“The ACID Council, whose members span many design sectors, met recently and shared some of their insights during the current Covid-19 challenges. Want to meet the ACID Council, take a look here.
One business has been baking cakes, taking part in blogs and undertaking local voluntary work. They encourage and demonstrate mindfulness in the community and within their team and ensure there is regular contact as well as, telephoning them and being aware of identifying mental health issues. Always ask the question, “How can I keep the team motivated and supported?”
Positive communication is king. Reward and show loyalty if you have a good team. Keep team morale up and maintain contact with your customer base. Run small website promotions and online social media initiatives to “come and see!” products.
One Council member holds meditation classes – yoga, fitness and has a “building a website initiative” to build up skills, how to do social media etc. As a policy, concentrate on small amounts of good news.
And what better way to reinforce how important mental well-being is following Mental Health Awareness week, last week with a quote from Dr Tedros Adhanon Chebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation who said, “Awareness of mental ill-health has arguably never been so important and it’s clear to see that the Coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on people’s mental health. The impact on people’s mental health is already extremely concerning. Social isolation, fear of contagion and loss of family members is compounded by the distress cause by loss of income and often employment. It is now crystal clear that mental health needs must be treated as a core of our response to and recovery from the Covid 19 pandemic.”
ENCOURAGING BUYING BRITISH
Maybe in the reduction of Chinese manufactured products being imported there is more of an opportunity to buy UK products. Buy British! As Brexit comes closer this is also a precursor for buying British and post Covid 19 will be even more so.
Another company are creating art classes on Instagram! 200 people joined and they turned it into a subscription box. They keep their core business going by selling products with rainbows supporting the NHS, finding products that are a sign of the times.
Juggling as a small business is key, get team input to share as all staff have families and children and may be finding life a little more tricky and challenging. Focus on a website push to more of an online focus. This will lead to your brand being further exposed. Basically, keep positive, and create the bug to adapt and innovate which will build on online sales growth.
Identifying in-house skills and sharing these via short focused masterclasses internally is a great idea. For example, many designers are not experienced with Microsoft Excel, for example, or merchandising, marketing, IP protection and document management. It’s a good time to upskill your team and increases interaction.
WEBINARS
Think about webinars which will add value with specialist subjects. The market is saturated with seminars, there are other things that business are starting to cover like coming out of the current crisis, Design Protection, etc. When folks are time-rich there is resilience, a time for quirky ideas, keeping spirits up. Think of ideas to cheer people along.
Another priority is strategizing how we can get manufacturing back, safely, with other trades? How can we make distance working work? Returning to work will bring back overheads without necessarily the business trade to cover overheads, so bide one’s time to find solutions. Be confident about the future – things will be different, hold on to the fact that as the UK, we are all pretty entrepreneurial.
Mental Health
iHasco provide Mental Health Welfare Training and you can watch their recorded
webinar on 5 simple strategies for improving and maintaining staff wellbeing. Download their Mental Health & Wellbeing White Paper. Read their mental health awareness blogs.
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