Small Business Marketing Strategies with Covid-19

Given the current environment with the Covid-19 outbreak, we at C3R Innovation and Marketing and Social Media Boss Biz, are looking into ways for small businesses to navigate through this tough times.

Here are THREE STRONG STRATEGIES small business can do in this time of Covid-19 era:

1. LOOK INTO ALTERNATIVES
Are you a brick & mortar small business? Worried about lesser foot traffic? Well Health officials are recommending #socialdistancing. To be compliant, I would recommend turning to digital or online resources.

Digital or online resources?? Digital/ marketing is the best way to go in this tough times. I recommend maybe turning to online delivery services and giving consumers free delivery. NO website/social media/e-commerce store – NOW IS THE TIME TO HAVE ONE!

More like service-related businesses?? I’m talking about tax preparers, real estate services, etc. – GET INTO DIGITAL WAYS TO SERVICE YOUR CLIENTS. There are so many different software and applications that your business can utilize like Skype, Facebook Messenger, or FaceTime. There are also some software you can utilize like Gotomeeting, Zoom or WebEx.

The more they know. What I mean about this is to let your consumers know the actions you are taking to make sure your are following proper precaution. Whether you are constantly sanitizing your store, constantly having your employees wash their hands , employees wearing gloves or providing sanitizing products all over your store- LET YOUR CONSUMERS KNOW! Send a newsletter, post it on social media or your website. (AGAIN having a website and social sites are more important now than ever!)

2. CUT THE UNNECESSARY
This is probably the hardest yet effective thing to do right now- Cutting overhead!
One way is to cut operating hours. Look at your peak hours and set store opening hours to those times only, this way you cut on overhead (such as payroll and utilities) and save your business money.

Reduce. Reduce. Reduce! There are a lot of things that we do as a small business that are a waste. For example, printing large documents of reports to be distributed to management or employees. If it’s not really necessary… do not print it and just email documents. SAVE MONEY & SAVE TREES.
Another thing is to reduce travel. Some small businesses pay mileage or gas reimbursement to their employees and the best way to cut cost is to reduce travel expenses from your employees (I mean health officials even said to practice social distancing. Tell or train your employees to utilize software like Skype, Gotomeeting, etc.

3. ASK FOR ASSISTANCE
The trump administration is offering 50 billion dollar loans to small businesses impacted by Covid-19. According to SBA District Director ND Al Haut “ If a business has decreased sales, decreased profits, increased expenses in trying to deal with the coronavirus situation and they have a shortage in cash flow, SBA can come provide a low interest, long term working capital loan.”

This loan will allow small business to be able to make up for lost revenue and keep their business up float. Utilizing the loan for things like payroll, pay off accounts payable, etc. while experiencing lesser foot traffic.

But what is the CATCH?? Just like everything in this world, when you get a loan… you have to pay it back. Yes you have to apply for this loan ( keep reading to learn more). If you decide to apply for this Disaster Assistance loan due, you can apply for a maximum amount of $2 million with an interest rate of 3.75% or if your are a non- profit entity, you might be eligible with an interest rate of 2.75% and can repayment can be extended up to 30 years.

Can any small business apply for this loan?
No!! The Governor needs to submit a Economic Loss Declaration to SBA. Once SBA approves and declares economic loss, this loan will be available to small businesses within the county ( then you can apply for the loan). So technically this process is a county-to-county basis. Visit your county’s website to get more information and to see if the your county is eligible.

For more information on the Disaster Assistance Loan, please visit SBA’s press release: https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba-newsroom/press-releases-media-advisories/sba-provide-disaster-assistance-loans-small-businesses-impacted-coronavirus-covid-19

P.S. : As small businesses we will be greatly impacted the most. So it is important for us to have an open line of communication and share insightful information that is bringing success to your business. This is the time for all of us to come together and help each other thrive.

Keep going and pushing, We will all get through this!

Catrina Rodriguez ?