesses needs a positive and focused mindset.

Clarify the Problem

To be able to identify a solution, you must first understand the challenge. Take some time to think about how you got to where you currently are.

What happened that you didn’t expect?

Some common problems businesses face are:

If you want your business to thrive during challenging times, you must be able to put your finger on the primary challenges.

If you’re feeling sick and go to the doctor, what’s the first thing they try to do? Determine what is causing the illness. The same principle is true in business.

Be Customer-Centric

What is at the heart of every business, including yours? Customers. If you don’t have customers, you don't have a business.

Your customer should be the center point when deciding what actions to take to strengthen your business.

Before making changes, consider how they will affect the customer experience. If customer experience is one of your key competitive advantages, be especially careful about changes.

Communication with your customer is crucial. If you do decide to make changes that will directly affect the customer, communicate those clearly. Explain to the customer the reason for the changes and the outcomes you expect.

During times of global crisis, it’s important to keep the focus on customers. People will remember the actions you take. If you seek to serve your customers, even at the expense of profit, you’ll build up a huge amount of goodwill.

Conduct a SWOT Analysis

If you want to succeed as a small business owner, you must be willing to honestly evaluate how things are going.

A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis provides you with a framework for analyzing your business.

Strengths. These are the things you have control over and are working well in your business. Focus on and try to develop these areas further.

Weaknesses. These are the things that aren’t working well in your business. Your goal is to change or eliminate these things so that they don’t continue to damage your business.

Opportunities. These are external factors that have the potential to benefit your business. The more you can capitalize on these opportunities, the more success you’ll have.

Threats. These are external factors that could possibly hurt your business. Avoid these things or adapt to them.

Performing a SWOT analysis is hard work. But this clear-headed analysis will help you overcome your weaknesses, capitalize on your strengths, and take advantage of unique opportunities.

Create Objectives and a Plan

Once you’ve completed your SWOT analysis, determine the objectives you’ll pursue and create a detailed plan for achieving those objectives. This will give you the clarity you need to move forward.

Start with your strengths. How will you double down on the things you’re already doing well? Then review your weaknesses. How can you change, minimize, or even eliminate these areas?

Next you look at opportunities. Do you see a new market you can move into? Can you implement a new technology that will help you be more efficient?

Finish with threats. How will you avoid or adapt to those things that could hurt your business?

Remember to create a plan on how you'll meet your objectives.

Your objectives need to be:

Reduce Expenses

If you want your business to survive and thrive during difficult times, you may need to reduce your costs. However, be careful and precise as you do this.

Cut costs too much and you may hurt your business to a point that it will be hard to recover. Cut costs too little and you won’t free up enough cash to keep your business going.

Start by cutting discretionary costs. These are costs that aren’t necessary to run your business. Business lunches are a good example of a discretionary cost.

Next, look at ways you can reduce costs but still achieve the same outcomes. Can you reduce travel costs by using videoconferencing technology?

Next, consider your office space costs. Your landlord may be willing to lower your rent or even create a new lease for you. If your landlord won’t reduce your rent, consider moving to a less expensive building.

Also take a close look at your supply chain. Some of your suppliers may be willing to give you discounts.

At some point, you’ll need to think about reducing staffing costs. This is hard for every business owner. Before you lay people off, look for ways you can reduce employee hours or compensation.

Manage Your Cash Flow

Each month you have cash coming into your business and cash going out of your business. Not having enough incoming cash is one of the biggest reasons small businesses go under.

This means you need to pay very close attention to your cash flow. If you have negative cash flow, you’ll need to make up the difference in the next month.

A quick way to evaluate your cash flow:
At the end of the month, add up your total sales.
Total all purchases that you still must pay for.
Calculate the difference.

If you find yourself struggling with cash flow, you do have some options:
You can sell assets to bring in additional cash.
You can get a working capital line of credit.

As much as possible, stay abreast of your cash flow. Send out invoices in a timely fashion and follow up with customers who fall behind on payments. Pay your own bills on time and try to plan accordingly for purchases.

Reach out for Financial Support

To help support vulnerable South African businesses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South African Government has implemented several relief measures which, at this stage, focus on providing support to SMMEs as well as in providing tax relief, unemployment support and various loan funding. 

These support measures varies considerably from country to country and are being updated and amended regularly.

Use Low-Cost Marketing

It costs money to get your company name out there, however if you stop doing marketing, you connect with fewer customers, which also decreases available funds.

So, what should you do when your business is struggling?

Use low-cost marketing to simultaneously cut your budget and increase your efforts. Traditional advertising methods such as television, radio, and billboards tend to be pretty expensive.

Less expensive techniques 

Other, less expensive techniques can be just as effective.

For example:

Be Persistent, Be Creative, and Pivot

Successful businesses persevere through trying times and come up with creative solutions to difficult challenges. Sometimes they even pivot to a completely different business model.

Polaroid is an example of a company that didn’t approach problems with persistence or creativity. As digital photography began to take over in the late 90’s, Polaroid executives continued to insist that people wanted hard copy photos.

As a result, they were forced to file for bankruptcy in 2001.

Yelp, on the other hand, used creativity and persistence to overcome difficulties. The service started as a platform for getting recommendations from friends, but they couldn’t seem to get much traction.

They pivoted to focus on making it easy to write business reviews and the rest is history. 

Business Strategy Shift

Even in the worst circumstances, there are still options and opportunities.

During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, many companies pivoted in big ways:

How can you pivot in your business, so you stay afloat and meet the demand of your clients?

​There are numerous ways you can pivot your business:

In Conclusion

The reality is that every business faces challenges. These difficulties don’t need to sink your business. 

Be pro-active and make use of the 2020 and Beyond survival tips for Small Businesses.

Don’t give up. Persistence produces success.