Four ways the pandemic revolutionised my business plans
Last week I ran a session with my team looking back at our Q1 results, analysing how we’d done and looking over our planning documents for the rest of the year.
As I was putting the final tweaks on the presentation I was going to make, I spotted a Powerpoint document marked ‘2020 Business Plan and Marketing Campaigns’.
It was last opened in March 2020.
I couldn’t remember what our 2020 Business Plan looked like.
So I opened the file and read through all the fabulous plans we’d had for 2020. And rather than reflect on the year we could have had, I realised that, in a year where all our plans went out of the window repeatedly, we’d actually done OK. In fact, possibly more than OK. We had a good year.
Like every business leader around the world, when the pandemic hit I had to get creative and make significant changes to the way I ran my business. Some of them sucked. Some of them were just temporary.
And some of them have completely changed the way I intend to run my app development agency in the future. Here are four of the changes I made that I’ve decided to stick to.
Meet Less. Meet More.
Last week I went to a client meeting. It was the first time I’d stepped into a room face-to-face with a client (or potential client) in nearly 13 months. 13 months! In the past I’d usually only be at my desk for 30–40% of the week. The rest of the time I’d be meeting with clients or at networking events or on the road.
I love meeting clients. I love networking. It was so much better meeting in person.
Yet that time disparity and productivity gap niggles at me. We’ve been able to much more efficiently manage meetings with clients remotely. It’s freed me up to spend more time focusing on the rest of the business. So, wherever possible I’m cutting right back on in-person meetings. They don’t make sense in terms of time. Or cost.
Counterintuitively, throughout the pandemic I’ve spoken to our clients more than I ever used to. Quick weekly catch-up calls. Longer planning sessions online. Video chat, phone calls and the odd email here and there. It’s amazing how quickly video chat became the norm.
So while I’m minimising the amount of time I allocate to in-person meetings, we’re taking what we’ve learned and establishing a much more regular client meet schedule. Even if some of those calls end up being a quick check-in and chat about the weather.
Go Remote. Stay Local.
Lockdown forced our hand. I sent my teams home. We arranged video calls and online stand-ups. We coped.
Or at least some of us coped. Others thrived. When restrictions began to ease the first time round there was a tough decision to make. Stick or twist. Get the office back up and running or change things up.
Our development squads had flourished during lockdown. They’d loved being able to roll out of bed, throw on some comfy clothes and get straight down to coding. They were more productive — and despite everything, happier.
Our commercial team, so reliant on the quick-fire exchange of ideas and using each other as sounding boards, were having a tough time. The collaborative environment seemed tougher to replicate online. They missed the office.
So we downsized our office space and took a split approach. Our devs would continue to work from home for as long as they wanted. Our commercial team could come back as soon as they felt comfortable.
Two happy teams.
:-)
Target Near / Target Far.
Our remote/local split didn’t end there. We’d always picked up a good chunk of our app development projects from local businesses. In fact we pride ourselves on being a local business and working with local companies. We’ve always found that local SMEs in particular would much rather work with a bespoke local agency, rather than a faceless corporate headquartered in London but with development off-shored around the world.
As lockdown settled in, we were able to leverage our local reputation to drive through more business than ever, particularly with the rise in contactless / touchfree requirements. Significantly though, we shifted our targeting and started hooking up with bigger and bigger local businesses to offer our services.
And those bigger businesses, who usually would have gone straight for a London-based app development agency, started taking our calls. We were able to tap into a new-found sense of local pride, and of local businesses coming together to support each other.
Even as we were getting bolder with our local acquisition plans, enquiries started dripping in from further afield. No longer constrained by the desire to meet face-to-face as part of the pitch process, we were able to spread our wings a little bit wider. We’ll still stay a local agency built to service local clients, but if the right project lands on our lap from a business based further away, we’ll throw our hat into the ring.
Lockdown has invested us with greater confidence and swagger. Which leads me onto…
Step Back. Leap Forward.
Like so many of us, lockdown had a dramatic impact on how I worked. And on how long I worked. Without the commute and social gatherings, my work day imperceptibly grew longer and longer. The blurred division between home and work meant evenings and weekends were gently nibbled into.
Suddenly I was working flat out. All the time.
Something had to give.
Once I had the teams working smoothly, and reassured our clients that their projects were running on time, I took a step back and ran a critical eye over the business. I took the time to think. To plan. To work out where we wanted to be when all of this was over.
So, at the height of the pandemic I decided to finally commit to the long gestating rebrand of the company. I went out and tracked down a marketing expert to come in and help out with our relaunch. I started to tweak our business model to create a more rounded app development offering.
The results have been stunning. So I’ve started to build regular reflection time into my schedule. The chance to plan. Or reflect. Real time to analyse. It isn’t a task. Some days I do it. Some days I’m too busy. Some days I’ll just take five minutes out to stretch my legs. But that chance to critically look over the nuts and bolts remains.
It’s making us better.
Thom Gibbons wears odd socks, is a Liverpool fan and heads up the Basingstoke App Development Agency Apptaura. Passionate about building great apps to help small businesses grow, Thom offers free consultancy sessions. Get in touch if you’d like to chat.
