This is an unprecedented time for all of us.

You’ve been wearing the business owner pants (or hat) for so long, handling every aspect of your workflow, racing with time to meet deadlines, finish projects, make clients happy, pay rent, do taxes and poof – in a matter of days, the reality we all know transforms into what seems like a poorly directed movie. Of course, it’s scary to step into this bubble of uncertainty that you have no control over. Yet, every challenge is also an opportunity to learn and grow. You finally have the time to slow down, reevaluate everything and make changes that will help you and your business come out stronger and more focused.

We’ve gathered a list of ideas, tips and resources to help your business survive and adapt during this quarantine season. It covers everything from how to adapt your contracts, handle your finances, work on your website, to learning resources, figuring out additional income streams, relaxing and unwinding, even if it seems quite impossible. We hope that this guide will give you more confidence until you walk out of this. Know that we have your back and are rooting for you. You’ve got this!

At this point, the story is global – businesses in communities around our country and world have shuttered, many at the direction of local, state or national governments as we battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

But grim as the picture may be today, millions of small business owners around the country need to grapple not just with the challenge of what to do while their operations are closed, but how to prepare for what lies on the other side of this crisis as the world emerges from quarantine and returns to business.

Explore creative new ways

I’ve watched with fascination as many creative businesses have found ways to continue operating through a quarantine. Novel ways to deliver everything from orchestral music to personal training and therapy/addiction treatment have made the rounds as viral social media videos or popular articles. A similar solution may not be realistic for all businesses, but particularly if you deliver personal services , taking the time to invest in and perfect your digital delivery right now could pay benefits down the road.

Client Relations & Communication + Community

1. Reach out to your clients to check in on them. They’re probably as worried and lost as you are, with all the uncertainty caused by the virus and quarantine. Offer them some alternatives for rescheduling their date (always better than a cancellation), answer any questions they may have and try to find a compromise that works for both of you. Be kind, offer guidance.

2. Get active on social media. Check in on your followers (your prospects, clients and friends), ask them how are they doing and feeling during this period, find out what type of content they’d like to see from you, how you can help them – maybe a live or Q&A type of session would bring some clarity and value to them, maybe they’d love to see some fun BTS videos in your stories, etc. We all get so much exposure to news, overwhelming statistics, false media… that we almost crave for some inspiration, a beautiful photo project, a book recommendation or quick tutorial on literally anything – just to take our mind of Coronavirus. So talk to your audience, find out what type of content they’d love to see from you these weeks – and share that. It’s also a great way to start wonderful conversations with your fans, connect with them on a more personal level, maybe even start discussing a booking for next year.

3.Share your knowledge. This is the time to help, show compassion and humility for your clients and community. Serve them in ways you can, it will all come back, promise! Conferences and workshops were canceled or postponed, yet you have all your notes and speech prepared, with valuable tips and insights on a certain topic

Build your skills

In my decade of experience working with small businesses (small ecommerce merchants with eBay, cash-flow solutions with Kabbage, and I currently work with Drum, focusing on providing new ways for businesses to market themselves), I’ve learned people start and operate businesses because they believe in their core mission, not because they’re a magical jack-of-all-trades superhuman.

Retailers sell things they love to produce and curate. Restaurateurs create amazing dining experiences. Contractors are able to bring remodels and renovations to life. In an ideal world, entrepreneurs should spend as much of their mental and physical energy on the thing they’re really good at and leave the other elements of a business to others.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality that most business owners live with. There’s always more work to be done than there are hands to do it, and any business owner wears multiple hats – you can’t offload everything. I’m sure there’s a hat every business owner wears that doesn’t fit so well.

Legal, Contracts, Finances

1.Protect your business from a legal standpoint. Revise your contracts, especially the cancellation and rescheduling policies.

2.Review your financial position and savings. Figure out what are your average monthly expenses and how many projects/clients you need to have per month, to cover those costs.

3.Reevaluate the subscriptions and tools you no longer need or use, yet keep paying for.

4.Develop a new product or service for your business. Surely enough you’ve been thinking of adding extra products or services to your main client offerings (prints, albums, other add-ons), yet never had the time to actually sit down and do it. Well, now’s your chance to do the research, connect with the relevant vendors, craft up some charming description and design to present this new product or service. Think ahead about a strategy to present, promote and sell it.

Work on your website

1.Chances are, you’ve been avoiding your portfolio. However, it is so so important! You finally have the time to blog all those client galleries that have been piling up on your to do list.

2.Review your website’s copy, does it speak to your ideal clients? Does it show the value you can bring to them? Would you hire yourself if you’d be in their shoes? Check out this article for more guidance and keep your SEO in mind to bring the right audience on your site.

3.Revise and declutter. Go through your older blog posts, see which content can be recycled or upgraded to better serve your audience. Check old pages, files and images, get rid of everything that is outdated (make sure to set redirects), optimize the things that slow your website down.

4.Beef up your pricing page, client experience section, testimonials and packages. Use this downtime to prepare for the time when things get busy again.

5.You finally have time to dive into SEO. Here is a quick guide to help you get the basics right. You can also check out these amazing Facebook communities: Fuel Your Photos, The SEO for Photographers group for more details. They actually just announced the launch of a FREE seven days SEO challenge.

6.Learn how to integrate useful tools into your site, like a customer chat or your newsletter provider. This article covers how to install the Messenger Chat into your WordPress website.

7.Elevate your brand and website look through fonts, especially if you don’t have set-in-stone brand guidelines.

8.Review your website performance, check which pages work better, which have a higher bounce rate, which ones need to be improved and pushed further.

9.This is also a good time to look at your email list. If you have one, make a quick audit, identify what improvements you can make to the wording.