How Small Businesses Will Survive COVID-19

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.