According to the SBA (Small Business Administration), the US has 30.2 million small businesses that make up 47.5% of today’s workforce. Impressive!
But for many of these business owners, the last several weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions… and I should know. In addition to working with the team here at P1 Learning, my husband and I own a small business that we created a year ago last week (cue the balloons and confetti, right!?). But our one year anniversary feels a bit different than what we expected. Literally, any emotion that you can think of, we’ve felt it. And I know we’re not alone.
I think it’s safe to say that most of us are now sheltered in place to help against COVID-19 which can and has caused major issues on how we and other small businesses operate day-to-day operations. We have questions like, how can we all stay “open” if we can’t get people to come in? Further, what’s going to happen when people can visit us again? Will they choose us or our competitor? Will we (as a company) even make it through the tough times? How will we continue to pay our employees during this crisis? These are just a few of the many concerns that are racing through my head as a small business owner.
Don’t get me wrong, we love our company and everyone who works for us. But our ability to make the income we need severely threatens us due to this crisis. We are working every day on ways to make sure we can keep our company and help our employees, but it has not been easy. While other businesses can turn to online sales, some businesses, including ours, cannot. Each day that has gone by has brought us a level of stress and uncertainty like we have never felt before.
As I turn the page to the P1 Learning side of my life, I cannot help but think, how can the media industry help? Media is a powerful tool that can reach more people than companies can do on their own. Not every small business knows how to reach people other than using some of the practices that they’ve grown accustom to over the years. This is an excellent time for you to reach out and let them know of the ways you can assist them in driving business back and giving them the hope they need to move forward. At this time, no one knows when this is going to be over and go back to “normal,”so having local people reach out to local businesses with solutions on how they can help could mean the world to someone in your community. But tread lightly as we are still on the rollercoaster ride. We need someone to help calm our nerves. During this time, you could be the one person that makes a significant impact on your community in the best possible way. We need you to be our beam of light and help make an impact within each of our communities.
In fact, last week P1 Learning and the Swagger Institute teamed up to officially declared April 13th – April 18th “Shop Local Online” week. We are asking everyone in every community to make at least one (1) purchase online from a local business. From a digital gift card or to a local “virtual” gym membership, help us make this a grassroots effort across America! Join us! #P1Learning #SwaggerInstitute #ShopLocal #ShopLocalOnline
In addition, we have some great tools that can help you lead the charge. First up, watch our course, Staying Positive and Smile! as we could all use a little uplift. Also, check out our Distance Selling Series, which will give you tips on how you can effectively reach people virtually through phone, email, or video chat. We also have hundreds of other online training courses you can take to help you brush up on other areas of selling.
If you’re not a P1 Learning subscriber, no worries! You can login and watch hundreds of online on-demand training courses. All you have to do is register for a 7-day demo here.
Good luck! We’re (I’m) counting on you.
