For freelancers, small business owners, and independent experts, the coronavirus pandemic means putting your activities on hold unless you can adapt. When everyone is stuck at home, you need to make sure your business can remain relevant in the new circumstances. 

Needless to say, if you’ve been working in an office or meeting up with a team of collaborators regularly, the work-from-home lifestyle can feel lonely in comparison. However, just because you and your team or partners are scattered all over the place, it doesn’t have to affect your projects. Here are some tips for small businesses and freelancers to make it through self-isolation as safely as possible. 

Pexels – CC0 Licence 

You need a team that fights for your interests

Now’s the best time to partner with other businesses and freelancers. Together, we’re stronger! You can reach out to other businesses to help serve your shared audience better, for instance. Joining forces to cut down costs, improve deliveries, and provide dedicated support to your customers is a brilliant way of fighting off the imposed isolation. But, you will need a tip-top negotiating team onboard to convince other businesses. You need someone who understands the risk of each negotiation and can keep a cool head despite the challenges. You also need someone who can check on potential partners to help you find the best business. In a small team, it’s fair to say you’ll share roles. But make sure to assign the right skill set to each negotiating function! 

You need a home-office

It doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Working from home means home office. However, if you’re going to maintain your relationship with your team and clients, make sure your home office is set for video calls too! A little decoration and a bright light such as a Lepro LED ceiling light can go a long way. Ideally, you want to turn an unused room into a cosy office, but if you don’t have a spare room, you can use a nook in the lounge or the dining table. 

You need a collaborative platform for the team

Keeping in touch with your team doesn’t have to be hard work. You can find a variety of tools that support remote teams and bring your knowledge and work together. Basecamp is a favourite because it lets you manage projects and communicate with your client from the same platform. Keeping up with your team through a shared digital space can happen on a platform such as Slack or the Google Suite with Drive and Hangouts. 

You need to socialise from home!

Last but not least, remember that you are not alone. Don’t let your team suffer from the situation. People are social creatures. As such, you can make sure that you maintain a regular social conversation with your co-workers and partners. You can organise a webcam coffee with everyone in the morning. Why not use the time to chat about everything and nothing and relax? Or you could also arrange for a private social media feed where everyone can share photos of their family and home office routine, for instance. 

Being at home doesn’t mean that you have to stop your independent business. On the contrary, with a little creativity, you can reach out to your audience and help your team or partners go through the situation as safely as possible.