Two thoughts for business owners during the COVID19 pandemic
There is a lot of uncertainty in our world as the COVID pandemic continues to unfold. Many options that we’re used to having have been eliminated-- there is a long list of things we can’t do, and places we can’t go, and for many individuals, the decision whether or not to continue working has been taken out of their hands as their places of employment have closed, and jobs have been eliminated.
If you’re a business owner, you may be feeling a sense of paralysis as you’re faced with the overwhelming task of trying to decide what to do next in the face of great uncertainty. As someone who has worked with hundreds of businesses over the course of my consulting career, I’d like to share two thoughts that are at the top of my mind for business owners struggling to figure out what to do next right now.
Point #1
The most important thing that many business owners can do next is to get a plan for how you’re going to hold your business together over the next three months. Although no one knows exactly what the next 3 months will look like, its a short enough time frame that making an actionable plan should be do-able.
The first thing you should do after a big disruption like the one we are experiencing is to make sure the basics things that it takes to run your business are still in place. The number one thing that keeps any business running is cash. If you run out of cash, you’ll become insolvent and unable to pay your bills, and no business can last very long in that state. So, the first thing I would do is take a good look at your cashflow projections over the next 3 months. If you’ve been keeping good financials up until now and have a system for reviewing them in place, it should be as easy as pulling it up. If you don’t have a good financial system that will allow you to easily look at your data and forecast your cashflows, then this would be a good time to get that system in place. There are lots of great tools online that will help you do this, and free resources that will walk you through how to do it on your own using something like Excel.
Once you have something set up, its a matter of keeping your data up to date, and making time to regularly look at your financials and your projections so that this information can inform your decision making. Cash is the lifeblood of any business, and having some idea of where you’re at and where you will be over the next 3 months is a good starting point for some of the decisions you’ll be needing to make.
Next, you’re going to have to decide whether or not you’re able to continue delivering your products or services over the next three months. If you offer a service that must be done in-person, such as a hair stylist, you won’t be able to deliver services under stay-at-home orders. However, if you offer consulting services or counseling, and you typically deliver them in-person, you may be able to shift towards offering your services virtually using a video conference tool or over the phone. Many businesses are more complex, and may need to change how they produce and deliver their products over the coming months in order to keep money coming in in any amount.
If you’re able to stay open to any extent, then you need to decide how much you’ll need to change in order to keep operating. If you’re unable to operate at all over the next months, then you can start asking yourself questions around what to do about any employees, how to handle any outstanding orders that you won’t be able to fill, etc.
Another decision you’ll need to make is whether or not you want to apply for federal help via services like unemployment, small business loans, etc.
Point #2
Something I say often is that you should be working ON your business, as well as IN your business. This is something that many owners neglect to prioritize, and as a result their businesses, and their peace of mind, suffer. I’m going to talk more about what this means in another newsletter, but for now, I’ll leave it at this-- if you’ve got some unexpected down time, use it to work on some of the more strategic areas of your business, like marketing, planning, getting organized, upgrading systems and processes, etc.
The big thing to remember is that there is always a right first step, and then a right next step after that. Instead of trying to solve the overwhelming problem of how you will keep your business afloat for the next 6 months amidst all the uncertainty, ask yourself what’s the very next decision that needs to be made and the very next step that needs to be taken, and do it. Keep moving forward by putting one foot down in front of the other. This is how businesses are built and how they grow, and it’s how you can survive massive disruptions like the one we’re facing now.
If you’d like some help thinking through the right next step for your business to get through the next 3 months, reach out. I’m getting pretty good at Zoom, and would welcome a conversation with you.
