Is your business an essential service through the onset and tenure of the pandemic? If it’s not, chances are you’re eyeing all who have been deemed essential, and you’re wondering how you can alter your business to fall within this category. Sure, essential businesses are able to remain open and running, even through state closures. But essential businesses offer more than that. Their employees are still working; they have a safe sense of income and a strong purpose through COVID-19. These businesses have been able to give back to the public. They’ve been able to adjust their services to follow changing standards and guidelines. And most importantly, franchisees and its employees have kept a sense of security, even through the darkest depths of the pandemic.
If you’re an essential franchise, that’s great! Keep up the amazing work.
If your franchise isn’t one that’s essential – or you’re in the beginning stages of opening up your business – there is much to pay attention to. How can you alter your business in a way that deems you necessary in a state of emergency?
Franchise locations have begun selling hand sanitizer. They’ve been creating masks, offering deliveries to those who can’t leave, or simply offering tips for their customers online. But this is only a small sample. Paying attention to customer needs can set you up for success; planning now can help put you well on your way.
How Will Your Skills Meet a Mass Need?
The pandemic offers future business owners a unique market to open within. The “necessary” types of businesses have been on the chopping block, and those opening up shop are smart to stay within strict guidelines. That means, for those looking to open, you’re well aware of what’s essential, and how you can fell within that section in your new business.
To find a best fit, look at your own personal skills and find a match. What can you do? What interests you? How can you use your abilities to fill a need? Where does your knowledge meet a gap in the market?
Pair your own abilities with essential needs in order to create a foolproof franchise brand. One that you will not only be well qualified to run, but one that helps customers with an actual, ongoing requirement. This creates ongoing business and will offer peace of mind and security every time you ring up a transaction. There’s no greater feeling of filling a need for your customers!
How to Alter Your Business to Meet Essential Needs?
Start by looking at your infrastructure. What can your building allow? What can your employees do? If you have equipment that can clean or help sanitize, it only makes sense that you use that equipment in its intended use. If you have a commercial kitchen but aren’t able to host in-person diners, package food to go. Deliver carry out for elderly or sick customers who can’t risk any germ exposure, even when it’s outdoors.
If you have yet to open your franchise, consider alternate uses for the industry in which you’re looking. Find a business that follows your skills and knowledge base, but don’t stop there. How can you provide more in a changing market? How can you provide additional security in a time of need?
Businesses of all sizes have found success in switching up their models. Ensure you can adjust for longevity and growing success.
Additional examples include:
- CPAs preparing and filing documents for government loans, like the Payment Protection Program and EIDL.
- Bankers and credit unions processing and funding those same loans, as well as home loans with the reduced interest rates.
- Kids’ educational brands creating online content via YouTube or activity packets that kids can do at home.
- Home services adjusting to meet needs that are outdoor only (pest control, pressure washing, painting, etc.)
- Laundromats and dry cleaning businesses that are volunteering their facilities to healthcare workers.
These, of course, are only a drop in the bucket. Remaining creative while adapting to the public needs has allowed franchises to thrive, even in uncertain times. From changing the way they operate and sell, to donating facilities and resources to a good cause (and reaping the tax rewards), franchise platforms are making it work.
For incoming franchisees, this is a wonderful form of encouragement. Essential and thriving, or non-essential and with a creative fix, business is to be found.
Putting Essential Lessons into Your Franchise
Business conditions will not always be ideal. It’s important to know that going in. The market comes and goes, and as a franchisee, it’s your job to weather the storm in the best way that you know how. From changing the way you do business, to looking for new ways to do business while helping the masses, that responsibility falls within your court. You, of course, aren’t doing so alone. You have the help of your corporate brand behind you. You have city officials, others in your industries, and your own particular workforce. You are all in this together.
Look at market changes – including unexpected ones like COVID-19 – as a way to put your best chops to work. To find the most possible business for your franchise, despite the odds or factors that might be against you.
It’s a time to help the people and show your workers you can offer them security. And it’s a time to prove that you have what your brand needs of you, in any situation at play.