Plans For Post-Coronavirus Outbreak Optimism seems to be our homestretch after this flurry. Check out how as small business owners, you can rewire your process to deal after the breakout.

Almost all business owners across the world have been or will be affected by the coronavirus outbreak. If you are a small business owner you might have been even hit harder because you have fewer resources available to get through a crisis like this.

And right now, you might be thinking: "I am looking forward to this to be over so we can get back to normal."

We Are Not Going Back To Normal

When this outbreak is over with its tragic humanitarian and economic consequences, we will not return to how the world was before this. Millions of people have lost their jobs. Millions of people have had to figure out how to work remotely from home or elsewhere. Many of these people have discovered a new reality that will affect and influence how they will live their lives in the future. Some might have discovered that it is actually great working from home. Some of those who have lost their jobs might think in new directions.

And for you as a business owner, you have a whole new reality waiting for you as well. The customers you had planned to sell to might have gone bankrupt or in deep financial trouble. Your product or service may not have the same value to the customers as it had before the breakout. All in all: The world is never going to be the same. Many opportunities are lost but new will be developing.

My company, Gugin has lost its entire pipeline of workshops, keynote speeches and consulting assignments. Some will be postponed and some are gone forever. But a new one has developed. We started creating online training modules a couple of years ago but didn't really market them. They are now in high demand. We have still lost a lot of revenue but we are not at a standstill as I feared, we would be at the beginning of March.

One of my startups has got an unexpected boost as well. While a lot of people are ordered to stay at home some of them will look for companionship online. We can a dramatic boost of new members of The Educated Singles Club. And that is a direct outcome of the new situation we are in.

Plan for the post-coronavirus future

If you want to have a chance to recover your business after the outbreak (and no one knows how long it is going to take) you have to think ahead of time.

You might have a product or service you are very proud of and have spent a lot of resources developing. But you have to forget that while you research and investigate what the world needs when all this is over.

After a crisis comes optimism. We know that from all previous crises. But what kind of optimism will we see this time? Will people travel more? Spend more time with their loved ones? Look for solutions that make it possible for them to work from home? A thousand different changes in values, priorities will happen. You have to find out which ones can help boost your business when all this is over.

Ask Your Clients, Employees And Network

Instead of trying to guess how the world will look like when this is over try to ask your customers, friends, employees and other people in your network. Ask them how this crisis has changed their lives and what they will do differently from now on.

Get as many answers as possible and remember to ask open questions so you allow people to come up with answers you didn't expect at all.

We are currently in the process of interviewing out stakeholders these days so we can make a strategy and a plan for how our company shall be when this is over. We did this at previous financial crisis too and we came out stronger than ever. I am sure we will this time too and so will you.

The most important thing to remember is that the good old days are not coming back. Your attitude determines if what is coming instead is better or worse. It is your decision.