By Gerry Wagner on 30 Mar 2020
We hear the government seeks to have SME businesses hibernate and then hopefully our businesses will spring back to life when the danger is over. Let’s hope that time comes soon. In the meantime, it's back to hibernating.
Hibernation can take many forms. For squirrels, it's time to snuggle up and tuck in to all those acorns they’ve stored up for winter. For us humans our current state of hibernation may involve a bit of work, a lot of binge-watching Netflix and generally a fair amount of pacing the cage with regular visits to the fridge. It does not have to be this way.
We’d like to suggest you consider using this time to think about how you can follow the Scout Motto to make sure your SME business is better prepared for any other unexpected shocks to the system in the future. For those, who have never heard of the Boy Scouts here it is.
The Scout’s motto means that you are always ready to do what is necessary to help others. It also means you are ready, willing, and able to do what is necessary in any situation that comes along. Wouldn’t it be nice if as an SME business owner your business was designed and equipped to be ready, willing, and able to do what is necessary in any situation that comes along.
We think there’s no better time than now to start thinking about this fact of modern life. We live in two worlds these days – the physical world and the digital world. What happens in our physical world can sometimes, like now, be completely out of our control. In fact, how prepared we are in the digital world can often be key to the future success and survival of our businesses.
It’s become increasingly clear that those SMEs that not only survive but thrive in the hyper-competitive world we live in, operate at ‘an optimal state of digital readiness’. Their business model is new school not old school. What this means is they have a cloud-based operating ecosystem which is all interconnected so their staff can access the data they need from anywhere at any time. So even in a total lockdown situation their SME business can run as normal and continue to deliver an exceptional experience to their customers.
Most SMEs are not yet operating in a high state of digital readiness. But don’t despair. It does not cost a fortune. In fact, once you are operating in an optimal state of digital readiness you will be able to boost growth, cut costs, increase revenues and deliver a much better return from your digital marketing investment.
Simply search for Inbound Digital Architects or Digital Readiness Assessment. Your SME business may qualify for a Free Digital Readiness Assessment, which you can start by completing an online questionnaire.
This will help you get more out of hibernation and look at what you can do to rejuvenate your business and operating model and help you understand how you can optimise your business by becoming Digital Ready.
by Gerry Wagner on 30 Mar 2020
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