4 Tips to Protect Your Business During The Pandemic
The Coronavirus disease pandemic, commonly referred to as COVID-19, has devastated the country, causing a disruption in everyone’s daily life. Based on current statistics, New York City has a confirmed number of 222,284 cases out of the United States’ 676,676—comprising nearly a third of the entire country’s cases.
The pandemic not only brought sickness and death with it, but it has also disrupted the economy—from which many businesses may not recover from. With an economic drop seen all throughout the world, the lives of small businesses and the families that rely on them are put at risk.
As a small business owner, you might consider throwing the towel and closing shop permanently, but there are some small preparations you can do to save your business. Here are four simple tips to remember that can help protect your business for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reassess your business’ budget and finances
Reassessing your budget and finances should have been the first thing you did for your business as soon as the pandemic was declared. If you haven’t, then now would be a good time to take a look at your books. It’s to be expected that business will be weak for the coming months, so doing your bookkeeping and adjusting a bit of your budget can save you a lot of extra cash.
If there are areas where you can scrimp out on, then now would be a good idea to start. Recurring order volumes can be lowered or halted in the meantime in order to anticipate lower losses or some company luxuries could be put-off in order to minimize expenditures.
Consider remote work and shifting schedules
If possible, then shifting your employees to a remote work set-up is the best choice. Working from home may be unfamiliar ground for you, but its the best way to avoid spreading sickness amongst your employees. It still allows you to operate at an efficient capacity without having to worry about the disease.
For the businesses that can’t cater to remote work, then opting for a skeletal framework with shifting schedules can be applied. This will limit the number of employees at your store at a time, allowing you to save a bit of the budget to operate. Also consider shorter working hours, as opening up shop is a considerable expense, especially with a lack of customers.
Use a business credit card for expenditures
Keeping your business running will definitely extract a cost out of you, which is why using a business credit card for company transactions may help manage your expenses and ease your bookkeeping efforts. Through the use of a credit card, you can choose to defer payments until the next billing cycle, allowing you to hold on to your cash for a bit longer.
Downsize your staff or consider temporary wage reductions
As sad as it sounds, you may need to let go of some of your employees in order to keep your company. With things as difficult as they are now, more families will cut income by keeping all of your employees. If that isn’t an option, your employees may be amenable to minimizing their wages in order to still maintain a source of income while allowing you to keep your business.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic hit all businesses hard, which is why immediate action and preparation are necessary to keep your business going. By reviewing your accounting and finances, you may just keep your business running a little bit longer to weather this storm.
If you’re looking for a way to manage your finances but are unsure how to proceed, then the help of a QuickBooks certified bookkeeper and consultant might be necessary. We provide bookkeeping services in New York. Contact us now, and schedule a consultation with us today.