Alright, we’ve all been spending the last week or so (myself included) kind of sitting in the suckage of this.
But now, it’s time to be resilient, which I get is easier said than done. (As someone paying for 4,000 square feet of empty space, trust me, I have done everything personally I can from cutting down my car insurance (not driving anywhere) to renegotiating my cell phone plan. So this is your PSA to spend 1-3 awkward hours calling companies you buy from regularly and negotiating NOW.)
But this post isn’t about that. This post is for small businesses that need to make money RIGHT NOW. Here are some ways you can do that:
1) If you don’t want to build a whole online shopping cart, consider setting up a basic payment form. You can use form software like Wufoo or Jotforms (they have a monthly fee of $20-$30 typically) and set up payment processing with an online processor like Stripe (no monthly fees, just the transaction fee of credit card processing of 2.9% + $0.30/transaction).
In about a couple hours, you can load in your most popular products and let people order and pay… and choose shipping, pickup, delivery, or some combination. Seriously let’s make it a bit easy for your customers and get their money while they are in the buying mood!
Aside: Also a lot of my clients worry about things like “Will it be weird if I can only send it 48 hours later?” Here’s the thing: you are setting it up so you set the rules… and just tell people how it works. Most people are reasonable and just want to know what’s going on. So if you only want to have pickup between 5 and 7 pm, if you’ll only deliver in the downtown area, whatever your things are, just tell people on the form and make them check the box agreeing to it!
2) If you have slightly deeper pockets and less time to DIY, our friends at Anchorspace spent last week engineering this with a web developer friend. It’s 1/3 the price of other online options we’ve seen (Full disclosure: Nicole runs this website and Anchorspace.) www.anchorspace.com/onlineorderingasap
3) Don’t make people think and consider making ‘packages’ around that idea. If you sell wine, make a COVID Relief Red Case and put in 12 bottles of red wine. Or put together your most popular products so people can cook a meal or do a project or something. People are thinking way too much right now. You know your products and/or services so put them together and make it easy.
4) Consider doing mini-gigs. You probably have some skill you can do at a smaller price point. People want to help. Maybe you can do a flower arrangement for $25 and put it on someone’s doorstep. Maybe you can produce a short social media video for $50. I’m not telling you how to price it, just think of something small and discrete so those wanting to buy local right now can buy something they need or want from you… and try you out for when things turn around. See online payment form above or you can set yourself up on a gig site like Fivrr.com and offer it from there.
5) Sell gift certificates. If you’re on or near Mount Desert Island with your business ,it is FREE to be on giftmdi.com. We charge online buyers a $5 fee to cover things like credit card processing and stamps. Just contact us, arrange to drop off some certs at our office, and we’ll add you and send you checks or Venmo payments.
If you are in another market, check out GiftYourTown.com and check out franchising opps and add it to your area!
6) Speaking of Venmo, even if you hate all my ideas, consider setting up a way for people to send you money online. Cashapp, Venmo, Square, something. There are pros and cons to everything but let’s assume people do want to pay us and make it easier for them to.
7) Now’s a great time to consider digital products: make a course, develop a free ebook people can download when you get their email address, make a print on demand store of your logoed goods. (We threw this together for our friends at Mount Dessert Bakery having just a high res version of their logo a month ago so they can have some money coming in without having to do anything as they deal with a family illness. society6.com/mountdessertbakery)
Yes, you’ve run a business in a hard market before… but maybe not this hard. But if we can get innovative, not only can we win now but win more going forward.
Please reach out if we can help you in any way. And share this with anyone you think needs ideas to reframe this hard hard time.
Let’s make you some money. Because you deserve it, small businesses.
And those reading this without businesses, support those businesses that are pivoting in this time.
Because now you’ll be able to buy local, online. And that’s a silver lining in this dark period.