10 Top Tips for restaurants and takeaways to prepare for the new normal after the Covid-19 lockdown

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Paul Dobson, Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire Business School

At Staffordshire Business School we support businesses as part of our courses and I’m aware that some takeaways are doing really well, especially as their customers do not want to go to the shops, queue up, be too close to other people, etc.  But we’ve been told to expect a recession, possible depression, plus we have Brexit and there are concerned about the environment, so the way ahead is going to be tough.  My last blog to help hotels and bed & breakfasts post lockdown received a lot of positive feedback but the restaurants and takeaways I support requested that I could do a blog for them so, I’ve written some top tips.

1. Reduce costs

Look throughout your organisation where you can reduce running costs, for example I’ve helped takeaways reduce their online ordering costs by over 50% by looking around for better and cheaper systems, enabling ordering direct and not through other platforms, Facebook now has a free online ordering system, other e-commerce systems including a website has substantially reduce their cost and are now just a small one-off price. See if you can reduce your supply costs for example: a local restaurant and takeaway to me has reduced their electricity costs by 15%.

2. Watch and learn what’s happening abroad and in retail

Keep an eye on what is happening with restaurants in countries ahead of the curve and how they are adapting.  Retail shops are opening but in a post-Covid-19 more spaced and structured way. There are some good learning points being shown but also what issues/blockages they have and how they’ve got over it.  Look at how the best are using their social media such as YouTube to raise their profile and showing how they’re safe.  Trust is becoming a key area of importance in many areas ahead of this pandemic curve, use your social media to help gain this trust.

Image source: Insider.com

3. Transition to online

If you haven’t already; go online properly.  Don’t rely on third-party platforms who take a percentage of your money and don’t think that a PDF document showing your menu is enough.  It’s going to get even more competitive.  There are some I’ve already seen that are burying their head in the sand…don’t do this or you could be one of those closing.

4. Do not suddenly re-appear post lockdown

There are great examples out there how restaurants and takeaways are continuing to market their restaurant on social media in areas that are important to customers, for example takeaways showing disinfecting their insulated food delivery bags, extensive cleaning in their kitchens, personal protection equipment, how they’re developing their customer protection and so on. Social media videos are working really well at the moment so you need to enhance your marketing.

5. Mobile is king

One of the takeaways I support has over 70% of their orders via smartphones.  It is no longer the case their customers look on their mobile and order via a laptop or computer, they do the whole lot on their mobile.  If your website isn’t mobile friendly, you can lose at least 53% of your online clients and your website needs to load in less than 3 seconds because around an additional 27% drop off if it’s too slow. Your website speed can be easily tested at http://testmysite.withgoogle.com/

6. Try and develop your entrepreneurial spirit

Look to develop other products and services.  Some restaurants I work with have:

  • setup subscription boxes where they include cooking instructions or paid membership sites with videos and food deliveries
  • some have developed frozen versions to be cooked at home
  • a pizza takeaway has developed a separate salad takeaway business
  • some have developed drop off points for their meals

I’m working with one restaurant to develop and sell aprons, baseball caps and t-shirts with their brand on. What can you do?

7. Learn from the best

Domino’s marketing is really good, they know my last order, they email me a prompt at the same day and time as my ordering time from the previous week offering me an easy click option to re-order plus they have what looks like great offers for my customer type (family with adult kids). They don’t make the best pizzas in my area, but they do a good prompt at the right time and make it very easy to order.  Other local takeaways know my details and order preferences as I’ve signed into their website giving my contact details…and yet they don’t prompt me.  I don’t even get emails or offers from most of them.  Have a look around at what others are doing and learn from the best. As a minimum you should be capturing your customer contact details and keeping in touch.

In addition, look to develop and improve your marketing in all areas not just online, the graphics, the text, the menus, what your offering, and so on.  Look for what the best organisations are doing, for example in the US and how can you adapt this to improve your marketing.

Image Source: Braze Magazine

8. Go paper and contact free

Your customers are concerned about hygiene and avoiding contact, use technology to be better and cheaper. Your customers should not have to touch a pen or receipts or have their card taken away to be put in a card machine.  Everything should be contact free.  They should be able to go totally contactless using their mobile phone and their receipts should be emailed to them.

9. Look at the numbers

If you have a website, you should be getting weekly statistics including what your customers are doing and where the blockages are.  This is important information, in just 10 minutes I enabled a 100% increase in takeaway orders just by pointing out where the barriers are for customers and how to get over them.

Do a user test, find someone who’s not seen your website before, give them a task, for example buy a vegetarian or meat feast pizza for delivery, and watch how they use your site.  Do not prompt or guide them and see if you can learn from this to improve the customer journey to increase sales.

The websites analytics should also give you the keywords customers are using to find your website.  Are they looking for meals or services that you don’t currently provide, and you could? – If customers are looking for these meals you know your onto a winner.

10. Create a Wow factor

As a family of four we take turns to order one takeaway per week so we like to try different meals. In our town the pizzerias all offer the same types of pizzas, there’s virtually no difference between them and none of them have tried to educate and sell Roman, Sicilian or Detroit style pizzas.   None have talked about milling their own flour onsite or getting their flour from a local stone mill and therefore they have a low carbon footprint.  I’m not aware of any of them demonstrating their special techniques or trying to raise their personal brand.  Have a look around and see what you can use to develop a wow factor in your restaurant and takeaway.

Thoughts on happiness

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Angela Lawrence, Associate Dean, Staffordshire Business School

There are lots of things that make me happy, but not many of them are material things. My “thing” is more profound, more enduring and gives me a far greater sense of purpose and contentment. Over the years, my thing has changed, adapted and moved in different directions, but it comes down to this – seeing things grow and develop into beautiful entities that I appreciate and am proud of yields more happiness than anything tactile you could gift to me.

So, watching my children grow into independent, hard-working adults that I am so proud of makes me happy. Seeing them enjoy the delights of parenthood themselves brings me great delight. Watching their children, my grandchildren, blossom and thrive in a world full of confusion and mixed messages, knowing that they love me unconditionally, is priceless.

Greeting students on their first day at university, nurturing them through the highs and lows of academic life, watching them mature and grow over years of study, applauding proudly at their graduation and then following the development of their careers on LinkedIn or Twitter gives me a huge sense of pride and hope for the future. Over my career, few jobs have ever made me as happy as I feel on graduation day.

I must make mention of the gift of nature and the delights of watching seedlings emerge from warm soil in the springtime, cultivating and raising those seedlings at my allotment to be strong independent plants that delight me and provide sustenance, both for my dinner table and to share with others – never forget the delights of sharing. The pleasures I gain from growing at the allotment are more profound and not only make me happy but provide head space for me to escape from the complications of modern life. I am in my absolute element when rummaging in the soil and watering my crops. Thinking time is so good and fresh air so invigorating.

I never would have thought 40 years ago that I would say studying makes me happy, but it does. Who would have known that I would still be studying? Yet here I am, halfway through my Doctorate in Education and thriving on it. Pondering why this should be so, I believe it is about being able to express myself, able to share with others what fascinates and challenges me, in the knowledge that I will bring something fresh and new to my field of study. At times I forget how much this matters to me, when deadlines are looming and time is precious, but it is always worth the effort and undoubtedly will be so when I cross that platform to receive the title of Doctor.

In all of this there is a theme of nurturing, be it people, plants, thoughts or words. Incredibly we don’t need money or objects to nurture, we just need to be ourselves and to learn to derive happiness from the small things that we can control in our lives. It’s true what they say – all the money in the world cannot buy you happiness. Find your “thing” and create your own – smile and be happy!

International Day of Happiness – March 20th

Support for micro & SME’s businesses: Survive and Thrive

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Project leads: e:Prof Jon Fairburn @ProfjonFairburn and e:Kat Taylor @KatTayloruk

There are two parts to the Survive and Thrive project – a series of webinars and 1 to 1 business support. This project aims to support businesses in Staffordshire and the surrounding regions.

The webinars are designed to be interactive and resources to download during the webinars will be made available, as well as examples and the opportunity for chat and questions. If you are unable to attend the webinar then you can watch a recording.

Several of the webinars link to each other and we would encourage you to sign up for all of the webinars.

Practical Hints and Tips for Small and Micro-businesses occurred on Staffordshire Day (May 1st) – Recording here

How to critically assess your business operation and ask really good questions in light of Covid 19 – 2pm May 21st Recording here

How to Create Clear Messaging & Develop Customer Relationships Online – 2pm May 28th Recording here

Strengthening your business and its future prospects: adapting your operations and supply chain management 2pm June 4th Recording here

Are you in the right place? How to connect to the right audience & analyse your performance 2pm June 11th Recording here

E-commerce 1: A fun, no techno-babble guide to having a go with electronic commerce! 2pm 18th June Awaiting editing

E-commerce 2:  A detailed navigation of the e-commerce strategy template introduced in the E-Commerce 1 webinar 2pm June 25th Recording here

How to manage your staff and their wellbeing out of the lockdown and beyond 2pm July 2nd Recording here

Introduction to advanced operations for key social media platforms 2pm July 7th Recording here

How to develop & integrate email marketing into your business 2pm July 9th Recording here

Managing change, risk and longevity – what does the future hold? 2pm July 16th

Register here

Applications for FREE 1 to 1 business support are NOW CLOSED (All businesses that are due to receive help have been contacted).

CONTACT INFO Prof Jon Fairburn or Kat Taylor

#SurviveandThrive #Staffordshire #Staffsbiz #Businesstips

Preparing for the New Normal – How accommodation providers in France are rethinking and adapting their services and what can we learn from this?

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Paul Dobson, Senior LEcturer,Staffordshire Business School

It’s been a challenging, confusing and worrying time for most industries during this current Coronavirus Crisis. But the hospitality sector in particular stands to be one of the hardest hit as it struggles to contemplate how it can continue to trade successfully keeping social distancing in mind, coupled with a rapidly shrinking economy.  As part of Staffordshire Business School’s support to organisations I’ve been supporting the local and international hospitality sector and as the French businesses are ahead of us in coming out of lockdown I’ve noted some points to help prepare UK organisations.

After 2 months enduring some of the strictest lockdown controls in Europe, France is slowly opening up its economy and society. And the vast, hugely varied accommodation sector, which historically welcomes visitors across the world, is undergoing a rapid and radical revolution to ensure it can continue to attract customers in these unprecedented times.

The newly forced need to keep distance and natural sense of personal safety has fallen well into the hands of some of the self-catering sector. Private homes and villas, especially those that can offer generous outside space as well as little or no contact with others, have seen a huge demand since the 11th of May when the French Prime Minister officially declared that travel up to 100km was now permitted. The public, who have been largely “imprisoned” with massively limited scope to be outside their own homes since the middle of March inevitably have an overwhelming desire for a change of scenery. However, this is not a universal permission and policy, and restricted zones still exist across France, and indeed many local governments, even in the less-infected “green regions” are enforcing the continuation of heavy trading restrictions and forced closures of accommodation providers. But where these rules do not apply, the flood gates have opened and demand, all from customers within the 100km radius, has been significant. Also worthy of note is that the average length of stay has seen a dramatic increase for this time of year.

That’s not to say that this is return to normal times for these accommodation owners. French hospitality organisations have had a massive increase in questions about sanitation, personal responsibility and uniform industry standards on cleanliness and contact that the UK accommodation businesses will need to be prepared for when lockdown restrictions are relaxed. As of today, these restrictions haven’t been totally clarified in France, and only “best practice” guides from local tourism authorities exist online. Some of the leading booking platforms and websites for this sub sector are advising “safety gaps” between customers of, for example, 24 hours to allow any surfaces to become less likely to cross contaminate in the future. What is apparent from discussions with French hospitality businesses is that there is an increased desire for customers to have  “direct online contact” with the service rather than through  online booking platforms.  This could be a welcome shift in attitude as this not only allows peace of mind for the customer, but also less commissions for the business owner to pay to the booking platforms which have come under much public criticism and scrutiny of late because of their high charges. One of the French businesses I’ve talked to has had an 800% increase in Facebook messages, their analytics has shown an increase in both mobile and desktop visitors to their website and the number of emails has increased by over 200% compared to last year.

The B&B (Chambres d’hote) and Hotel sector have reported an uphill challenge. With a mix of different guests under their roofs, all with potentially varying attitudes to respecting the new government guidelines, this poses a significant threat to their short- and medium-term existence. However, those that can offer genuine space, especially outside, have a clear advantage over those that cannot. Going from one restrictive box to another isn’t likely to be a great draw for the new discerning needs of the Covid-19 era traveller.  Forced confinement has brought about a new desire to be out and about in nature, and burn off all those excessive calories consumed since March.

But with the high season fast approaching during which these businesses would traditionally run at maximum occupancy, the reality is that these organisations will be forced to not only give “buffers” in between guests checking out and the next ones checking in, but also run at a lower occupancy to ensure that interaction between different customers is minimized. Therefore “Making Hay whilst the sun shines” will this year inevitably bring about a lower yield, and reduce the vital cashflow which sustains many of these businesses during the quieter months. 

An example of changes implemented is the hotelier Tim Bell and Ingrid Boyer in the Auvergne region of Central France. Tim has developed their website to include a link to their Covid-19 guidance on their home page (see https://chabanettes.com/). This is updated on a regular basis and outlines their commitment to client’s safety.  He implements rapid alterations to its usual offerings and has created the foundations for business continuity and customer confidence.  He has also set up a Facebook forum for like minded accommodation owners in Europe seeking support and advice. Tim collates industry data, statistics and best practice ideas from all over the accommodation sector and share his opinions and advice with the group.

The sector in which he operates is having to rethink more radically about its traditional services to ensure competitivity and customer confidence. This ranges from the provision of catering which is leaning initially more towards a “Room Service” culture to a complete overhaul of the check-in/check-out customer touch points, looking to technology and globally recognised physical safety barriers to reduce risk of viral spread. For an industry which relies heavily on close, personal contact for their reputation and overall experience, keeping a balance between customer satisfaction and safety is proving challenging, but not impossible. Clients now expect a more sterile and distanced world, with supermarkets leading the way in some innovation and rethinking of the customer journey that the hotels are learning from, such as one-way corridors.

Until the world is safely vaccinated against the virus, the accommodation industry will have to adapt quickly and radically to guidelines, legislation and customer fears. History has told us that businesses that do this will have the best chance of survival, and those that don’t not only fear a downturn in business, but also a very visible online reputation for ignoring what is now the number one priority for the 2020 traveller – Safety.

Chatting with chatbots

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Keair Bailey, Msc Digital MArketing Management

Chatbots are the cost-effective way for a business to stay engaged with their customer 24/7, this blog will discuss why businesses should be including them in their next marketing implementation.

On a very simple level, a bot is just a bit of software that can carry out pre-determined actions on its own without being actively controlled. This is discussed in further detail by Neil Patel who describes it as a “wind up toy”, you build it to carry out what you want it to, you wind it up, and then you let it perform the action it was designed for.

The Customer comes first

The first advantage that a business will notice when introducing chatbots to their marketing is the speed in which the bots reply to customer support messages. This is extremely important as its very common for customers to get very frustrated when made to wait for a human over the phone on through a chat. There is no way to accommodate enough human customer support workers for every customer with a query which results in long wait times. TheModernFirm did a study on customers who have had to call in order to reach customer support, these numbers were found:

  • “67% of customers hang up out of frustration when they can’t reach a real person.
  • 75% of customers think that it takes too long to reach a human being.
  • 72% of callers who reach an automated/recorded phone line will hang up.”

These problems will result in lower customer loyalty and eventually a loss of profits.

Implementation of a chatbot would eradicate these problems, A chatbots response is immediate and a customer can have their query solved in a matter of seconds. Customers are also more likely to reach out for support if they see a ‘Live Chat’ button.

More information

Businesses today put a lot of emphasis on knowing everything about their customer, this is normally done through primary research. Information such as what a customer is buying is available as a company can just look at sales statistics, however, products that a customer is choosing not to buy is harder to work out as there are far more variables involved. The best way to gain this information is straight from the customers their selves, this is made possible by the mighty chatbot. Email doesn’t result in as accurate information due to the back and forth nature, a live chat allows the customer to reply naturally which leads to more accurate information.

Modern Evolution

LearningHub stats show that Chatbots will power 85% of customer service by 2020 and by 2022, chatbots will help businesses save over $8 billion per annum. If these stats stay true, which information is leaning towards, companies who HAVEN’T introduced chatbots into their marketing strategy will be left behind. Customers will simply stop doing business with company’s that require extra steps to get what they want. Together with the cost efficiency of the chatbot, It makes less and less sense to continue to pay a human to do an AI’s job. Speaking of humans, its very common for somebody working customer support to make a ‘human’ error, this could be something as simple as interpreting the meaning of a question slightly wrong which can lead to frustration or a loss of sales from the customer.

They’re taking our jobs!

While the AI in a chatbot can usually accommodate for most requests from a customer, it’s very easy for a chatbot to get stuck if a customer’s query is slightly different to its base algorithms that its been taught. Also, as a chatbot learns from the responses it receives from a customer, it can sometimes make the wrong decision internally due not being able to actually choose which decision it wants to make, it is just following the code. An example of this is a Microsoft chatbot used on Twitter being taught racist and misogynistic responses by customers in less than 24 hours, to avoid this, the chatbot must be optimised properly.

Conclusion

There is an endless supply of advantages when it comes to assessing chatbots, they can save your company money and time, improve your customer relations and customer loyalty and ultimately create a better brand image. Although, an influx of AI and bots makes the whole customer service process very impersonal and cold as suggested by Neil Patel. Neil also suggests that chatbots should most definitely be used in their marketing strategies but the businesses should also be careful as to not “water down” their marketing.

“All good things in moderation”.

Top tips on how to be an influencer

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Paul Dobson, Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire Business School

Over the past three years, as part of our Digital Marketing courses, we’ve worked with one person per year and enabled them to be influencers earning over £3,000 per month working part-time so I know that there is a proven and systematic way of doing this. See our undergraduate BA (Hons) Marketing Management and Post Graduate MSc Customer and Data Analytics. As part of this, there are some top tips that I’ve learnt.

  • It doesn’t matter if you’re shy and not out-going.

Some of the best people in my area of Digital Marketing, such as Michael Stelzner and Pat Flynn, have admitted that they’re not extroverts.  This helps make them more authentic and real in-front of the mic and camera.  Remember as well that when you record your audio or video that no one is listening / watching, you have control and people only see this when you post on social media etc. So you can do this, even if you have uncertainty and fear.

  • It doesn’t matter if there is competition.

This helps prove that there is a market for your area and they have already set the ground work. You can also be different from them or even compliment them, so that you become partners with them.

  • Right now, is the best time to start.

When people are in lockdown and a potential recession may be around the corner this isn’t a barrier. Some of the best businesses out there such as Disney, Google, Facebook and FedEx started during a recession.  The start-up costs are very low and the potential is high… There is no reason to delay.

  • Choose a niche that you love.

You need to treat this as a part-time business that you need to develop to earn money. It needs working on, so choose a hobby, past-time, area that you can learn (yes, you can learn a new area and do this) that you enjoy… I hear people all the time saying I don’t have a hobby or I don’t do anything and every single person after a chat has had a good potential area.  There are interesting ways in all areas for example there is someone with over 1.5M subscribers who cooks with their dog watching (see https://www.youtube.com/cookingwithdog ), so the world really is your oyster.

  • You do not need complicated equipment.

Some of the influencers we’ve worked with just use their mobile phone but ensured that the sound and video looked OK, e.g. enough light and not a lot of background noise.  You can get cheap mobile stands or stands with light fairly cheap online, for example one of the influencers we’re working with at the moment has bought a basic one for less than £4, and a more comprehensive one with a stand etc for less that £13.

  • Yes, you do need to make time.

As noted above this does need treating like a job, i.e. don’t put it off, and you do need discipline to keep developing your materials etc for your niche on a timely regular basis that your audience can listen to / watch. You will need to develop and post this material at least once per week but the potential reward is fantastic.

  • It will need research and keeping an eye on.

You will need to research and consider your audience and competitors. What areas are people interesting in, need help with, want to learn, have problems or issues with that you can discuss?  What areas are the competitors covering, how and can you be different or complimentary?

When you start your journey what areas work, what doesn’t and why?  Use these as learning points to develop your podcasts and videos etc.   Always keep an eye on what your audience is saying, sharing, and listening to / watching for a long time, so that you can use to improve what you do.

Stay Safe


Paul Dobson MSc, MA, MBA, PGCHPE, Senior Fellow HEA, MIPM, FCMI, MAM
Senior Lecturer in Digital and Strategic Marketing
uk.linkedin.com/in/paulmddobson/

Work-related stress: Tips for businesses

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Vanessa Oakes, Lecturer, Staffordshire Business school

Stress is no longer a mental health condition that organisations can afford to ignore. In 2018/2019 12.8 million working days were lost due to stress, depression and anxiety (HSE, 2019) at a cost to the economy of £34.9bn. This cost is related to temporarily replacing absent staff, the cost of disruption to the organisation and lost opportunity costs, the cost of paid sick leave and the time required to manage employees who are off work, with an average number of days lost per case at 25.8 (HSE, 2019).

These numbers make for sobering reading, particularly if you are a business owner or a manager who has seen sickness absence related to stress, increase in your team. However, there is more than just a financial cost to the organisation. Your organisation’s reputation as an employer diminishes with high rates of absence due to stress, the engagement levels of your staff drop and in response, so does productivity and all of this happens because you are sending the message to your staff that their mental health isn’t as important as the performance of the organisation.

When it comes to proactively managing stress in the workplace, there is a lot that can be done to reduce stress before sickness absence takes hold. The CIPD’s 2019 Health & Wellbeing at Work Survey reports that 61% of organisations are recognising this as a priority, at Board level. But what can you actually do to reduce stress for your workforce?

Determine if employees are suffering from work-related stress or stress in their personal lives.

If your employees are experiencing stress at home, this will also impact their productivity too, so help them to acknowledge it and provide as much support as you can. An EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) can help you to offer support to staff without having to pry into their personal lives and will show your employees that you are concerned about them.

If your employee is suffering from work-related stress, then there is a lot that can be done to improve their environment. Firstly, take a look at your expectations of them.  Are they achievable and realistic? Do they have the support and authority needed to do their job? Are they under excess pressure to deliver? Can their responsibilities be shared by others or delegated?

Look at your absence management process – is it too harsh or too lenient? Can you build flexibility into your process to ensure you are able to support staff who are suffering with stress?

If too harsh, it may be forcing staff back to work before they are ready because there is a financial impact, or they may be afraid for their job security. These staff don’t get the time to deal with their stress before they are plunged back into it, and so may get worse over time. Are you conducting return to work interviews consistently for all staff? This is the best opportunity to determine if you employee is ready to be back at work.

Where your absence management process is too lenient, or you don’t have one, do you know why your staff are off sick? If you don’t know then you can’t help. Maybe your line managers don’t feel that they can ask such personal questions? If so, provide training to boost their confidence.

Focus on health and well-being

Communicate regularly with staff about the importance of their health and wellbeing and ask them about initiatives they think would improve health and wellbeing for all. It might be that water coolers within easy reach of desks will mean they are better hydrated; encouraging walks at lunchtime could improve the mental health in many different ways; having a space for staff to eat lunch, away from their desks means that their focus will be away from their work for at least a short time during the day. Most importantly though, ask them what they think and follow up on it! They will often have the best ideas about what would improve things for them.

Make sure that you react proactively when you suspect an employee is under stress, don’t wait for them to go off sick. This requires your managers to be more alert to possible changes in behaviour, timekeeping and work productivity and quality. Ensure that they receive training in how to start conversations about stress and mental health, and that they can signpost employees to other services if they are unable to help.

Finally, it may seem like managing stress and the related absence is time consuming, costly and unnecessary, but it has been proven to pay off. The CIPD’s survey found that three quarters of organisations who implemented proactive health and wellbeing strategies, however informal, saw a positive improvement in metrics such as morale and engagement, lower sickness absence, improved employer reputation, better retention of staff, a reduction in reported work-related stress, improved productivity and better customer service levels. Supporting your staff through difficult periods in their personal and working lives pays dividends when it comes to the success of your organisation. Now is not the time to delay!

Currently, it is even more important than ever to consider the health and wellbeing of staff as they endure lockdown and furlough leave. One thing which no organisation can offer, is certainty but there are ways of encouraging staff to maintain their health and wellbeing whether they are on furlough leave, working from home and trying to juggle childcare and other caring responsibilities. Here are a few tips:

  1. Communicate with them as regularly as you can – you may not be able to reassure them that their jobs are safe, or that things will return to normal quickly, but at least they will know that someone is still looking out for them.
  2. For staff on furlough leave, ensure that you have given them written details of their remuneration – try to avoid uncertainly building about how much they will be paid and when.
  3. Ensure that managers are in touch with their teams to ensure that each gets individual support – some employees might be coping well; others might be feeling higher levels of stress and may need more support.
  4. Remind your staff about their importance to your business, what their strengths are, how much they are valued and their latest achievements. They need to hear this now more than ever.

These steps should help you to maintain an engaged and productive (if they are homeworking) workforce during this challenging time and beyond.

Covid-19 and the Stay-at-Home Economy

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Fang Zhao, Professor of Innovation and Strategy & Associate Dean Research and Enterprise, Staffordshire Business School

Covid-19 outbreak is not only a global health crisis but also an imminent economic shock. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the UK economy could shrink by a record 35% by June 2020 with over 2 million job losses. The International Monetary Fund warned Covid-19 would push the UK into its deepest recession for a century.

Image: BBC – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52279871

For businesses, it is estimated that the government’s lockdowns may cost 800,000 to 1 million business closures in the UK. The sector that is affected the most and is also the most vulnerable is small businesses which account for 96% of all businesses in the UK (Business Statistics, 2019). To prevent the catastrophic structural economic damage and mitigate the huge spike in unemployment, sound economic policy responses are urgently needed, which goes far beyond government handouts.

Image: BBC – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52279871

Economic restructuring is already happening. Cloud computing, e-commerce, online entertainment and delivery business are booming, being inflated by a huge surge in demand while retail (e.g. shops, pubs and restaurants) and entertainment industries (e.g. cinemas, theatres, and theme parks) and many others are suffering from heavy losses. Policy makers are confronting with the unprecedented daunting tasks to make strategic decisions on how to deal with the pandemic economic restructuring and crisis.

The pandemic outbreak has fuelled disproportionately the so-called ‘stay-at-home economy’. Working from home is becoming a new norm. For many this is the beginning of a new life and a new way of work for years to come. The implication for business is that it is time to rethink and reposition existing business models, processes, and target markets because consumer behaviours are changing fast and life will never be the same again.

Although small businesses are the hardest hit, they are also the most agile ones.  Some small businesses have already responded and adapted quickly to market changes. For examples, some have moved their businesses entirely online and some shifted their target market from restaurants and hotels to individual consumers or new markets. New businesses are also emerging surrounding the stay-at-home economy, such as virtual hair salons and online gym classes. Over the longer term, Covid-19 has irrevocably changed the way businesses will run and compete over the next decade.

Researchers at Staffordshire Business School are working hard to help better understand the impacts of Covid-19 on the economy and society and help policy makers develop strategies to tackle the economic fallout and revive the economy. Our staff are also conducting research on the changing behaviours of consumers due to Covid-19. For more information on our research and partnerships, please contact Professor Fang Zhao, Associate Dean – Research and Enterprise at fang.zhao@staffs.ac.uk.

Budgeting as a student can be hard! Learn from our students top mistakes

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Karl McCormack, Senior Lecturer, School of Justice, security and Sustainability

Being a student is a great time in your life, but living off a budget can create stress and anxiety. We start university often with limited skill in budgeting and managing our finances. Students frequently mention spending mistakes that eat up chunks of their bank balances.

The key is to develop good spending habits starts with budgeting. Yes, it is time consuming and a real pain, but it enables us to track money coming in and going out.

By learning to budget well, you will be able to:

  • Understand your spending and adjust bad spending habits
  • Spend less on useless items
  • Save more money
  • Keep out of debt
  • Have money for emergencies or important future expenses
  • Learn and prevent future spending mistakes

Learning how to budget will save you a lot of hassle and you will be learning skills for life.

Biggest mistakes:

Not having a budget!

Sounds crazy doesn’t it? But failing to have a visual budget instead relying on memory for what you have to spend and what you have spent, often leads to thinking you have more money than you really do. It becomes difficult to gauge if something is over your budget and impossible to not overspend as you start to socialise more.

Using your debit card when you pay for something.

Everyone uses their card right? Using cash is old fashioned? But there are many more pros than cons in using cash rather than your card. Putting everything on a card creates the illusion of having more money than you think, that you aren’t actually spending. The realisation that you do not have unlimited funds, that you are a student living on a budget (now with no money) will soon kick in.

Students often say they have no idea what they were spending money on. Tapping a card  and not even registering the amount you are tapping for. This along with not looking at a  bank statements or just being confused by the names you see on it.

So stop using your card, use cash for daily expenses. Yes you still need a card (online purchases, transport, larger expenses) for necessities. But for fun expenses, things you don’t really need, pay by cash. You will notice as the cash disappears and this will give you greater knowledge of where you are spending your money.

Don’t buy textbooks before attending your first classes.

Every course has a list of recommended texts and required reading. There are certain benefits to being organised and preparing. But wait. Internet searching can often reveal the information you are after.

But what if the book is compulsory? In some lectures the tutor may refer to a core book each week and the questions can only be found in them. You may need to get your hands on a specific book then. You could try:

  • The university library
  • Classmates and friends (may have copies they are happy to share)
  • Social media chats and groups (may get a battered old copy cheap)
  • Online marketplaces
  • Online, traditional and second-hand bookstores

Lazyness! Not packing your own lunch.

Ask any student they will say a lot of money is spent on buying lunch on the days you are in uni. Often prices are not too high, but they are higher than making your own. You may start with good intentions, but as time passes the laziness creeps in and you stop packing your own lunch. Purchasing a lunch can cost £7 or £8 then a drink etc… multiply this by the number of days you are in uni and the weeks and suddenly you are talking about a large sum of money.

By knowing what you spend your money on, learning from those mistakes means you can take steps to ix it. Develop good spending habits, don’t buy things that you do not need and learn from others.

What are your own spending mistakes? What are your tips?

Discover how accounting and finance underpins modern enterprise in our BA (Hons) Finance and Business Enterprise.

Preparing well to kick-start your small business marketing

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When lockdown is a thing of the past and businesses emerge from a period of limited or no trading, well-planned, low-budget marketing activity is going to be more important than ever.

Angela Lawrence, Associate Dean of Staffordshire Business School is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Here she gives advice to small business owners on what they can do now to effectively kick-start their marketing activity.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed by CC-BY-NC-ND

Build your content bank

Have you ever read a great article, seen a clever piece of advertising, admired a good picture or felt a pang of jealousy at a distinctive marketing message that one of your competitors has put out there? Time to get ready to wow your audiences with clever, meaningful marketing messages that stand out in the crowd.

You know your business better than anyone and you probably have a wealth of content that is scattered around in so many places, that you don’t even know the half of what you have. This could be pictures, staff news, blogs, industry news, or even quizzes and fun stuff. Now is a great time to build your content into a bank of resources that can be easily accessed to create some great marketing content. Create a folder to put it all in, use meaningful titles to label your content, so that it is easily identifiable when you need it. This is all about using your time to get organised, so that you don’t have to trawl through all your files for hours to find that one picture that you want, when you need it most.

Understand your competitors

When it comes to marketing, nothing could be more important than knowing your competitors well – after all, you’re trying to attract the same target audience, so it’s always good to be a step ahead.

Take a look at their website, their pricing, their marketing activity. Browse their social media channels – what sort of posts seem to harness engagement and how do they market their products or services?

In the same way that you created a folder to organise your content bank, create another for competitor insights. Gather all the information you can so that you always have a benchmark to refer to when deciding strategic direction for your marketing activity.

Get to grips with your CSR

Who are YOU going to buy from when this pandemic is over? How do YOU want to be seen as a business – greedy, selfish and isolated, or caring, giving and socially conscious? I’d hazard a guess that we have all questioned our purchasing habits these past few weeks and that brand loyalty may be eroded for the likes of Virgin in light of Richard Branson’s approach to the coronavirus crisis.

Now is a good time to consider the social impact of your organisation and whilst it may not be economically viable to provide products or services free of charge, you can still take steps to be seen as an organisation that has a heart. Volunteering within your community is always a good way to make a real impact, consideration of your staff’s wellbeing and flexing working hours to suit childcare arrangements, allowing local charities to use rooms within your premises for meetings – there’s lots that you can do.

Plan, plan, plan!

Now that you know what your competitors are up to and you have all your content neatly organised, you can use this time to plan your marketing strategy for the next 12 months or more. Maybe you need to make adjustments to your website or even plan out a whole social media campaign to ensure that you regularly get messages about your business and your brands out there. There could well be platforms that you have yet to explore for your business – with 3.8 billion social media users worldwide, check out the latest trends in social media usage and make sure you know which platforms are right for you and your customers and prospects.

Undertaking just one of these activities could make all the difference once trade returns to normal – if truth be known, you should be doing all of this, all of the time. So, my advice would be to do something proactive for the good of your business today. Don’t just sit there and wait, do something now and create good habits to support the future success of your business.

Bring yourself up to date with the modern business world, whilst developing and mastering core business competencies by studying for a degree in Business Management at Staffordshire University