The past year has been a tumultuous time for businesses across every industry, forcing rapid and meaningful changes in day-to-day operations. A wide variety of adjustments in how entrepreneurs, employers, and employees operate have been made to accommodate a pandemic-centered environment, with many positive and negative disruptions changing the nature of business. While some believe the old economy will return once COVID has finally receded, the Founder of Iconic Marketing Solutions, Victoria Nupen, recently outlined projections that show a substantially different story.
One of the biggest changes projected to become permanent is the reduction in office use. For entrepreneurs and startups, this may prove to be a beneficial development. Victoria Nupen extolled the benefits of a more dynamic, remote workforce, stating that “with fewer workers physically present at commercial and office locations, brands can afford to utilize smaller spaces”. Ultimately, such reductions in space mean lower rents and energy costs for entrepreneurs.
Another dynamic expected to remain after COVID’s recession is the reduction in business travel. Conventional expectations among industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and other influencers revolved around the need for in-person meetings and events. Much like Iconic Marketing Solutions utilizes marketing strategies that eliminate the need for in-person, physical forms of marketing, the evolution of platforms such as Zoom – combined with the pandemic’s influence – may reduce the superfluous travel and expenses that entrepreneurs previously had to shoulder. Specifically, Bill Gates has outlined half of all business-related travel will likely disappear in the coming years.
Victoria Nupen noted that for decades, traditional businesses have been fixated on the concepts of productivity and efficiency without truly understanding their value. “Companies spend obscene sums of money chasing these mythical beasts yet pursue sterile strategies that crush employee morale and rarely lead to the desired outcomes”, she noted. In a post-COVID future, startups and businesses will be better equipped to operate more efficiently. Due to the necessity of mastering work-from-home opportunities and seemingly unconventional methods of communication throughout 2020, businesses can actually improve meaningful communication and efficiency without harming morale.
Employees and entrepreneurs alike have certainly experienced negative effects associated with COVID’s impact on business, but there are undoubtedly positive aspects of this recent trend as well. Iconic Marketing Solutions is committed to implementing the most modern and effective digital marketing strategies on behalf of its clients and will continue to advise them on the best solutions for adapting to a post-COVID reality in other facets of business as well.