By Chase
How are you doing? How is your business surviving or thriving? Talk about being loaded questions after the past 15 months of trying to adjust and survive COVID-19. I can not wait for this “new normal” to be gone.
In the midst of the pandemic, we have celebrated our our second anniversary of launching the daily digital Ontario Construction News on May 1, 2019. The electronic newspaper has not only survived, but continues to chip away at the former long-standing monopoly.
From the moment we launched we increased the speed of publication for customers’ CSP notices across the industry from having to wait up to a week, to 95 per cent being published the next day.
Monopolistic customer service standards were easy to blow out of the water simply by delivering prompt follow up either by email or a phone call.
We launched a new universal search tool to track CSPs, even if published by a competitor.
Lastly, we were happy to connect with many other Canadian owned and operated businesses like ours to provide support for the local economy. Also, consider that your first CSP order is free so you can experience the change first-hand.
At the same time, the construction sector has faced exceptional challenges from COVID-19, with new requirements for social distancing, and personal protective equipment including eye and even face shields. As Canada continues to lag behind the US for vaccine roll out, I wonder if in-person events will return this late Fall or are we looking at early 2022.
Many construction projects have been deemed essential and continued throughout the pandemic, and government support for payroll, PPE and loans have helped. How much of this support will be available for the next 12 months to help with recovery?
If your business has achieved success, been able to survive or you have made drastic changes to how your business is run, share your stories for coverage in the daily newspaper or monthly magazines.
Send me an email chase@ontarioconstructionreport.com or call (905) 341-8686.
Chase is the director of marketing and client relations for the Construction News and Report Group as well as the associate publisher for the Ontario Construction Report, Ontario Construction News and several US magazines.