How Small Businesses Will Survive COVID-19
Small businesses have the ability to create experiences that larger companies can’t replicate. It’s those experiences, those expressions of genuine human kindness, that will differentiate your value and keep your customers coming back … even in the most difficult of times.
It’s undeniable that small businesses face unprecedented challenges in the age of COVID. These are difficult times for everybody and - arguably - the difficulties are just beginning.
Still, regardless if it were a hurricane, a major earthquake, a financial crisis, or a pandemic, it’s my view that small businesses have a competitive advantage during tough times that much larger firms do not.
I’m not referring to their smaller size, their nimbleness, or their innate ability to quickly shed fixed costs. Rather, small businesses have a face. Your face.
Your small business has the ability to project sincerity and compassion in a way that larger firms cannot. Your competitive advantage as a small businesses in hard times is kindness.
People. And I’m talking about customers, vendors, employees, and service providers. Even in an extremely disconnected, automated, and disintermediated economy such as ours, in a practical sense, businesses cannot operate without people buying, selling, delivering, shopping, providing, shoveling, mopping, cleaning, browsing, clicking, or calling. People drive every aspect of our business.
In times like these, savvy small business owners would do well to recognize their unique ability to connect with people as an advantage in every transaction. That they have the opportunity to project sincerity and compassion in ways a bigger company cannot.
And that could come in so many forms. More smiles. More listening. Arriving on time and respecting somebody’s time. By not taking a single opportunity for granted. Through offering a simple sticky note to affirm somebody’s great work. By being enthusiastic. By focusing on the good around us rather than chronically dwelling on the bad. And sure, more tangible things like more bonuses, more breaks, more time off, more leeway, more investment in PPE, or more flexibility - understanding that schedules aren’t as reliable as they had been - but the real advantage being exercised here is just human kindness.
Think about the last COVID-19 response you received from your big bank. It was delivered at four in the morning. It said (with a charming, smiling clip-art graphic), “We’re here for you day and night!”, and it offered a link to their website so they could continue to take your money for credit card or loan payments. They’re a huge corporation! They can’t honestly identify with you insomuch as you can relate to them. Inasmuch, your big bank can’t possibly appear sincere, or empathetic, or truly engaged.
Now picture somebody like me, a computer consultant, coming in to your place of work. I arrive on time. I’m dressed professionally. Sure, I smile under my mask these days, but people can see that in my eyes. I engage in friendly conversation, empathize with your current situation, and I quickly resolve the technical matter. I explain what went wrong in easy terms you can understand. Further, I explain strategies for how we might avoid it in the future. I leave you my business card so you can contact me at any time. And I thank you once again for your continued business.
Now, that’s all just something the big tech support firms, the big box stores, and the nameless phone companies can’t do. They’ve focused so much of their business on scale, volume, you’re a number so be a number, take a ticket, leave a message, press a button, wait a day, but please keep having problems, and pay our retainer, keep feeding us money to support our waterfront offices … sigh.
Well, which of those experiences are you going to remember?
Kindness is competitive.
I feel that demonstrating genuine, compassion to others is the value-add that the big guys simply can’t compete with. In good times or in bad. It could be the advantage that inspires your team to keep coming back to work. It could be the gentle reminder of a pleasant experience that brings a customer back. It could be the portrayal of confident professional enthusiasm that’ll prioritize a check for you in the mail this week.
It could be that kindness … is the one thing that makes you, your products, your services, more memorable, and keeps people calling you over somebody else.
How to Refer Business To me
How do you refer business to me? Well, it’s as easy as 1-2-3! Just follow these handy guidelines!
Just for a presentation that I'll be leading tomorrow, but pasted here, for everyone's enjoyment!
G-Suite and Google Home
Google Home is a great product and it's a lot of fun to use, but some of its most desirable features don't work with G-Suite (Google Apps) accounts. Yet. Here's some work-arounds.
Google Home is the new digital assistant offered by Google; it competes with the Amazon Echo lines of products.
Google Home has a lot of desirable features and - in terms of a comparison between it and the Amazon Echo - this reviewer thought Home was a superior value. I'd tend to agree.
However, one of the most disappointing aspects of this product is that it doesn't work entirely with G-Suite accounts.
Yes, you read that right. It's a terrible bleeding-edge situation with the product right now.
With the right Domain settings, your G-Suite account can be paired to the device for its activation, but Google Home can't interact with your email or calendar. Yet. I get the impression that Google will be resolving that over time.
Okay. If you're not dissuaded, and if you believe that Google will (eventually) remedy that situation with its own backend solution, and, if you have a G-Suite account that you want to pair against the device, there's two settings that you have to enable under your Google Admin Console.
Enable Google Now
Login to your Google Admin Console.
Access Device Management, under Mobile, Advanced Settings, Other Google Services.
Make sure Google Now for iOS and Android is checked.
Save your settings.
Enable Web Access to Your Organization
Login to your Google Admin Console.
Access Apps, Additional Google Services.
Look for Web and Web Activity. Make sure it's on for Everyone or the Orgs you select.
Save your settings.
These settings will take some time to propagate through Google's servers; allow yourself up to 24 hours for propagation time.
Once this is done, run through pairing (setting up) the Google Home device using the Google Home app on your iOS or Android device. Sign in with your G-Suite account.
If it fails, it'll outright tell you that Google Home can't be paired against the account and to select a standard GMail account.
If it works, it'll tell you that you can continue with the G-Suite account but some of its features will be unavailable.
Generally, I've staged two Home devices thus far and I'm content to wait Google out for G-Suite connectivity. I understand this is new technology and it'll take them some time to address the product throughout the entire ecosystem. Still, if you're impatient and looking for a work-around, I think this would work if you're not security-conscious:
Set yourself up a generic free Gmail account.
Setup forwarding from your G-Suite account to the Gmail account.
Setup a Send-As alias from the Gmail account that aliases your G-Suite account.
Share your G-Suite Calendar to the Gmail account with full control.
Pair the Google Home device against the Gmail account, and select the default calendars to use with the device.
Aside from the obvious security implications of routing your crap through a non-commercial account, I understand this will actually work. Myself, I'm not willing to do this - I'll wait under Google resolves the G-Suite connectivity issue on their own.
R