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How and Why to Start Diversifying your Business

How and Why to Start Diversifying your Business

There’s nothing like a global pandemic to persuade you that the way you’re doing things isn’t all that it might be. When the lockdown was first ordered back in March, businesses across the country were caught napping. They weren’t yet prepared for an economy in which barely anyone was allowed to leave the house, where a huge proportion of purchases were made online.

Diversifying your business might provide some protection against shocks of this kind – and against much smaller ones, too. Let’s take a look at the practice and see what it might mean.

Why Business Should Diversify

Put all of your eggs in a single basket, so the saying goes, and you’ll expose yourself to increased risk. Multiple baskets means dropping one is less of a disaster.

Let’s consider a restaurant business. Many restaurants were quick to make the switch to take-away services. And there are online services like Just Eat or UberEats that can make delivery that much more practicable.

There’s another benefit to diversification, which is felt even when there isn’t a disastrous economic downturn at work. If you offer your customers a greater breadth of options, then you’ll have a greater chance at persuading them, and thus you’ll be able to drive sales up overall.

How Can Business Diversity?

Diversification, in essence, can refer to any side-hustle you might decide to set up. Look at the skillset and equipment that your business has available. Can they be put to use in another way you haven’t thought of?

For example, that restaurant we talked about might set up online cookery videos, or selling downloadable cookbooks. A pub which hosted a quiz every Tuesday might elect to continue the practice over Zoom.

For retail more broadly, we’ve seen an accelerated pivot to online sales. Things aren’t going back to the way that they were, and thus you’ll want to move your services to the digital domain if you’re to avoid getting left behind. Make it easy for your customers to order products on their smartphone – that’s how people will be ordering in the future.

If your business lacks the cash to invest in a pivot of this sort, then you might look into online lenders like Nucleus, who’ll be able to offer a loan that’s appropriate to your circumstances.

Things to Consider

Planning for the future in the current economic climate is extremely difficult. So much depends on the medical and political situation, and demand can deflate rapidly – especially given the upward trend in unemployment. Make sure that you consider every diversification strategy that’s appropriate to your business, and pick the ones that will be simplest to implement. Online video instruction, for example, can start small and experimental, and be rapidly upscaled once it’s gained traction.

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