MBA1860 Q&A Wednesday: COVID lockdowns are crushing my business. How do I survive?

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Hey oh welcome to the Hunter RMBA show. You got questions, we got answers. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started with my co founder back in 2014 and today's episode is Q and A Wednesday. On Q and A Wednesdays we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you got a question you want to ask just email me over@omar100mba.net Today's question is from Grant and Grant asks. Hey Omar, love the podcast but I am in trouble. I need some help. I run a small co working office in Melbourne, Australia and we are going into our sixth lockdown. Covid is crushing my business. How do I survive? Should I pack it up? I'm dipping into savings to pay for my rent and expenses. Any advice or perspectives would be helpful. Thanks Grant. Grant, thanks so much for asking this question because so many people in the business world around the world are struggling because of COVID Covid has really crushed a lot of small businesses and you're not alone in experiencing these struggles. And I know in Australia these lockdowns are no joke. You have to abide and you have to do what the government is suggesting in terms of closing down your business. And because of the turns of the lockdown, it's of hard to work around these rules. But don't worry, I'm going to share with you some ideas you may want to consider to keep your business afloat and have it grow even stronger after the lockdown. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business.

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So in today's Q and A Wednesday's question, Grant asks, how can he allow his business to survive with COVID lockdowns? He's in Melbourne and things are just at a standstill for small businesses that have a physical presence like his coworking space because they go into lockdown quite often and they're in their sixth one right now and it keeps getting extended and it's only so much you can take in terms of expenses when you have a physical business where you got to pay rent, you got to pay insurance, you got to maybe have some staff that's going to help you out or cleaners. How does he keep his business going even though his physical business cannot be reached, can't be used? I first want to address one thing. COVID 19 sucks. We have to say that, okay? It absolutely stinks. It has really, really hurt a lot of businesses, hurt a lot of lives. People have lost loved ones. Personally, I lost my uncle to Covid very, very hard on my family. This thing is no joke, right? It's really a huge test on most of society, okay? But history tells us that we get through troubles as human beings, as nations, as a group, as a community. Whether it's a pandemic or a war or an economic crisis, eventually we figure it out and we get out of it. So this is temporary, okay? I know right now it feels really dire and there's no end in sight because all these new variants and you know, it takes a while to get people vaccinated and then you need boosters and really can't see clearly because it's a bit cloudy right now. But history teaches us and this is why I love reading histories that, hey, we're going to get through this eventually. Okay? Things are going to get better. The question is, what do we do in the meantime? And Grant's situation is tough, okay? He has a business. It's a physical business. The whole reason why people pay him money is so they can have a physical space, his co working space. But I want Grant and anybody else who is in a similar situation to ask some important questions. Some of the best ways to solve problems is to ask yourself really good questions. And here are some of the questions I want you to ask. Why do people sign up for your coworking space? Really? Okay, what are the main reasons and what are some of the benefits they get for being there? Let's just address the obvious one. A physical space, a desk that they can work out of so they can meet clients, so they can maybe even collaborate with other entrepreneurs or collaborate with their other teammates if they have a few desks for their team. But really, why do they go to a coworking space then? Why don't they just open up their own small office and just get some commercial real estate? Well, they really do it because they like the idea of being part of a community working with other startups or other businesses. It might be convenient just because your co working space offers perks like discounts or maybe some sessions that train them on certain areas or a network where they can find great talent or some consulting if they need it, in certain areas of their business. Whatever your business is, list all the reasons other than the obvious reason of why they pay you money, because some of those reasons can still work even if you're not in a physical office. The training sessions can be virtual. With webinars, the community can definitely happen with some line o' clocks and some after office hours. I know my coworking space fish burners in Sydney, they do this and I've attended and it's fun. And you get to meet people and you just, you know, see somebody different. Most of us are, you know, by ourselves in our home in lockdown. So we're like, hey, I need to see other faces. So that's another thing you could do without being there. But I know you're probably thinking, hey, Omar, no one's going to pay rent for a space if they can't use it. They're not just going to pay for these little perks. That's true. But if somebody comes to you and say, hey, Grant, I need to cancel my office because I can't go, I have to work from home because of the lockdown. What are my options? Well, this is where you get creative. Okay. There are so many things you can do. Number one, you can lock them in to a long term deal similar to what gyms do. So say for example, like hey, I want to cancel. I don't want to pay every single month for something I'm not using. So you can just say, hey, how about you pay a year in advance, I'm going to give you a really good discount, you know, a really good deal. And the term of when this starts could be after the lockdown's over. You can even give them a plan where if there is a lockdown, those months don't count. The point here is that you are getting upfront cash to, to survive this rough time from customers and you keep the customer happy cause they have a great deal and you also keep their space. And you can make this a one off, one year deal so that they're back to the normal rate after one year. Now some people are gonna love this and they're gonna take you up on it and some people won't. But it doesn't mean that's the end of the story. Sometimes we have to pivot in our business. Sometimes we have to offer other things to supplement our lost income. So one of the things I think would be great for you as a coworking space grant is offering some sort of services that these customers need. Their businesses are still going, they're just working from home. And there are common services that you can offer and be sort of a middleman. You don't have to actually do the service, but you can get a commission for it or you can even outsource the service. This could be things like website design. This could be like website maintenance or graphic design or social media management. You don't need to be able to do this yourself. You can literally hire somebody on freelancer, on upwork to manage all these accounts for you. Do the work and you charge a service fee to cover the costs and make a profit. You can help people with marketing funnels. You can help people set up maybe their drop shipping business. Or maybe it's just some tried and true skills like copywriting or email writing. And the best way to package these services is to present them to your businesses. Hey, are you looking to gain more revenue? Are you trying to get more customers? Are you trying to get into more markets but you don't have the bandwidth? Well, you can use our services, our team of experts, and here are the rates and they can do it for you. What's great about this is that you can offer a very reasonable retainer where they pay you every single month for a particular service. Say, for example, like, hey, I'll manage all your social media marketing with my social media experts. We're gonna schedule posts, we're gonna share all your blog posts and your podcast episodes and all your content and make sure all your social media feeds are filled with great content. And you may charge, let's say $1,000 a month for the service or maybe you can have two tiers, 500 and 1000. You make a sale and you have a reoccurring sale. Now when the lockdown's over, they're going to be dependent on this great service because they're seeing all the benefits they're getting from the service, all the extra traffic they're getting. So now you are in a better place than you were before the lockdown even started. So being a little creative about what other needs your customers have other than a desk space and offering those services. What's great about services, again is that you don't have to do it. You can outsource it, you can get somebody else to do it for you. And there are a ton of experts out there that can do that for you. Why would they go with you? Because you are the communicator. They know you. They're the person that kind of liaising with the experts to get things done.

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To wrap up today's Q and A, Wednesday's episode with Grant's question how to deal with a crushing blow that Covid has delivered where his physical business just cannot be open. Another great option other than services is just purely affiliate marketing. And I'm not saying spamming your members with some sort of online course, affiliate marketing or whatever it is, but there are needs that your customers will have now that they're in lockdown. For example, most people that went to an office every day, ate out for lunch or picked up a sandwich from, you know, Woolies, Metro or the local supermarket. Right? The point here is they're probably sick of cooking their own lunches, maybe even their own breakfasts at home. Become an affiliate for one of these ready made meals delivered to your door. There's cafes that are doing this now. They pivoted and they're they're just delivering meals to working people at home and you could say, hey, I have an audience. Give me 20% and any customers that come my way, I get 20%. Some of these larger meal prep types of companies have a built in affiliate marketing system or program right at their website so your customers have other needs. You can fulfill them when you can't fulfill the ones you are already fulfilling like your office space. Thanks so much Grant for asking this question. I'm with you. I feel your pain. It's been really tough for a lot of people around the world who have been stuck at home for weeks. Now we're going into what day 16 Sydney of lockdown. It's been interesting to say the least. But this is where we get creative. This is where we realize, okay, we have a problem, we have a situation. Let's try to make the best of it and survive and thrive beyond the lockdown. Thanks again for asking the question Grant. And thanks so much everybody for listening to today's Q and A Wednesday. If you have a question you want to ask, don't be shy. Email me over@omar00mba.net Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Whatever business you're in, whatever your product is, whatever market you're in, COVID 19 is changing the world and changing people's habits in a lot of ways. So evaluate your business and make sure it's Covid compliant. Really, people have changed the way they do business, how they work, how they exercise, how they live. Habits have been formed. Can you cater to these new ways of life, these new mindsets, these new habits? Make sure you realize that hey, when they say new normal they mean things will change. Things have changed. People are doing things differently now because it's been 18 months plus of doing things differently. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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