All of the businesses I work with are local businesses with physical locations or businesses that are working with local clients. That means with our country’s current status of states sheltering in place, downtowns shutting down and businesses in the service industry involuntarily closing until we see what COVID-19 is going to do, figuring out how to adapt is paramount.

So let’s talk about practical ways you could move your local business online and still bring in revenue.

Optimize your website for traffic

Most businesses I work with have some kind of online presence, but they’re using it as a place holder, and not necessarily a way to make money. If you do not have a website for your business yet, some easy options that you can easily build yourself are Squarespace and Wix. They are great platforms for starter sites and you can have a new website up and running in a two hours or less. WordPress is my favorite option for hosting websites but there is a learning curve on how to get started. With its new Gutenburg builder release, it has a drag and drop option now too which makes it MUCH easier, plus it’s more robust on how to integrates with everything in the world.

If you already have a website, focus on these things:

1. Focus on gathering reviews from existing clients for social proof.
2. Optimize your Google My Business profile to capture local traffic.
3. Make sure your services and products are listed and available for purchase.

Set up online payments/processing

If you have a business where your client/customers traditionally pay you at the time of service or in-person through cash or check, now is the time to migrate them to online payments. Not only will this set your business up to be cash positive when COVID-19 settles down, but it’s easier to manage than chasing payments. If you have physical or digital products to sell, set up an e-commerce part of your site and a payment processor using Stripe, Square or Paypal, for example.

Start having online consultations/bookings

Local businesses thrive on face to face interaction, so even as an online business serving local businesses, I’ve found it hard to break local business owners from wanting to only meet in person. Not anymore. Everything has moved online in the world and people are starting to get comfortable with connecting on a computer instead of just face to face. Zoom is my favorite platform to use for web-conferencing and 1:1 calls. For so many types of businesses right now they are offering it for free or at a reduced cost to get started. This can be used for any service-based business when you need to have a consultation with a client before you can even begin working with them. It can be used for health and medical fields, for photographers, coaches, consultants, teams, and more. A dance studio owner client has taken all of her classes online with Zoom so that students are logging in from their homes to take the classes with her, instead of losing all the revenue from her students while her physical studio is closed. A photographer client has moved all her initial photography consultations that are usually in her studio to Zoom so that she can talk to them about their personal branding and headshots and plan for them once the social distancing lessens.

Presell things right now that can be offered or delivered at a later date

There is a lot of opportunities to keep your business moving forward by bundling together services, products, and events to be fulfilled at a later date this summer/fall when things settle down. Look at what you offer and how you can start to presell it instead and offer a bonus as a reason for people to jump in now, instead of waiting for a later date. For...