Design Agency: How to Survive a Coronavirus Quarantine

Long-lasting quarantine is a challenging time for business, especially when it reaches an almost global scale. In the wake of the publicity, people around the world have realized the importance of taking preventative measures to spread the disease. Now, it is more important than ever before to find ways to continue being productive while protecting yourself and your families from the dangerous virus staying at home.

In this article, I would like to share with you some thoughts and observations on how to stay productive, to continue working, and even to use quarantine for your benefit, as exemplified by my design agency.

Keep calm

The need for adaptability has never been greater than it is now. However, getting used to new conditions has never been so rapid. Thus, some people tend to relax at all, give up and live in the expectation that everything will return to its place. This is not the best strategy. At the same time, excessive worries and fuss over the long quarantine lists of online courses and opportunities for improvement are not worth it.

In the case of our design agency, we have always hoped that any of our employees will be able to work effectively remotely. In some situations, a remote mode can even increase productivity. Thus, additional reserves and efforts will certainly come in handy.

Quarantine may take a long time, but you should not forget about ambitions and plans. However, note for the future — plans should be more flexible. Make a plan and discuss it with colleagues. Stick to short sprints in these plans: today, tomorrow, this week.

Use quarantine for your benefit

Due to the pandemic of the coronavirus and quarantine, people found themselves having a lot of free time and efforts. Usually, they spent these precious resources commuting, chatting in the office, having coffee with colleagues, procrastination, solving various minor matters, etc. Someone has been working from home for a long time, while for others it has become a challenge, opening new insights. Here it comes to opportunities.

In my regard there are 4 main areas of activity, my employees should focus on:

• Self-education. Quarantine is a great opportunity to start educating yourself, to complete the online courses that are available to just about everyone, or vice versa to pass a new one from the beginning. Small improvements every day
• New technologies. It is time to explore and implement new technologies in your business. We think about how to automate existing processes, introduce new ones, improve communication between departments, etc.
• Useful habits. This is especially true for those who are accustomed to working 24/7 being busy as a bee, from morning till evening doing only work. This approach is dangerous as it may result in exhaustion and burnout. Now is the time to relax and find balance.
• Total audit. View old blog posts, pages, files and images, get rid of old ones, set redirects as needed, optimize what slows down your website.

It is not as bad as it seems

Undoubtedly, we live in historical times. Companies have to adapt to the new reality. Changes are always difficult. They are especially difficult when you are forced to make them. But you should not concentrate on the negative.

As a manager and co-founder of a young design agency, I try to find positive aspects. And this is how it works for me.

Virtual meetings are not a problem

A small office of our design agency Wadoo. is located in Kyiv. Some employees work in the office every day. Usually, personal presence and teamwork are effective in fulfilling creative tasks and working on projects. But is it important for us to be together all the time? The answer is — no.

Virtual meetings are a usual thing for us. In the field of web design, it is as efficient to share our screen with clients and show them ideas, solutions and sketches online as while personal meetings.

Clients in the usual mode

Finding new clients is often the most pressing issue for agency owners. For a young agency, this matter is above all the others. The whole team and the future of the agency depend on the number of clients and successful projects.

This is the point, that convinces me that my decision regarding the execution of orders on a remote basis was right. Remote projects bring significant benefits for the agency. Not being limited by geography in terms of finding new customers means taking advantage of global capabilities.

Moving business online

Quarantine is time to take a deep breath, focus, stay out of the daily routine and start thinking about rebooting your business. You can take the first steps right now, not waiting for the quarantine to end.

As everyone stays home now, this is the best time to take full advantage of social media. That is why we activated the use of company profiles on social networks. Now you have time for analysing competitors’ strategies as well as SEO optimization.

Oddly enough, even today some companies have not yet taken their place in the online market. Quarantine has forced many business owners to take this step. Thus, is some respect, we got some new work feed. Designing logos and branding, designing new sites or redesigning the old ones help design agencies like ours feel more or less comfortable quarantined.

Conclusion

In general, there exist numerous ways to use this difficult and unstable time for the benefit of a design agency. Right now, our health, our families’ safety and hygiene are top priorities. The situation is definitely stressful, but ‘this too shall pass’. The main thing is that you are not alone in this situation.

On my own experience, a modern designer not only creates a visual product, but also changes the business for the better. Remember that with your creative choices you inspire and support others.

Stay home, stay healthy, and stay tuned. 👍

Want to learn more?

Are you interested in the managerial and strategic aspects of UX? The online course on UX Management and Strategy can teach you the necessary skills on the subject and earn you an industry-recognized course certificate to advance your career. If, on the other hand, you want to brush up on the basics of UX and Usability, the online course on User Experience might be a better fit for you (or another design topic). Good luck on your learning journey!

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