by Brittany McSorley
If you’re a small business owner on Cape Cod, you’ve probably spent the last week or so feeling restless and/or frustrated. You may be wondering how to best keep up with your business responsibilities while most of us are confined to our homes for the time being. Fortunately, there’s plenty you can do from the comfort of your couch. As we’ve already said, now is not the time to cold call or hard sell, but there are a variety of ways to stay productive and lay the groundwork for when we all emerge again.
Website Work: When was the last time you cleaned up your business website? Exactly. Take this time to tidy up your copy, update photos, and maybe even play around with a brand new template. If you’re site-less, now’s the perfect time to change that. Squarespace, Wix, GoDaddy and other site-building tools all have a learning curve, but now you have the time to master them.
Computer Deep-Clean: I know you don’t want to think about this, but your computer is probably not as organized as it could be. Use this time to delete what can be deleted (it’s more than you think), develop a better folder system, etc. Bonus: You’ll likely stumble across long-forgotten ideas that you can turn into plans for the future of your business.
Write Now, Sell Later: This is a great time to think about all those potential clients you scroll by on social media or read about in the paper but never quite find the time to get in touch with. Again, now is not the moment to actually send any cover letters or proposals, but it’s the perfect moment to write them! It feels good to be prepared.
Get Ahead: Is your current social media marketing technique a little by-the-seat-of-your-pants? We’re not here to judge, but we do suggest using this time to create more of a plan. Gather images and notes you may want to use in future marketing posts. If you’re feeling lost for inspiration, check out what similar businesses are doing (or were doing). As for current posts, make your followers smile by sharing something uplifting . . . and leave the sell out of it!
Picture Perfect: Royalty-free photo sites like Burst and Pixabay are not only incredibly useful for small business marketing, they’re also just plain fun to explore. Take this opportunity to create an account and organize images you’d like to use in future social media efforts.
Something New: There’s never been a better time to develop a new skill that will help you in the long run. Do you use Canva as part of your marketing efforts? Ribbet? Constant Contact? You do now, and with all this downtime, you can really perfect your visuals to create something stunning for the future.
Use your time wisely now, and reap the benefits when things are back up and running.
