The pandemic has been an extremely unique and difficult challenge for everyone, both professionally and personally. Through this, we have learned several lessons that can be applied to our businesses and personal lives.
For the flexible workspace industry, the big challenge was finding a way to remain relevant throughout the pandemic. Despite facing a lockdown and a sudden decrease in demand for office spaces, coworking space providers were resilient to make it through this rough patch.
Here are 8 survival tips you can learn from flexible workspaces when it comes to facing a crisis.
Revisit your budget allocation
When faced with as much uncertainty as the pandemic, companies were disoriented as to how to continue operating in the new normal with all the limitations. An urgent step that a business should take is to revisit the allocation of their budget. Situations like this would call for cutting total expenses while reallocating what’s left of the budget towards digital expenses such as marketing to remain relevant.
Flexibility of your workspace
The pandemic has taught us the importance of being flexible with your workspace. With offices closed down during the lockdown, one key lesson is that there are still ways to continue operations while working remotely with what modern day technology has to offer. The benefits of having a flexible workspace, such as flexible lease terms along with the productive environment, could help boost a business in the long run while remaining adaptable to different situations.
Optimize modern day technology
With the implications of strict rules for the safety of everyone, most businesses resulted in employees working from home to continue operations which emphasized the importance of technology today. If we optimize modern day technology to its potential, remote work, though not ideal for some, is completely doable and could even increase productivity in some cases. Take advantage of productivity apps such as Slack and Todoist to manage teams and track progress respectively.
Explore new opportunities
Keep an open mind to new business opportunities that a company can take advantage of. Don’t be afraid to switch up your advertisements or make changes to your products and services. For example, there are coworking space providers turned to virtual office services where clients use their business address for their own business registration while still operating from home.
Build your community
Having a tight-knit community surrounding your business provides a strong backbone for several things. A close community could provide resources for one another and opens the door to possible collaborations and increased exposure. Coworking space providers continued to build their community in the new normal by staying connected through newsletters and virtual events.
Support small and local businesses
In an unexpected crisis such as the pandemic, bigger companies could shine light on the small and local businesses around. Create ways to collaborate with one another that would benefit both sides and contribute to growing the local economy. Not only will this help larger scaled businesses gain trust, but it will grow your audience as well as your reach the audiences of these small and local businesses!
Give back to those in need
When facing a crisis such as COVID-19, it is critical to understand that there are those unfortunate individuals that feel the effects much worse than we do. Even when not, it never hurts to lend a helping hand to those in need. In light of the pandemic and recent typhoons, some coworking space providers started donation drives for communities that were greatly affected. Not only does this gain exposure for businesses, but it also teaches the team values of patience, resilience, and fulfillment seeing the joy that it brings to the communities.
Keep your team healthy mentally and physically
When working remotely, getting work done is the goal, but staying healthy is just as crucial. Being healthy increases productivity of the team which creates better quality outputs from each member. Take care of your mind with apps such as Headspace. Headspace also started it’s own Netflix series to guide beginners through a short meditation. REBEL on the other hand provides you with various workouts and meals that you could follow to keep your body healthy and active!
No matter the crisis you are facing, thinking outside the box and getting creative with what is available will help you manage your business and yourself. Though the ideal result may not come as soon as warranted, it takes perseverance and the right mindset to power through.
Looking for a safe space where you and your team can focus and get work done without worrying about being in a crowded area? Send us an email at connect@acceler8.ph and we’d be happy to learn more about your workspace requirements!