Friends, there have been many times in history when major disasters have changed human behavior forever.
The plague, a disease spread by mice, also known as black death, changed the history of Europe in the 14th century, due to which millions of people died and when the disease was over, the laborers who survived due to labor shortage paid their price. Increased, which did not decrease despite attempts to reduce it later.
Similarly, after Word War 2, the share of women in the workforce increased significantly, which is still increasing.
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And you will remember the 9/11 attack on America… Because of this, the attitude of people around the world of terrorism changed forever, as well as air-travel and security arrangements related to Hemsha.
And now due to Coronavirus, once again the world is going to change forever and also the way to change our business.
That is why today, through this video, I want to give some ideas of doing business in this changing environment to my sisters and brothers who do business of sarees by associating with Ajmera Fashion, who work in small shops, showrooms or home.
In fact, these things are applicable for every kind of business, so watch this video till the end and try to apply these things in your business as far as possible.
1) Cash is Power
I am sure, today there will be crores of traders who would have thought that we would have done money-management properly and would have saved some money for such a crisis situation.
But never mind …… .. what has passed is gone….
From now on, keep in mind that whenever you spend something, do it carefully.
Think
- Can I use these funds more well?
- Can I take the same goods for less than anywhere else?
- Do I really need this much staff or can I give good services even less?
Friends, understand that all your decisions should be made towards making the business profitable. It may hurt some people, but ultimately, your business is more than all these things and to make it profitable you should not hesitate to take harsh decisions.
Apart from this, while learning from old mistakes, you save a part of your earnings everyday, and do not touch it for business expense.
Remember, CASH is a very strong force and you should have it.
2) Win the trust of Employees
Due to the lockdown, shops have been closed for many days or many cities have started opening recently.
In this crisis situation, it is natural for your employees to come to the mind that when the shops will open, will they be hired or not… the salary will not go down… etc.
As a good business owner, you should be in regular touch with your employees, especially from employees who mean a lot to your business, and you should remove the nervousness in their mind about work.
If you are about to lay off employees, cut salary or take any other tough decision, then it would be better that instead of telling your decision directly, you should discuss and talk with people. There are more chances that people will understand your point.
Also prepare your key-employees for future business. Give them training on how to meet customers, greet them, how to show sarees, or other products during the Corona period.
Also make them a little tech-savvy. Teach video calling, send products on Whatsapp, solve customer query.
By giving training, employees will not only become more efficient, but they will also get confidence that their job is safe.
- Read: How to start a saree business in low cost
3) Contact with customers
Whether your shop is open or closed, a call made by you in this time of crisis can win your customer’s heart. Obviously, you must also have a customer number to make contact, which I will talk about separately later.
At the moment, understand that many people are shifting to online platforms in the changing times. If we do nothing to stop them, then this transition may be faster than we expected. Therefore, understand the importance of every customer and try your best to not leave it anywhere else.
4) change with change
It is said that change is the law of nature and this time nature itself has brought such a big change in our life. The world has changed due to coronavirus and if we want to stay in business then we also have to change.
Here I am suggesting some important points which we are implementing in Ajmera fashion. Maybe you can’t do all these things but do as much as you can.
- Sanitize the shop everyday.
- Use a temperature-taking gun at the entrance and let only those in which the temperature is normal.
- Make sure to place the hand sanitizer on the entry and do not allow entry without using it
- Make the mask mandatory on your premises, no one enters the shop without applying the mask. You can also provide gloves for Staff.
- To follow social distancing inside the shop, allow the customers to enter only to a certain extent. You can keep chairs to wait outside, that too at a reasonable distance.
- Put slogans like “Please follow social distancing or two yards is very important” at the shop’s key spots.
- Use digital transactions as far as possible.
- Use disposable cups for tea / coffee / water etc.
- And finally when the customer exits the shop, once again sanitize his hand.
5) Contact Free Delivery
Gradually, we are moving towards contact free economy. In such a situation, it is important that for the customer and our well-being, we make contact-free delivery, that is, we let the goods go to the customers without them.
This is easy to do but due to old habits we can be ready to hold things in hand. In such a situation, mark an area near a cash counter where the product is kept for delivery and the customer picks up his product from there. We can also disinfect delivery packets as a value added service.
6) The higher the number, the more business.
In Ajmera Fashion, we have always understood the importance of mobile numbers.
We have been maintaining a database of customer numbers for many years and also keep contacting them from time to time.
But unfortunately, I have seen that many shopkeepers do not maintain the number of customers.
Well, better late than never…. Start doing this from now on. And store not only the number but also the information about his birthday and marriage anniversary.
In this changed environment, this information can be very helpful in getting in touch with the customer and making them your loyal customer.
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7) Think outside the shop
Think outside the shop.
Due to coronavirus, there can be a lot of change in consumer behavior. Even after the virus is over, people will want to avoid crowded places. In such a situation, it is possible that the old way of selling goods by sitting inside the shop can not give the same result as before, so we have to adopt new methods of business.
What could be the new methods?
Some things through which customers do not come to the shop, we can reach it.
like –
- We can provide customers with a number on which they can call and inquire at any time.
- We can give our customers a Whatsapp number to query.
- We can show the new collection of saris through video call by taking time from the customer. For this, we can use Whatsapp Video Call, Zoom App or Google Meet etc.
- According to the convenience of the customer, we can showcase our products by taking many people on call simultaneously. This is because many people hesitate to take the buying decision alone, in such a situation that their chances of shopping will increase if they have a friend or relative on call.
- We can also facilitate product delivery through home-delivery or courier.
- Apart from this, we can also promote our shop through YouTube videos or by creating pages on Facebook.
- Many people also sell their goods through sites like Amazon and Flipkart. We can also explore this channel because it is growing rapidly and our presence here can be very beneficial in the long-term. Here you can see the step by step way of joining Amazon.
Friends, our economy has gone down due to Corona. The government is doing a lot on its behalf to get it back on track and the country also has high expectations from our business community. Friends, we have that strength that we can play the strongest role in India’s economic recovery.
So get up and get ready to make your business successful. Today, it is not only your need for the whole country.
