Businesses have to come up with post-corona plan to survive in NJ (Opinion)

Who would ever have thought that when you opened your dream business in New Jersey, along with the various taxes and fees you'd have to pay you would also be forced to close ... while still having to pay them?

No one could have ever imagined a coronavirus pandemic or coronavirus government shutdown, but now that we have them, businesses must plan for such events going forward. They must learn to be "pandemic proof."

Could we ever see this happen again in New Jersey? No one really knows, but we do know that it has happened now and because of that, businesses are going to have to change the way they've always done things. Like for instance, inviting people into your store. Going forward, those little shops and boutiques are going to have to increase their online presence.

Maybe they downsize their store size and by doing that they could save on the rent. Along with making it look nice on the inside, make sure you've got the zoning to have a big presence outside as well.

Restaurants and diners will also need to increase and emphasize their takeout businesses. Maybe food places hire more delivery people instead of servers. They'll also have to look for decorative ways to push outdoor dining.

I wouldn't be surprised in the future if totally "online diners" sprung up, with a homey inviting website to get you to buy food from a place you've never actually been to. It's been done before. Think about food commercials. As long as the food is good and inexpensive, people will buy it.

As for offices, we now know that both work and school can be done online from home. People working from home not only require less office space and furniture purchase, but probably less salary since they are saving so much on transportation to and from work. They may also be able to lease a car and not worry about having to go over the miles. School snow days will probably be eliminated if they're not already.

As much as businesses have suffered the last four months in New Jersey, we've also learned a lot about ourselves and what we can do in the face of adversity. Going forward, businesses must keep this recent past in mind and make sure nothing like this can ever hurt them again.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise. Any opinions expressed are Steve's own. Steve Trevelise is on New Jersey 101.5 Monday-Thursday from 7pm-11pm. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.

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