Coronavirus: How to Keep Your Business Running & Bounce Back Stronger

As COVID-19 continues to spread through the states and territories of Australia, businesses across the country are wondering how they will survive this period.

Many of our clients and partners have been in touch to ask our standpoint on the current pandemic. Firstly, we can reassure everyone that ICS Consulting will still be operating as normal, with additional measures in place (including taking all our services online) to protect our team and clients and contain the spread of the virus.

At this time, we wanted to share our best insights on how businesses we know of are succeeding and giving you some ideas on how to prepare now for the recovery which will inevitably come.

Think strategically and focus on what you can control:

Here are some of the best resources we have found to date on how to keep your business going and flourishing in the current environment:

  1. Business Continuity: Weathering the Storm of Corona Virus
  2. Tips for Small business owners: Focus on what you can control
  3. Tips video for SMEs on dealing with the virus
  4. Dealing with Staff, Customers, Suppliers and Cashflow
  5. Answers for Business Owners– Group on Facebook (request to join) for SMEs wanting questions answered or a group which can support.
  6. Please let us know if you have more…

Work on your cloud-based systems:

As we know, there will be no “going back to normal” after this period is over. There will be a new normal. And businesses who have proactively adapted will be much more likely to survive and flourish. Savvy businesses know that If you can get your systems for remote-work functioning well during this time, this will make your business much more agile and resilient when the recovery begins.

Don’t let staff working remotely become a reason for accepting lower standards, poorer communication within or outside your business and less attention to risk. Work on continuous improvement and on setting up systems that will serve you well beyond this period- putting you in a much more competitive position as we emerge from this crisis. Aim to be “best in show” as far as your business management systems go and your business will become much more attractive for clients into the future.

Effective compliance software should allow your business to communicate online, report on inspections, have all information at the fingertips of field and office-based staff and become a single source of truth for rapidly changing protocols etc.

ICS has developed a simple but elegant cloud based platform called “Digital iMS+” to help businesses operate more effectively in the Cloud.

Watch this short video for a taster of what it can do. Book here if you’d like to know more.

What role for ISO in the recovery?

If you have lost clients due to the virus- consider if getting ISO compliance could win you new clients

We are receiving an increase in calls from businesses wanting to break into new markets, having lost customers due to the virus. Particularly in terms of government or large corporates, having ISO may make your business much more attractive as a preferred supplier, now or in the near future.

Increasingly these types of customers will be looking for certainty and business continuity when choosing suppliers. ISO could be the difference between your business being considered or not when government infrastructure / recovery packages of work emerge or as new suppliers are sought when your competitors fail to perform or survive.

Don’t drop the ball on your compliance if you want to maintain your position:

ISO Compliance is going to become even more important to government and large corporate customers who will be wanting certainty and great systems as prerequisites in preferred suppliers.

(We are already seeing a strong push in the Cleaning, Facilities Management and Recruitment industries for tighter, more rigorous systems backed up by cloud functionality and remote communication and reporting).

ISO compliance serves as an easy filtering mechanism for tenders and when government stimulus packages come out, you can be certain only suppliers who can show stable and effective systems and communication will be considered in the current climate. Getting or maintaining your ISO certification will put you in a strong position for tenders with the inevitable recovery of the economy in a few months’ time.

For more information on this article, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the experts at ICS Consulting.

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