Coronavirus which is popularly known as COVID-19 emerged in March and being a global pandemic, it affected almost every business; even those eCommerce stores that involve drop shipping.
Right from the time of Coronavirus, lots of entrepreneurs across the world encountered sudden shifting in their businesses.
Besides the top big companies that functioned even during the coronavirus, we all should know those small businesses are simply big in making.
Moreover, the businesses within or outside our locality tend to bring essential services to mankind. Also, these businesses add vital sense to the entire community, towns as well as villages.
During the coronavirus, the combination of businesses was required to shut down for that moment to prevent the spread of the air-borne virus.
Meanwhile, the restriction of human movement affected business status, as staying at home caused small local businesses to encounter so many challenges.
When the coronavirus keeps spreading, a lot of businesses were forced to shut down for just the life of other people within that region.
This resulted in small businesses suffering, being that customers who intend to make purchases were not permitted to move about and make purchases.
In this guide, we will elucidate the top tricks that one can implement to support small businesses during the coronavirus.
Why should we support these small businesses?
Although there are lots of big companies, shops and businesses, local businesses are quite an essential factor in our economy.
Small businesses help to bring growth as well as innovation to the community.
Because these small businesses are situated within our locality, they help to create entrepreneurship opportunities and also employment within its locality, and this, in turn, support the economy of the area where the small business is located.
It as well helps the entire communities even their neighborhoods.
Small businesses care about their community by providing individuals with on-demand needs within their locality and this will in turn eliminate the essence of paying for a shipping fee.
Almost every local business knows their customers, friends, and neighbors even by name because of the relationship that exists between the owner of the small business and his customers.
Moreover, communities that have lots of small businesses tend to be unique as well as special among other communities.
The coronavirus made lots of people suffer financial strain and so many businesses got scared of what will happen in the future.
If you are an individual, you can support the local businesses in your locality by buying whatever you intend to buy that they are selling.
We recommend that you purchase from your local stores regardless of what you are buying.
This will in turn help to grow those small businesses within your locality most especially during the coronavirus
Top ways you can use to support small businesses during coronavirus
From our findings, we discovered that you can support small businesses during the coronavirus by doing any of the following:
#1. Order for services online
A lot of restaurants and stores started offering delivery and pickup when their customers order a product or a service.
Hereunder, since your local restaurants and stores offer delivery options for products that you intend to purchase, there is no need to search for other big stores that as well offer delivery options.
In as much as the coronavirus hinders people from moving about, you can support the growth of small businesses within your locality by shopping from them.
Your local store which will surely be selling some goods like toys, flowers, books, clothes, kitchen utensils, etc. can easily get delivered to your house at a very low shipping fee.
#2. Purchase gift cards from small businesses around you
Depending on the area where you reside, there will surely be some restaurants that can allow you to buy and sell gift cards.
Those gift cards that you obtained from online platforms can be used to purchase your favorite commodity within your locality.
In as much as coronavirus prevented people from going to their workplaces or moving from one location to another, with your gift cards you will be able to work online and make purchases online with ease.
The majority of the local businesses such as restaurants, stores, hair salons, spas, etc. accept gift cards from their customers.
#3. Promote small businesses in your locality on your social media pages
As the world is turning into a digital world, the majority of the businesses moved their shops to the internet most especially during the coronavirus to ensure that they reach a wide range of audiences.
Regardless of the product, you can promote the small businesses in your locality by sharing their profile, website, as well as the products they sell to your social media handles.
This will in turn trigger lots of people to know of these small local businesses and also to patronize them when planning to make purchases in their next market budget.
#4. Frequently check the small businesses within your locality
Due to the conditions that aroused because of the coronavirus, many stores changes the products that they used to sell before the coronavirus started.
One way that you can support all these small businesses is to regularly check on these stores to know if they have changed or switched their brand to suit the current product that is in high demand because of the coronavirus.
We noticed that during the coronavirus, a lot of businesses closed, and some that managed to stand switched and start selling products that are in high demand. For instance, disinfecting service-related products were sold during the coronavirus.
#5. Pay people that attend to your local services
In your locality, ensure that you pay people that do clean-up, hairstylist, or nanny jobs.
If you have a business that is doing well even during the lockdown, ensure that you keep paying those who clean the environment or those that take care of those that maintain elderly people.
When money keeps circulating through some means like this, those small businesses within your locality will keep functioning and this will help to sustain all the small businesses in your area.
#6. Checkout for small businesses that are being provided online
The cause of the coronavirus compels many stores and businesses to move to the internet to create awareness and reach out to people that are living in other regions as well.
Moreover, some of the activities or services that can be handled online include Therapists, tutoring, yoga, personal trainers, coaches, financial planners, lawyers, music training or coaching, etc.
You can enroll for any of these skills or services and by so doing, you are supporting those small businesses in your locality.
Since coronavirus stopped people from moving from one location to another, you can acquire a skill or attend a course tutorial online.
#7. You can pay workers extra money if you have
Paying workers extra money besides the price for the job they performed is quite a good way on can use to support the small business during the coronavirus.
That little money you can add as an extra payment to these laborers means a lot to them and it can help sustain their business and even their lives during the season of coronavirus.
The pandemic paused a lot of menial jobs due to the restrictions in movement and this affected small businesses regardless of their niche.
When you pay extra money to people that worked for you, it can be a great support for those small businesses most especially during the coronavirus.
#8. Continuously pay your memberships and subscriptions
We realized that when people continue paying their memberships and subscriptions even when those services have been suspended because of the restrictions that coronavirus came with, it will help those small businesses to keep on moving smoothly.
For instance, if about one-third of all the active subscribers of the service continue to renew their subscription regardless that the service may not be as active as it was before the coronavirus, it will help the businesses to keep operating and also to retain their customers.
This is quite a practicable method of supporting small businesses in your locality.
Moreover, if the subscription seems to be costly, you can decide to be remitting a token on a weekly or monthly basis.
#9. When a service you subscribed for gets canceled, you can decide not to accept a refund
If you subscribed for a service (probably for a class), you may decide not to accept the refund from the platform or the organizations that you paid for the service.
This will help to sustain the organization even if no new subscriber is coming because of the coronavirus.
Likewise, if you finished paying for your child’s education fees and the coronavirus became so intense that people are being restricted from going to school, instead of requesting your child’s paid class refund, you can decide to leave it for that organization just to support the business during that coronavirus.
#10. Start a local business network
You can come up with the idea of starting a local business network. This network should focus on engaging people with other local businesses right from their various homes.
This means that regardless of their location, they can still be able to access other local businesses, know their latest updates (for instance, the latest products they are selling), make purchases online, and pay with their debit cards without the hassle.
This method of starting a local business network just to help connect with other people within your locality can help to sustain or support the growth of other small businesses during the coronavirus.
#11. Push the online presence of small businesses
If you are a developer, web designer or probably you are a social media expert, you can help the small businesses that are in your locality to increase their sales by pushing their presence online.
If you have a Facebook page or group that is quite engaged, you can use it as a medium to promote some of the products and services of small businesses in your locality during the coronavirus.
Doing this may not cost you money because you know the shortcuts to apply as a developer.
Also, you can even use free hosting platforms to create a simple blog for these small businesses, to help boost their online presence.
#12. Share unique promoting ideas online
If you are good at brainstorming and promoting businesses online, you can devise a promoting means that can help these small businesses to increase their online presence during the coronavirus.
This will not just support but also it will serve as a token of offer that you decide to add to the existing business to ensure its survival even when everyone is restricted from moving about, trading, schooling, partying, etc.
As a customer of these local businesses, you can help spread their services and products on social media.
This will serve as a recommendation that will trigger many people to trust these small businesses and start patronizing them.
#13. Supply and share sanitizers with the small businesses
Another way you can use to support small businesses during the coronavirus is to supply sanitizers to these small businesses at a cheaper rate so that they can generate some profit upon every successful sale.
Moreover, if you are capable of giving these sanitizers out to the small businesses within your locality, that’s very fantastic. This will in turn help to sustain the life of these small businesses that are just starting.
#14. Start an online contest for small businesses’ gift cards and services
If you are good at designing and drawing, you can initiate a contest in which the goal is to help small businesses promote their gift cards as well as their services.
During this contest, small businesses can attach a little registration fee which will help them to sustain the life of their business during the coronavirus.
#15. Donate to these small businesses
Depending on how stable you are financial, you can freely donate some cash to these small businesses just to support their business and to keep it running regardless of the low sale rate that arose because of the coronavirus lockdown.
You can as well create a donate web page for some of these small businesses so that other people can use it to donate cash as a means of supporting these small businesses.
Conclusion
We discussed the top ways that people can use to support small businesses during the coronavirus, of which some of them are to create an online presence for these small businesses.
Furthermore, you can engage in other additional services such as sharing unique promoting ideas, starting a contest for these small businesses, donating to them, etc.
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