As a small business we understand the anxiety and pressure caused by the latest lockdown. Hopefully, it will end on the 2nd December but with the furlough scheme being extended to March there is no guarantee that will be the case.

These are undoubtedly unprecedented times and it is difficult to know which direction to follow? What are the best options to secure your livelihood and future? 

What we do know is that the internet is still open, ecommerce has increased exponentially this year.  The UK ecommerce  market is the 3rd largest in the world valued at over £200 billion, that's £200,000,000,000 and it's increasing.

We also know that mobile phones and apps play a massive part of our lives today.

However only an estimated 64% of small businesses in the UK have a website and only 18% of them are mobile friendly.

We saw during the last lockdown that there were two prevalent attitudes. Firstly, there was small business owners who hunkered down, spent their cash reserves and hope to start up again as normal when it was all over. Although as three weeks turned in to 3 months this became increasingly untenable.

Then there was the business owner who saw the opportunity and decided to pivot their business and diversify. Pubs embraced takeaway, butchers and grocers started delivering and high street boutiques sold their wares online.

Some of these businesses tried to manage these fundamental changes in their business with their existing infrastructure, social media, telephone and email etc. and some of those companies successfully managed the changes. However, the companies that thrived during lockdown 1.0 were the ones that took the time to put the right infrastructure and tools in place, be it a new website, mobile app or ecommerce platform.  

These companies continued to have an additional revenue stream through the relative return to normal that we saw from July. More importantly these small businesses are now well placed to survive and thrive throughout the latest lockdown.

Many people have unfortunately lost their jobs since March and many more will in the months to come. As a result we have seen many people start up their own business either because they have planned to do so for many years and losing their job was the prompt they needed. Others faced with very little prospect of getting a job in the industry they came from or at the level they were used to felt they had no other option.

Whatever the reason we are seeing more people branching out on their own than ever before. Many of whom have very little cash or previous experience of running a business.

Over the past couple of weeks I have written about various ways small businesses can promote themselves and acquire new customers by using digital marketing tools. Never has this been more important than today with lockdown 2.0.

So here at Overt Digital Media we have been wracking our brains to understand what we can do to help small businesses thrive throughout this latest lockdown or entrepreneurs starting their own business in these uncertain times. 

We already provide very affordable digital marketing tools aimed at helping small businesses and start ups to grow and to stand out from the crowd on the internet.

However we wanted to go the extra mile and offer a helping hand not only to survive throughout the weeks (or months) ahead but also to help them build resilience in to their business by giving them the best tools to grow their businesses, be it a new website with artificial intelligence, an ecommerce store or a mobile app.

That is why we have launched our latest digital lifelines offer where we are offering a state-of-the-art website with artificial intelligence at a vastly reduced cost along with a completely free mobile app bundled in.

These tools will allow start ups or small businesses not only to thrive throughout this current lockdown but also to trade online into the future. Unfortunately, there is limited availability and the offer will end either once the number of allotted websites have been taken or on the 27th November at the latest.

Please don’t delay in getting in touch if you want to understand whether this will allow you to grow your business.

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