The Bigger, Bigger Picture: How To Optimize Your Agency Post-Crisis

While a crisis is happening, it feels like it will go on forever, but there is one certainty: it will end.

At some point, it will be a distant memory, and things will be as they once were. However, while a crisis may disappear, its effects on businesses and the economy, in general, may well linger for years. Some industries will be hit harder than others, of course, but there will certainly be some knock-on effects for all of us.

Life must go on, however, and sometimes a crisis provides an opportunity to spend some productive time planning for the big picture. Or even, the bigger, bigger picture. After all, rumour has it that Shakespeare wrote King Lear during some kind of plague quarantine. If he can fire out that enduring masterpiece while under lockdown, you can certainly cast a critical eye on your business and adjust as necessary.

When thinking about how to optimize an agency after a crisis, several things come to mind. Whichever industry you’re in, you’re likely going to experience severe upheaval during unprecedented times. There is no easy way to coast through a crisis and carry on as you were before. The reliance on the internet that many businesses have is a real advantage – many businesses can still operate in some capacity. (If Shakespeare had the internet, maybe he would’ve got King Lear 2 written under quarantine as well; he’d certainly be able to write a lot faster with a keyboard.)

Many countries across the world may force businesses to close their doors during a health crisis, even if they didn’t want to. You could start here. The forced closure of premises can create a drastic opportunity for you to assess overheads specifically related to your physical location. Office maintenance, secretaries, cleaners – all of these roles can be assessed and revised if necessary so that when you’re ready to return to physical work, you know that you’re doing so under optimized financial conditions. All the little bills add up, so use this time as an opportunity to take a cold, hard look at your physical workspace and make adjustments if you need.

Working from home can be less than optimal. But many businesses are finding out that they can get more done from home than they first thought. Necessity is the mother of all invention, as they say. (Actually, it sounds like something Billy Shakes himself might’ve come up with, but it’s actually derived from Latin. What a shame.)

If you’ve discovered that your enterprise is actually more productive than you thought, why not look at introducing working from home as a feature going forward, at least in the short-term? Maybe you can keep costs down by having some of your team work remotely. Maybe it saves a member of your team a long or difficult commute, and they’re happier (and get more done) working from their house. Obviously you’ll have to take it on a case-by-case basis, but streamlining in this way could lead to happier team morale as well as streamlining costs.

One of the greatest lessons a crisis can teach us is the art of distilling everything down to its bare essentials. Many businesses have to learn some hard lessons, and in order to survive, many have to cut everything right back to the bare necessities. But is this a bad thing? Was your operation spending needless cash on things that didn’t matter? Can a crisis give you a chance to address some of those issues, and make sure your business is functioning at maximum efficiency?

Maybe some everyday tasks that were formerly routine have gone out the window now. Ask yourself honestly: do you miss them? Were they crucial? Maybe you’ll find that some of them weren’t even necessary in the first place. Communicate with your staff about this. Ask them for their inputs about the positives and negatives involved in prolonged working from home, and see how you can incorporate those ideas into the future of your business. Maybe an ideal solution is to split time between the office and home. Whatever strategy you come up with, now is the perfect time to discuss.

Take a look at your team of employees. Do you notice that some took to strict lockdown measures better than others? Maybe some of them particularly shine during a crisis and should be rewarded for their work. Maybe they’re in the wrong position altogether. They might have shown great leadership, helping out other team members who are feeling the strain, or uniting everyone under the company banner.

In this case, you should think about moving them up for a managerial role. Use Productive and its helpful insights to keep track of who’s making the biggest impact on the company; it can help you hold the fort down digitally, and benefit you in the long run as you learn how to strengthen your agency after a crisis.

Yes, crisis situations are bad by nature – but they can also be a great opportunity to further your business by making radical changes. Take advantage of them as Shakespeare did, and write your own business masterpiece.