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Lyke Ltd

Experts at Custom Software

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The coronavirus is rapidly becoming one of the most hated C words and unfortunately shows no sign leaving us any time soon. The last thing we wanted to do is publish this page, but when news first came from China it was hard to imagine so many casualties. Covid-19 has not only taken lives but massively successful businesses. The world has not seen anything like this for decades and it’s not going to get any better without an incomprehensible joint effort.

At Lyke Ltd. we’re following Government/expert advice to help minimise the spread – something we all should be doing – but we want to do more. As a small business ourselves, we know first hand the massive impact we have on the economy. Fortunately due to the nature of our business it’s very much business as usual, but for many it’s not quite so simple. Every day, businesses are being forced to close their doors or go into limp mode indefinitely…

If this is you, we want to help by sharing our expertise and services! As such we’re offering the following as low as possible, and where possible – free. We’ve teamed up with other businesses to make sure urgent requests are dealt with urgently.

Take your business online

Selling face to face may not be an option at the moment, however, there are plenty of ways you can keep trading using the power of the Internet. From simply putting your shop front on the web to allowing people to buy and offering virtual service, or something different, let’s discuss how you can adapt and then make it happen!

We’ll come up with a plan to get you up and running as quickly as possible and then over time develop your online presence to permanently boost your business.

You won’t need to worry about hosting costs until your back on your feet – we’ll agree together when you’re in a position to start paying and even then, we’ll keep it as low as possible.

Updates to your existing websites

If you’ve already got a website and it’s built on either a Content Management System (such as WordPress or Drupal) or a basic HTML website, we can add/update content for you provided you can give us relevant access.

Additionally, if you have any security concerns or need any other type of work doing we can help with this too.

Communication

In order to keep doing business, you need to be able to speak to your clients and prospective customers. If you’re out of the office though, you may be struggling to do that.

We can help to put systems in place to enable you to keep talking! Whether it’s setting up temporary email addresses, helping you to configure email accounts, exploring telephone solutions, using other communication platforms or something else we can help you free of charge in most cases.

This ties in with the next way we can help, which is remote meetings. The vast majority of people in business also have friends and family, and it’s really important that we keep talking to everyone! One of the most popular ways of doing this we are seeing is WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is a great app – it’s free for anyone to use and you can chat to anyone else who uses it. You can chat individually or in groups. It also has video calling and voice features. Although you need to install it on a smart phone, WhatsApp offers apps for Windows and Mac so that you can use a full size keyboard. Finally, it also uses end-to-end encryption which makes it one of the safest ways to communicate. It works over your internet connection.

Don’t forget, solutions like FaceTime and Facebook Messenger too. These may not be so professional, although for some audiences they may be appropriate, although may be worth considering nonetheless – especially for friends and family.

Remote working and meetings

T’his isn’t a new concept but still, many businesses aren’t prepared to work remotely or hold meetings that aren’t face to face.

If you’re looking for a way to hold meetings remotely, we recommend checking out Zoom. They offer various solutions, which we can talk you through, however most importantly you’ll be able to hold meetings with you clients for free with no time limits. If you need to chat to more than one person, you’ll be limited to 40 minutes at a time but you will still have access to all the same features including screen sharing.

Something else that you can do is host a webinar. Webinars allow one or more person to talk to audiences of any size, where the audience can only watch and listen. So far, we’ve heard plans from one of our clients to use a webinar to run a murder mystery event and it will be interesting to see what other uses people can find. Unfortunately there is usually a cost to running webinars, however it’s probably much less than running a physical event. Zoom offer an upgrade to do this, but it’s also worth checking out GoToWebinar and WebinarJam.

Sharing screens is good, but sometimes you might need to control any persons screen and for them to control yours. Whether that’s for assistance, demonstration or any other purpose this is something you can do for free. We recommend AnyDesk and TeamViewer.

If you need any advice on remote working effectively or the most software to host meetings, or if you’re having issues with current systems, we can help.

There’s a chance your businesses offer might not lend itself to working remotely, but because we specialise in bespoke solutions we’ll work with you to make it work.

Advice and consultancy

It’s impossible for us to cover all the ways we can support every business, but in a nutshell, we’re here to answer any questions you may have. Lyke Ltd. can help you to put technical plans in place, advice on best practice, improve your business, and increase efficiency.

Again, we’re offering this for free in most cases, especially where the consultancy is helping you in your efforts against Covid-19.

Contacts

There’s only so much we can help ourselves, and we only have so much expertise and resources, however, what we do have is a great network of contacts from all types of industries. If we can’t help you with our offer, let us know and we can point in you in the right direction.

After Thoughts

These are hard times, and unfortunately nobody knows what lies ahead. The world has not seen anything like this, and certainly not on this scale. Every day the news is becoming increasingly overwhelming and it is difficult to imagine the end, but WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS by standing together. If ever there was a time to collaborate, it is now. If we all make an effort, we can minimise the impact of Covid-19.

Instead of spreading the virus, we must spread positivity and do so in a way that accelerates.

Sadly there will be tragedies, but we are committed to helping as many businesses as possible. All from self-isolation.

Take care everyone and keep yourself safe!