A number of states still maintain rules keeping some or even most businesses closed. While these restrictions make sense given the ongoing nature of the COVID pandemic, they won’t last forever. Plus, many states have lifted restrictions on businesses.
All of that means you must consider how to prepare your business for opening post COVID. Some things are more obvious, such as cleaning. Other things may prove more difficult, like protective procedures for employees.
If you’re thinking ahead about reopening, keep reading for some tips on prepping your business for a post COVID reopening.
Develop Safety Guidelines
As tedious as it may prove for you and your employees, COVID will remain a problem for a while yet. That means you need policies and guidelines in place to protect employees and customers.
The CDC guidelines offer a solid place that you can start. Those guidelines include:
- 6 feet of social distancing
- Keeping the right distance can be possible with floor stickers applied to tiles or by decals on posters that promote the COVID guidelines.
- Protective masks
- Regular hand washing
Since employees can’t jog away from their duties all the time for half a minute of handwashing, that means getting in a supply of hand sanitizer. Sanitizer offers a substitute option for killing germs that employees can access close to or at their work stations.
You can also issue latex gloves to limit potential virus exposure.
Hire Some Professional Cleaners
You may find yourself tempted to take on cleaning your business yourself while preparing to reopen post COVID. No one could blame you for that idea. COVID left a lot of businesses in a bad way financially.
If your business has been closed for a while, though, it’ll need more than just some basic disinfection in the bathroom. You’ll need a top to bottom cleaning that calls for equipment you don’t own.
A professional cleaning service can come in and clean the whole place far faster and likely more thoroughly than you can. Just make sure you call someone who works in your neighborhood. Some cleaners will only cover some service areas.
Check Your Systems
You shouldn’t assume everything will be up and running as it was before COVID19. Many businesses shut down everything from the Internet to utilities in the wake of the coronavirus. You should test all of your systems at least a few days prior to your official reopening.
That will let you identify any problems and, with luck, schedule any repairs or service ahead of the reopening date.
Setting Up a Good Post COVID Reopening
A good post COVID reopening means a safe reopening. That starts with working out safety guidelines that will keep you, your employees, and your customers safe. Review these new guidelines ahead of the reopening.
Your business will need a cleaning post COVID shutdown. You can try to take it on yourself, but you’ll almost certainly get better results if you outsource the work to a professional cleaning service.
Check your systems. The last thing you need is a malfunctioning HVAC system on opening day.
You can pick up some more business tips in our business section on this site.
Andrea Parker is a reporter for Zobuz. She previously worked at Huffington Post and Vanity Fair. Andrea is based in NYC and covers issues affecting her city. In addition to her severe coffee addiction, she’s a Netflix enthusiast, a red wine drinker, and a voracious reader.
