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With 2020 finally behind us it is a good time to reflect on what went well and what didn't in 2020. From a business perspective, many were hit hard and their #strategicplans went out the window as they switched into survival mode.
Some unfortunately did not survive while others have managed to shift what they offer and how they operate to keep the “doors open” so to speak.
Here are 3 of the ways we saw small businesses demonstrate their agility:
Gourmet to go
Over the year we saw some of our favourite restaurants start to offer enjoy at home options hot take-out and later, make-it-yourself packages with all the ingredients and instructions.
Many of these restaurants have subscribed to food delivery services such as Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats, and Door Dash to facilitate the desires and comfort level of their customers.
Now restaurant patrons can still support their favourite restaurants and café’s in a variety of ways while adding variety to their dinner rotations.
Adjusting how services are preformed
One of our favourite examples of this was a local hair salon. To avoid clients attempting ‘drug store’ die kits and the long haul back to their desired hair colour, the owner of Blush salon in St. Albert started selling custom colour mixture packs to her customers based on their specific hair colour and goals. For less than $45, a little gift of salon quality product is delivered to your door – complete with easy to follow, detail instructions.
This is a great way to not only keep some income trickling it, but to keep her customers on the proper regiment and more, importantly – Loyal.
Keeping stock on the move
Many smaller retailers jumped on the ‘online store’ train during the first “lock down” and have continued to extend their offerings. In a lot of these cases, the employees or owners are using the resources they have to photograph and upload their products.