Pandemic tips: supercharge your small business during lockdown

Since the country slowed to a standstill in March, businesses of all types have been adversely affected and continue to operate under the shadow of the pandemic. Though workers have tentatively begun to return to their offices, the pandemic has changed the business environment significantly for the foreseeable future.

If your company has hit the brakes or even halted completely during the crisis, you may be concerned about where to focus your efforts. It’s perfectly natural to be concerned about the future, but one way of looking at the current predicament is to make sure you make the most of any time freed up. With the hustle and bustle of running a small company, it’s easy to put off making improvements to a business that haven’t been vital in the near-term.

By focusing on the things that you can do, you can use the current crisis as an opportunity and supercharge the way your business operates.

Use a website builder

If you run a small traditional company you may not have felt the need for a fancy website, but if your current one looks like it belongs in the 1990s, it isn’t a great look. In an online world, a website is often the first thing that a customer sees of your company and having one is both an opportunity and a potential pitfall.

Without a website your business may be seen to lack legitimacy in the eyes of a customer, while a poor quality one could reflect badly on your business.

By building an effective website you can improve the strength of your advertising, boost productivity with easily accessible information, and promote your products and services. It can also increase your existing brick-and-mortar footprint, enhance your customer service, and develop your reputation with the help of blogs and articles. Building your own website is far easier than you may think – especially if you follow expert design tips.

Cloud storage and computing

The ‘cloud’ is a term that basically means storing and accessing data and programs over the internet, rather than on your computer and hard drive. By having all of your infrastructure physically onsite, a host can provide all the services that you use on your computer at their location for a fee.

Immersing your company in the cloud offers a host of benefits such as significantly cheaper storage, more effective recovery during data loss, and instant syncing and updating of documents.

Another advantage of cloud hosting is the increased level of security. It might seem counterintuitive that someone else holding onto your data is safer than physically storing it yourself, but this isn’t true. Cloud storage companies specialise in cybersecurity and dedicate huge amounts of resources to keeping your data safe.

Possibly the greatest benefit of cloud computing is accessibility. Staff working at home or from outside the office was an increasing trend even before the lockdown, so it’s clear that this method of working is here to stay. Thanks to cloud computing, people working from the safety of their own homes have fast and convenient access to most, if not all, the tools they need to do their job.

Have you considered VPS hosting?

If for some time your business has been crying out for more control, flexibility and performance from your existing web hosting, now could be a good time to switch to VPS. A virtual private server provides a mid-range alternative for companies searching for a cost-effective answer to increasing requirements, without having to invest in a dedicated server. While shared hosting means that your website will share its server resources with others, VPS hosting is like having your own server, but in the cloud.

A private server will increase your website’s speed which could be the difference between a sale and a potential customer bouncing. Also, by using a VPS your company will be able to freely implement any needed software changes within the server which gives you a greater level of control.

Another advantage of using a VPN is its scalability. A small business may find it hard to predict the amount of traffic its website might receive which can be an issue if its customer base quickly expands. Unlike a shared server, a VPN can quickly increase its capacity and help the website scale up its operations with the minimum of fuss.

Reliability is also another big benefit that VPS hosting offers. With fewer customers on each server, each partition can be set up and customised more efficiently for your website’s needs. This combined with the benefit of greater security compared to a shared server, makes VPS hosting definitely worth exploring for some small businesses.

Transfer your domain registration

There are many advantages to changing your domain registrar – and by transferring your existing name you can retain all the Google authority you have accumulated and keep your website near the top of search engine rankings. Do your research and choose a new registrar that can offer you better service with an easily contactable customer service, better security with an SSL certificate, and the greater convenience of being able to manage your domain and email from the same place.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of a domain name transfer is the cost savings that you can make. You may have signed up to your present registrar on a low fee, only to later discover that the price has rocketed when you have to renew it. Many registrars may offer you a fantastic low price to switch – just remember to check how much it will cost in a few years time. Transferring to a new registrar is actually very simple, and most importantly free! Check out how simple it is by following these easy steps.

Fasthosts offers a cost-effective array of options, such as website building and cloud services, to turbocharge your business during the pandemic. Visit our website and learn more about VPS hosting and domain transfer.