Four Things We’re Doing While Running a (Creative) Small Business During COVID-19
These are pretty uncertain times for a lot of small businesses—us included. The hysteria around job security is frightening for everyone—from freelancers to tenured employees. So what can we do in response to all of this—how do make it the other side of all of this—and arrive there in one piece?
We are actively thinking about solutions for ourselves and our friends who run small businesses in this current time, so we want to be transparent about the things we’re doing to help make it through these uncertain times.
Content Strategy
A business like ours is a revolving door of work. We are almost always in some stage of selling new work, working on a new project, brainstorming and storyboarding existing projects, gathering teams, or living in post-production. Most of the time, we don’t have 2-3 weeks of “desk time” where we sit at our desks without having to spend at least a 1-3 days in the field (either on site visits, traveling, or on location). With a time like this, we are leaning heavily into building out a content strategy—both for Sett and for another brand we’re launching in the future. We’re using this time to be forward thinking about the content we want to share and create, as well as doing a lot of work on product development.
Reconnecting with Friends
A lot of Sett is formed by the relationships we have with friends. At this point in time, with a lot of time on our hands, we’re connecting with old friends, professional and not, to strike up human conversations about how we can help overcome some of these hurdles. Some of these conversations are serious, others are just to keep us sane.
Internal Audits of Brand & Marketing
While we help a lot of other brands with their marketing content—strategy, assets, photo, and video—we rarely take the time to internalize all of this and look at all of the things we need to be doing better and/or differently. Right now, we’ve put Sett in the spotlight and are focusing a lot of energy on how we can help streamline our own brand—keep our own marketing, visuals, and brand up-to-date. The first thing we did was relaunch our website (something we’ve been wanting to do for a few weeks). Next, we’re pulling content from stories and past work that we’ve been eager to share, but simply haven’t had the time to do quite yet. We’re updated our own work and streamlined our process. We’re taking time to revisit our contracts, proposal process, and our customer journey to help make that more efficient and make sure we’re running at top efficiency when things begin to take a turn.
Stop “Weathering the Storm”
Let’s be candid: after this pandemic, nothing is going to be the same. If we keep trying to run our business the same way, with traditional models, we’re going to be in for a rude awakening over the next 3-6 months. Instead, we want to be able to adapt to the needs of our clients. Content creation, storytelling, and brand strategies are going to change in the future—and we need to be ready for them. We’re assessing the market to make sure our approach to brand narratives is still relevant—and if not, we’re starting from the ground up. There is no recipe for how this is going to go, so we want to be ready to predict the ways our business—and industry at large—is going to change.
What are you doing in response to COVID-19? What are the things you are doing now that can help set you up for success at a later point in time, while things are moving slowly now?
Shoot us an email—we’d love to hear more of your thoughts about how COVID-19 is going to impact your business, or your approach to business.
