Most economies in the world are depending on small businesses. There are more than 30 million small businesses in USA.

You’ve probably heard it said that “small business is the backbone of America.”

The quarantine time worldwide hit the businesses very hard. As a marketing agency our duty is to contribute to the economy and to help as many businesses as possible to survive this very difficult period of time.

The aftermath of corona pandemic is unpredictable. If small businesses have to close their locations the unemployment rate will skyrocket, and the economy will face a huge bear market.

Here are some ideas you can use as a small business owner to adapt your business model for the new market.

 1. Private School

Some private schools which we have the honor to advice, are switching to distance learning. Using tools like Zoom and Webex, the teacher can interact with each and every student simultaneously and teach them.

 2. Restaurants

Many restaurants started running Facebook ads targeting the neighborhood and offering delivery with Uber or DoorDash during dinner and lunchtime.

One restaurant in San Francisco started selling essential goods serving their neighborhood.

 3. Flooring Company

During the last two weeks, we developed an online shop for the company and developed an AI tool. Customers can take photos from their rooms and see how different carpet styles and hard floor options will look like.

When they purchase the floor, the company offers a self-installation video guide.

 4. Roofing Company

Roofing companies are using EagleView applications to prepare an accurate roof estimate without visiting the customer. To keep the social distance some you can use FaceTime / Viber and other video calls to communicate with client or even find a roof problem.

 5. Local Businesses such as Nail Saloons, Spas and Gyms

I see many businesses switching to online education and DYI advices. They offer video courses using platforms like Kajabi.

 6. Medical Professionals

Singapore have tested remote nursing since 2015. A doctor can treat his patient without a personal visit.

 7. Big engineering companies

With all the technology around us, most of the big giants are still stuck in the digital transformation. A lot of paperwork and personal meetings makes a giant company suffer from the shutdown. While advising a German engineering company, we developed solutions on how to run huge data consuming software like AutoCad remotely with very slow internet connection. We also developed new methods for team collaboration and new document workflow system.

The history repeats, Industrial Revolution started with huge crisis, same goes for the Informational Revolution. It is coming. Many businesses were not prepared for those kind of changes.

It doesn’t matter what type of business you are running.

 

If you do not find your business on the list, feel free to sent us an email and we will brainstorm with your for new ideas.

Here is a general advice to each and every business.

Use Social Media now more than ever!

 

Your business has to stay relevant. You need to be in front of your clients.

Stay relevant. Stay important.

Give valuable information to your clients. Teach your clients.

If you are a restaurant, teach your clients how to cook. If you are a mechanic, teach your clients how to identify problems.

People will remember you when all of this is over. Build trust!

Here is a list of some tools you might be needing.

Free tools to help you through the coronavirus pandemic

1. Zoom: Free videoconferencing tools for K-through-12 schools.
2. Slack: Free upgrades to paid plans for teams working on coronavirus pandemic research, response or mitigation.
3. Humu: Free nudges to anyone who wants science-backed advice for how to best work remotely, partner with colleagues who are all over the place, show appreciation for those who don’t have the flexibility to work remotely (e.g. cashiers, medical personnel).
4. Atlassian: Free access to Cloud products for issue-tracking and project-tracking software including Jira and Confluence. Also, free access to Trello Business Class for organizing plans is offered for one year to educators at K through 12 and higher education.
5. Airtable: Free use of Airtable Pro plan as a modern database for any non-political, humanitarian effort tackling COVID relief. There is no time limit. It is also planning to make the service free for students too.
6. PandaDoc: Free e-sign plan gives companies unlimited users, unlimited document uploads, unlimited eSignatures, and payment processing.
7. Clickup: Remote teams use ClickUp to effortlessly manage work worldwide. You can track progress, Monitor work in real-time, manage workload, collaborate on anything and set prioprities.
8. Calendly: Free Zoom and GoToMeeting integrations for their online appointment scheduling software to help remote workers stay connected. These were previously Premium tier features and will be available through June 30. Also Free premium plan access to teams working directly on COVID-19.
9. Smartsheet: Free templates that can be used by other organizations to build their own coronavirus preparedness dashboard, rich with CDC documentation and other resources, and related sheets and forms.
10. Support.com: Free tech support to anyone working or studying remotely right now.
11. Bill.com: Free 90-day subscription for new customers impacted by COVID-19. The cloud-based service helps small and mid-sized businesses to automate the processing of bills, generate invoices, send/receive payments and manage their cash flows.
12. Workable: Free use of the new video interviewing software for all customers, and access to a library of COVID-19 response content for use by HR professionals and business leaders.
13. Zoho: Free suite of Remotely apps until July 1. There are 11 apps in all, including ones for online meetings, training sessions, storage, project management and everyday work (in the form of word processing, spreadsheets and presentations).
14. Google: Free, premium version of its workplace video chat tool until July, to help businesses and schools working remotely due to coronavirus. Those features include having up to 250 participants per call, live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain, and the ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive.
15. Cisco: Free license for new customers of Duo Security’s two-factor authentication tool, and current customers can go above their user limit as their employees increasingly work from home. Same deal for its web security tool Umbrella and its VPN product AnyConnect, which is available until July 1. Cisco is extending services for existing customers of Webex, its video conference platform. The offer includes unlimited usage without time restriction, support for fewer than 100 participants, and toll-free dial-in.
16. LogMeIn: Free site-wide licensing for 3 months of its videoconferencing solution, GoToMeeting, for eligible organizations (health care providers, educational institutions, municipalities and non-profits).
17. Loom: Free video recording and sharing service for teachers and students at K-through-12 schools, universities and educational institutions. They have also removed the recording limit on free plans and have cut the price for Loom Pro in half.
18. Microsoft: Free six-month Office 365 E1 Trial, including Microsoft Teams.
19. Slashtop: Free 60-day licenses to its Business Access remote access software.
20. Discord: Free, enhanced Go Live streaming service, it can support 50 simultaneous users.
21. EZTexting: Free emergency text alert services to schools. Receive 100,000 free outgoing text messages for six months, access to a set of coronavirus message templates, and one-on-one consulting.
22. Yext: Free, new site search product, Yext Answers, for a 90-day period. Eligible businesses will be able to transform their website into a search engine capable of answering consumers’ COVID-19 specific queries in real time.
23. Linkedin: Free 16 learning courses that provide tips on how to stay productive, build relationships when you’re not face-to-face, use virtual meeting tools and balance family and work dynamics in a healthy way.
24. Hootsuite: Free access for Hootsuite Professional to small businesses and nonprofits until July 1.
25. Amazon: Free online access to sponsored computer science courses in the United States. That’s intended for learners in grades 6 through 12, and teachers who are remotely teaching this age group. Parents can also access this curriculum.
26. Brit.co: Free DIY classes for the next one to two weeks. Use discount code “self care” at checkout.
27. Zencastr: Free Hobbyist plans will have no recording time limits or limits on the number of people in your recording. Effective through July 1.
28. Threads: Free access to their collaboration tools and Pro/Team plans for all users through July 1.
29. Expensify: Reimbursement of up to $50 for essential goods and groceries purchased on your SNAP card.
30. Wave: Free financial software solutions (accounting, bookkeeping, invoicing) for small businesses to help with cash flow — which becomes increasingly important during economic turmoil.
31. Jamm: Free audio-visual communication tool used by remote and distributed teams. You can quickly record videos or do a live call with your team. Available for 3 months.
32. Carto: Free visualization software for organizations fighting COVID-19.
33. Crowdmark: Free access to its online grading and analytics platform until May 31.
34. Epic: Free remote access of its reading platform to elementary educators and librarians until June 30, with no credit card required. Students may access the company’s digital library, which has 35,000-plus books, read-to-me and audiobooks, videos and quizzes. Teachers and librarians can stay connected to their students by assigning books or collections and monitoring their progress.
35. ClassTag: Free communication platform available to help districts and schools communicate with their families. The software sends messages through SMS, email, apps and the web and automatically translates them into one of 55 languages. The platform can also be used to post videos, assignments and other resources for students to access at home and allow users to run virtual lessons with a videoconferencing tool.
36. McGraw-Hill: Free resources for out-of-school learning to help K-12 teachers make the transition to remote instruction.
37. Age of Learning: Free at-home access for families at affected schools to ABCmouse, a learning resource for ages 2 to 8.
38. Listenwise: Free access to the Listenwise platform that supports distance learning by allowing you to roster your students, make online customized written assignments, and assign multiple-choice autos-cored listening quizzes. This will give you and your students the ability to learn through May 31, or until your school reopens.
39. Peloton: Free 90-day trial of its subscription workout app as more gyms shut down in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The fitness freebie doesn’t require a Peloton-branded bike or treadmill. Users can choose from classes such as yoga, meditation, strength training and more.
40. U-Haul: Free self-storage for 30 days to all college students who have been impacted by schedule changes at their universities.
41. TripIt: Free 6-month licenses to their Tripit Pro flight tracking service.
42. UrbanSitter: Free parent subscription for two months during the COVID-19 outbreak. Parents can find trusted childcare help to support them as they work from home during this period. Every sitter is background checked and UrbanSitter provides parents with as much information as possible to make informed decisions.
43. Dialpad: Free two months of its cloud-based phone system, Dialpad Talk Pro. This also includes videoconferences and UberConference Business.
44. 1Password: Free business accounts for the first 6 months. Manage your workforce from anywhere, and safely share logins and other important resources with remote workers.
45. Vidyard: Free secure video messaging to enhance internal communications for all businesses.
46. Cloudfare: Free Teams products to small businesses and remote workers to operate securely and easily. This policy will continue for at least the next 6 months.
47. Panopto: Free three-month access to capture and distribute video content for businesses, universities, colleges and schools will enable employees and students to continue learning and working remotely.
48. OneLogin: Free access to the Trusted Experience Platform™️ for educators who are moving to a virtual learning environment in light of health concerns. The free platform, consisting of single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA) and certificate-based authentication, will deliver secure virtual experiences for all educators K through 12, colleges and universities.
49. SentinelLabs: Free cybersecurity platform SentinelOne Core between Monday, March 16 through Friday, May 16. SentinelOne’s cloud-based platform seamlessly scales, making it well suited to protect both businesses and employees rapidly transitioning to a work-from-home environment.
50. Waterfall Security: Free Remote Screen View product licenses available to customers whose vendor personnel or key employees are no longer able to travel to industrial and critical infrastructure sites. Remote Screen View sends real-time images of industrial workstations to a web server that remote vendors can access.
51. OneClick: Free remote access Basic Starter Package for the next three months to assist those working remotely.
52. 8×8: Free video meetings to all users. Offers 80+ local dial-in numbers (11 toll-free) from 55+ countries and meetings of up to 50 participants without any time restrictions.
53. Bloomz: Free premium version of its communication service to all schools through June 30. The software allows users to communicate updates in real-time to parents and students; and share lessons, student work and feedback.
54. HR Acuity: Free version of its SaaS solution to help businesses manage employee issues related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The limited edition provides employee documentation and tracking functionality that will equip businesses to monitor the people impact of the crisis. The limited edition will be available through at least July 1 to businesses with more than 100 employees.
55. Avid: Free, temporary licenses of creative tools to qualified media enterprise and educational customers. Starting March 16 through April 17, users who must work remotely because their facility has been closed may obtain 90-day licenses free of charge for Media Composer | Ultimate, Pro Tools, Pro Tools | Ultimate and Sibelius | Ultimate. In addition, any student of an institution who uses our products and can no longer attend school and/or access school facilities can receive a 90-day license of the same products.
56. TechSmith: Free licenses to TechSmith Snagit screen capture software and the TechSmith Video Review software through June 30.
57. BlueJeans: Free access to videoconference service to first responders and NGOs for 90-days.
58. Adobe: Free home access to Creative Cloud apps is available by request of students and educators until May 31. Adobe also offers free 90-day access to Adobe Connect for web conferencing until July 1.
59. Dropbox: Free Dropbox Business and HelloSign Enterprise subscriptions for a three-month period to nonprofits and NGOs that are focused on fighting COVID-19. Organizations working to stop the virus or providing relief to those impacted are encouraged to apply.
60. Box: Free secure file sharing and collaboration platform for 3 months. The offer is for the Business plan and includes unlimited storage, mobile access, and advanced user and security reporting.
61. Mailchimp: Free Standard accounts to eligible groups sending critical public health information about COVID-19 through June 30.
62. SurveyMonkey: Free questionnaire templates written by survey research experts to gather data/feedback from employees, customers and broader groups impacted by the coronavirus.
63. Salesforce: Free access to technology for emergency response teams, call centers, and care management teams for health systems affected by coronavirus.

This list is continuously updating. You can see the updated list here.