No one knows for certain how sectors and industries willbe affected over the coming months, so small businesses must beready to change and adapt to the needs of their marketplace.(Photo: Shutterstock)

The COVID-19 put a lot of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) invery difficult positions. In many cases, entire industries andsectors were forced to close their doors temporarily, whilevirtually no small business has come away from the experience ofgoing through COVID-19 unchanged.

For many SMEs, the crisis came at a terrible point where theywere already in the middle of expansion and growth, which has nowhad to be scaled back. For others, COVID-19 might actually presentan opportunity to re-group and think about what the businessactually needs to do to improve its model and achieve growth goingforward.

Related: Business continuity plans: The new preparedness forthe new normal

As the economy begins to return to normal, there will be achance for businesses to begin to grow again. Here we take a lookat some of the ways that small businesses can accelerate growth inthe post-COVID world.

Create a plan

Perhaps the most important thing that any SME needs if they wantto accelerate their growth is a plan. This might seem obvious, butmany smaller businesses have no plan for where they are going to bein six months time, let alone a plan lists out various points overa number of years. You need to understand not only where you wantto be, but also how you're going to get there. The COVID-19pandemic has changed the landscape for businesses dramatically, sonow is the right time to begin creating a new plan.

"Before you experience actual business growth, you need to naildown a strategy," says Dominic Monkhouse, a specialist in businessgrowth coaching "when your business has a plan, you can transformyour teams and put high-performing members of staff in the rightplace to succeed, as well as giving them the tools to reflect ontheir own performance."

Invest in your website

COVID-19 has had a complex and varied effect on eCommerce sites and businessesselling online. However, there can be no doubt that with manybrick-and-mortar stores closed, there has been a huge rise inpeople choosing to shop online and make use of the internet fortheir buying needs.

This means that if your SME could have online functionality, butcurrently does not, you could be falling behind the timessignificantly. Now is the time to invest in your website; it seemsobvious that the ongoing effects of COVID-19 will mean that onlineshopping will continue to grow in popularity and perhaps even anecessity.

Upskill staff

For SMEs to grow, it is absolutely essential to have the rightstaff in place. Too often businesses expect staff to simply get onwith their work without looking at the bigger picture of what theycould actually provide to the business. It is often the case thatif you offer members of staff the chance to grow, this willactually improve your business enormously.

It is a great idea then, to use the potential slower monthsduring and directly following the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic toupskill staff. Provide your staff with trainingand courses – and be sure to take the time to understand exactlywhat they think they could benefit from.

Be adaptive

Now is the time to really be flexible. No one knows for certainhow sectors and industries will be affected over the coming monthsand years with regard to adapting to the "new normal," so smallbusinesses must be ready to change and adapt to the needs of theirmarketplace. It is necessary to think of COVID-19 as an event thathas drastically changed society, and as such it will affect howbusinesses operate.

Even for small businesses that have operated for a long time, itmay be sensible to re-think some of the major details of how youwork to adapt to this new environment.

Final thoughts

As the economy begins to return to normal, it may not be the'normal' that we are used to. If you want your SME to grow and makeup for losses during the worst of the pandemic is necessary toapproach your industry as having fundamentally changed. This mightmean embracing very different areas of your company than you havebeen used to.

It will also mean operating in a way that works with the newcircumstances that we find ourselves in, rather than attempting tofit your previous business model into it.

Dakota Murphey has a wealth of experiencein business management, with over 10 years of experience she'sworked on a number of successful campaigns. She now enjoys sharing herknowledge through her writing and connecting with like-mindedprofessionals.

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