Why the pandemic is crushing brands
You might have already seen some of the brands that you know and love fall due to the recent pandemic. It’s no secret that the pandemic has hit us all in different ways, both in the business world and outside of it. Your personal life might have been thrown up into the air when the lockdown was imposed, and now things might feel like they’re getting back to normal, just a little. But that all depends on where you are in the world. If you’re in the UK you might be facing a second lockdown, if you’re in the US you might be wondering what on earth to do as the virus grows but the restrictions stay the same. For a business, the uncertainty is crippling. One minute sales could be fine, the next week they could be plummeting again. So you’re no doubt wondering why the virus is causing so many brands to fall, and how you can avoid your business coming to the same fate. We’re going to talk about a few things playing a big part in the fall of some brands, and how you can try and stay away from that.
Credit: Wallpaper Flare
Reduced sales
Reduced sales is the one that will no doubt have come to your mind first. It’s the reduced sales that are causing such a problem, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. When you look further down the line there is a cascade of events that’s causing sales to be reduced. The first is that customers simply don’t have the money, and those that do don’t want to spend it because they’re unsure about job security and want to get some money saved. So the customers simply aren’t there at the minute. So one thing you could benefit from at the minute, if you know your company is struggling to get the sales needed to make profit, you might benefit from speaking to a salesforce development company. A company who knows how to drive the sales that you need even during the times that we are facing now. It’s so important that you hammer this side of your business whilst you can so that you’re making all the money that you can. You also need to think about scaling back your business so that your outgoings are reduced. The more money you can save, the easier it’s going to be to get through these trying times.
Supply chains collapsing
This is one of the biggest reasons why businesses are falling at the minute, the supply chain simply isn’t there and the ability to find a new route is becoming far more difficult, and it’s only set to get worse as the winter months come along. Your own supply chain could be coming from all over the world, making it incredibly difficult to source the items needed due to borders being shut or stricter rules on bringing goods into your country. The only thing to try and do is source what you need locally. It might be more expensive, but it’s the only way you can carry on trading if you can no longer source what you need from abroad. If you do sense that your supply chain is collapsing it’s important to start looking at how you can source locally, or even nationally, to keep business running. You never know, it might make business a whole lot quicker and easier for you to source nationally.
Failure to meet demand
Failing to meet the demand of your customers is going to cause problems, and could have caused problems. If people put orders in through your business before the outbreak you will no doubt have had a backlog of orders to get through, as well as new orders coming through now. So failing to meet the demand of your customers can waste a lot of money and time, and can damage your businesses reputation. To ensure you’re always going to be able to meet demand it might be worth scaling back production at the minute and having limited sales until you feel like your business has caught up.
Staffing issues
Staffing issues might be another big problem for you, especially with staff sickness or even staff leaving due to feeling the pressure of the job, or feeling as though they might lose their job due to the pandemic and want to go with a bigger, more secure company. Our advice would be to sign up with a temporary staffing agency so that you can always have something to fall back on.
