It may take some time before economies bottom out and start to recover, and that recovery point will be different in different countries, but the economic engine will ultimately restart. Will you be ready when it does? You should start planning now, rather than later.

You need to consider how your competitive market has changed in the last few months, and what it will look like when things start to turn up. Your pre-pandemic targets and plans will probably need to change pretty drastically. But when you try to reset your expectations, you need to know what’s happening in your world so your expectations are realistic. Consider these three factors:

Customers

What’s happening to your customers? How are they being impacted by events? The factors that impact them will impact you.

For example, a linen supply company that services hotels is affected by the business at those hotels, which is affected by travel restrictions for people coming into the country. If you’re that linen company, you need to understand the travel restrictions in your country and the expected timetable for changes, so you can include that in your plans. No matter what industry you’re in, you need to figure out how your customers are affected so you understand the factors that will determine their buying decisions.

Competitors

A lot of companies have been hit hard, and many (especially small enterprises) didn’t have the cash on hand to ride it out. Government support varies from country to country, so the impact on small businesses is different from place to place.

What’s happening with your competitors? Are they still in business? Have they cut their workforce? Are they shifting their business models to focus on other products? As the recovery begins and customer demand picks up, there may be reduced supply, and that could be a gap that you might fill.

Have you been thinking about expanding into other markets? This could be your chance. Look at what’s happening with your competition in those markets, and see if there’s a chance for you to move in now and start developing relationships with potential customers, so you’re ready when things turn up again.

Demand

How did your product fit into the pandemic situation, and how will that change?

Think about different parts of the travel industry. Airlines have taken a huge hit as very little travel is going on, and they are going to have to rebuild. Hotels have also been hit hard, for the same reasons, but in some cases they have been able to contract out their rooms as quarantine facilities, so they will need to pivot from quarantine back to serving travelers. Understand where you are now, and where you expect to be in the future, so you can find the right path to get you there during the recovery.

You may have changed your business model during the pandemic as demand for your products dropped, and it might be time to change back. Fashion labels, like Ia Coca in the Philippines, moved their focus out of their domestic market and developed processes for serving clients globally. As the recovery picks up, they may want to refocus domestically, or they may want to hire more people to continue working internationally…but they won’t know unless they give it some serious thought, and the time to do that is now.

Some companies saw demand jump during the pandemic, and may need to retarget their products or change their pricing later. Videoconferencing platforms like Zoom and WebEx saw a huge jump when “work-from-home” started, and in many cases offered free versions of their product on a large scale. Might it be time to rein in those freebies now that everyone is hooked? This pandemic created challenges, but also opportunities, and if you’re one of those lucky firms, you need to figure out how to continue that growth.

You need to be able to adjust your business objectives and your plans to meet expected market conditions. To do that, you need to know what those conditions are, so you need to be gathering information about your market to help you make more confident decisions. This is not the sort of thing you can do immediately; start planning now based on how your market is changing, so you’re ready to move more quickly than others when conditions start to improve