THINGS TO DO TODAY

Use some of this "downtime" to plan your operation and prepare your business for the "New Normal". Below is a comprehensive checklist.

PURCHASE ESSENTIALS

Your goal is:

• Protect yourself and your employees.
• Create a safe environment for customers to interact with your business in-person.

To achieve the goal, purchase

• Cleaning products like wipes, sprays, towels, cleaning gloves.
• Hand washing soap and disposable paper towels.
• Contactless temperature check thermometer like this one on Amazon.
• Masks for yourself and your employees. You can order some designer, washable masks from Occasion by clicking here.

EMPLOYEE TRAINING

Your goal is:

• Protect your business from liability.
• Train your employees to follow new health-oriented processes.

Some ideas on how to achieve your goal:

• Set up guidelines on frequency of employee hand washing.
• Maintain a sign-in sheet in which they record their temperature when they come in to work.
• Have them wear a mask all the time. If you need identical and durable masks for your team, you can order some from Occasion here.
• Create a cleaning schedule for the common space. Common space must include front-desks, work spaces, bathrooms, doors and door handles/ knobs, common work tables and chairs.
• Create areas that each employee must clean during their work shift.

RE-ARRANGE YOUR SPACE

Your goal is:

• Build trust with your customers, as they will need to feel safe when doing in-person events.
• Re-arranging the space will be a critical part of the planning.

Mentally prepare for the following:

• Maximum occupancy will be cut in half for the foreseeable future.
• Or, "no more than" guidelines will be in place. Example: Group size no more than 10; No more than 20 people inside the store at any time.

Some ideas on how to prepare your space of re-opening:

• Mark the floor with tape as guide to make sure customers maintain safe distance when they walk up to the counter to transact.
• Re-arrange your seating chart to create more physical distance while customers do activities. See graphic to the left as an idea.
• Move extra chairs or tables so customers cannot use them.
• Otherwise, mark them as "keep empty" so customers know not to use them.
• Install plexiglass whereever necessary.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS TO OFFER

Your goal is:

• Bring back customers who were cancelled and refunded in March and April.
• Create revenue opportunities for your business with a 90 day outlook.

Some ideas on how to create a calendar of events:

• If you haven't given customers credits yet, then reschedule them for new dates and times. Here's how you can do this on Occasion quite easily.
• If you have given them account credits and refunds, offer the same calendar of events if possible and give those customers the first opportunity to come back.
• Public or Private Events that reinforce customer trust in health safety will do well. Example: "Experiences for Families" will do better than group events with strangers.

CUSTOMER CHECK-IN PROCESS

Your goal is:

• Protect yourself and your employees.
• Create a safe environment for customers to interact in.

Some ideas for customer check-in process:

• Require customers to wear a mask when they enter your business.
• Voluntarily ask customers to check their temperature using a contactless thermometer like this one on Amazon.
• Instead of exchanging cash or credit cards - have customers use "contactless" payments as much as possible. Contactless payments are Apply Pay, Android Pay, Tap and Pay that your point of sale will support.
• Start selling at-home experiences immediately through Occasion. Learn more about at-home kits and experiences here.

OPERATING IN THE "NEW NORMAL"

Adjust your business to operate in this new reality with social distancing and health safety as high priorities.

STEP 1

Reset your expectations for the next 18 months

Customers are going to remain uncomfortable going out and doing things in large crowds or with strangers. This will have negative impact on your revenues for the foreseeable future.

• Low Occupancy: Customers will not be coming back in droves to do in-person experiences. 70% of customers will still be uncomfortable doing activities amongst crowds for up to 6 months according to one study.
• Staffing Issues: Employees will be concerned about their own health and with generous unemployment benefits they may be hesitant to return to work. Less staff may mean less experiences, which may equate to lower revenues. This is the case already with many businesses.
• Covid Confirmation Plan: In the unfortunate instance where a customer is diagnosed with Covid19, be prepared to communicate with other customers the patient may have come in contact with. Occasion offers the ability to email a roster very easily. In addition, you and your staff will have to quarantine for at least two weeks.

STEP 2

Lower your monthly expenses by 25% immediately

We believe your only business objective for 2020 should be to remain in business. We recommend cutting your monthly expenses by 25% immediately to adjust for a shortfall in revenue.

Here are ways Occasion is helping your reduce your monthly expenses:

• New plan: Your monthly fee is only $9 per month, that's it. See more here.
• Free website: Migrate your Wordpress, Wix, SquareSpace website to Journeys from Occasion for free, yes, absolutely free! Learn more here.
• Switch to Square: Many payment gateways charge a monthly fee. Switch to Square and remove that expense immediately. Here are other reasons why you should be using Square with Occasion.

STEP 3

Making money in the post-Covid era

Making money in the "new normal" will require your creativity and willingness to do things you haven't done before.

In-person events will recover when you re-open but only partially. So, you will have to combine them with at-home experiences that are virtual to grow your revenue faster.