According to a recent survey, most small businesses believe that 2021 will be a “positive” or “very positive” year for their businesses. In a recent panel discussion on The Future of Business: Gearing for Growth, Ramon Ray and several panelists discussed the challenges businesses will need to overcome to be successful.
One potential pitfall businesses could run into is failing to recognize that 2020 changed the economy and consumer behavior. Updating sales and marketing strategies for the post-COVID world will be critical to success, with panelists calling special attention to social media, cross-promotion, and audience transparency.
Eileen Tobias, CFO of Komodo Health noted that Komodo “had a rapid shift to digital events, webinars and email marketing,” which necessitated a marketing profile shift as well. LinkedIn ads and other new types of marketing the company hadn’t used before are now being deployed.
Other topics discussed in the panel included supply chain hurdles and how 2020 revealed many cracks in businesses’ supply chain as manufacturing was interrupted, raw materials became unavailable, and more. Panelists suggested several strategies to ensure a disaster-proof supply chain that is more resilient to change.
Finally, a shortage of top talent has become an even bigger challenge for small business owners than ever before. With attitudes about remote work shifting, small businesses would do well to adjust hiring strategies to hire, accommodate, onboard, and train remote employees.
Read the full write-up of the panel discussion here.