Small businesses that survived the COVID-19 pandemic still face a long road to recovery, but some of the innovations business owners adopted last year may outlast the pandemic itself.
“If you make it through this, you ask, you learn, you adapt, and I think it only makes you stronger,” says Keith Hall, president and CEO of the National Association for the Self-Employed.
Here are four ways small businesses adapted in response to the pandemic that may have long-lasting effects on future operations, according to industry experts and business owners themselves.
1. Creative business models
The pandemic forced businesses to find new ways to serve their customers – and quickly, says Meghan Cruz, director of grassroots advocacy at the National Retail Federation.